Monday night’s New York Knicks victory over the Boston Celtics was a wild affair. Not only are the defending champions now down 3-1, but they also lost their best player, Jayson Tatum, to a non-contact injury in the 4th quarter. And many believe it to be an Achilles tendon tear.
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One person who has no sympathy for Boston is former player Brandon Jennings, who heavily criticized Joe Mazzulla. He joined Gilbert Arenas on his No Chill Gil stream shortly after the Knicks emerged victorious 121-113 to dissect the game.
Instead, he took the knife out for the Celtics coach. Jennings didn’t sugarcoat how angry he was at Mazzulla, the person he put the sole blame on for the team’s loss.
“Joe is a terrible f***ing coach,” Jennings began. “Trying to shoot 3-pointers and gambling with your f***ing life. Your f***ing team is trash, Joe.”
Boston was incredibly stagnant in the second half. And Mazzulla was outcoached by Tom Thibodeau, who put perimeter pressure on the Celtics to avoid the barrage of 3-pointers that was killing the Knicks in the first half.
This also put pressure on Boston and didn’t allow them to play half-court sets. The loss of Tatum only added to Mazzulla’s bad night.
“The face of the NBA, he’s out right now,” screamed Jennings, who once again pointed fingers at Mazzulla for the Celtics superstar getting sidelined, possibly for the long haul.
Arenas and company tried to talk some sense to Jennings, but he wasn’t hearing any of it. “Hey, Boston, fire Joe,” he added.
Jennings does need to pull it back a bit, though. The Celtics won the title last year by playing the same ball they’ve been playing this year. The Game 1 and Game 2 losses to the Knicks were wild circumstances, and Game 3 showed how dominant this team can truly be when they are accurate from behind the arc.
That said, the Celtics’ future does look a little gloomy from where they stand. Even if they managed to squeak past the Knicks despite being down 3-1, it doesn’t seem like they’d be able to hold up against the Indiana Pacers, who have a magic man in Tyrese Haliburton. Tatum’s injury also leaves a glaring hole in who they run the offense through.
What’s even worse is that the squad has the large contracts that several players have, making next season look unpredictable.
Will they clean house? Does Jaylen Brown stay now that Tatum might be out for next season as well? Is Kristaps Porzingis worth the money? These are major questions that will have to be answered.
Based on how this series against the Knicks has gone, Boston may be able to figure some of this out sooner rather than later.
