Celtics’ historic opening night should scare the rest of the NBA

The Boston Celtics raised their 18th championship banner to the rafters on Tuesday night. Then they spent 48 minutes reminding everyone why they should be considered prohibitive favorites to do it again.

Boston dominated the visiting New York Knicks 132–109 behind a historic series of three-point shots. With 29 shots from beyond the arc, the Celtics tied the all-time NBA record for most three-point shots made in a game (and only a ridiculous cold streak on the bench in the final six minutes prevented them from setting the record once). All five Celtics starters recorded at least three deep hits. Despite shooting 55.1% from the floor, the Knicks had no hope of keeping up with that firepower.

The collective excellence was led by superstar Jayson Tatum, who had the best night of anyone on the track. He hit eight 3s en route to a 37-point, 10-assist night with a game-high 26. It seems Tatum was hell-bent on answering all the offseason questions about his shooting in one night.

It was a statement night for the Celtics, and the Knicks have a lot to consider after being eliminated. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the night.

The Celtics aren’t going to shoot 47.5% from three every night. Even their talented roster, filled with good and great shooters, isn’t capable of hitting nearly half of their shots night after night. But last season, even on off nights, Boston kept shooting. The team’s shot selection against the Knicks showed they could go even further – which poses a big problem for anyone trying to take them down.

The Celtics shot 31 more three points than the Knicks did on Tuesday night. They made 61 total, a dramatic increase from their average of 42.5 three-point attempts during last season’s title run. If Boston shoots close to 40% from deep as a team for the second straight season (the Celtics shot 38.8% last season), and is shooting from beyond the arc at an even higher rate than ever before, it’s legitimate to wonder how opponents can keep up. Few other teams, if any, can shoot seven above-average three-point shooters every night, and no team is more dedicated to shooting from deep.

It’s very difficult to win in the modern NBA if you can’t outscore your opponent from beyond the arc. Between the sheer volume of attempts and the shooters’ ability to make shots, the Celtics’ game plan puts them in position to do so basically every night. This is a hard basketball problem and an even harder math problem – one that appears to have no solution.

While criticism of Tatum was a bit overblown this summer, it was hard to ignore that his sweater had deserted him. The All-NBA forward shot 28.3% from three in last season’s playoffs and failed to make a single jumper in the limited minutes he saw with Team USA at the Paris Olympics. He arrived at Celtics training camp with a polished jump shot that looked good in the preseason, but the world was waiting to see how he would shoot on opening night.

The result? Tatum was absolutely lights out, shooting 8 of 11 from deep and making 11 total jumpers. The Knicks were content to stick to Tom Thibodeau’s preferred drop coverage, and Tatum made them pay, time and time again, with pull-up shots off the dribble. His 10 assists show the star’s ability to affect the game in other ways, but when the jumper is working, Tatum is nearly unstoppable.

The Celtics are so talented that they don’t need Tatum to be a shooter from the floor to win games. But his willingness to let things play out on Tuesday suggests he’s more than ready to prove the offseason narrative wrong.

There’s no reason to sound the alarm about the Knicks’ opening night showing. It would have been a morale boost to keep him around, but they made significant roster changes during the offseason and their chemistry on both ends of the court pales in comparison to the Celtics’ return to a full championship rotation. New York still has 81 games to figure things out.

But Bridges’ performance could be a sign of concern for the orange and blue. Bridges arrived at Knicks training camp with a noticeably altered shot, which caused concern among fans considering he is a career 37.5% three-point shooter. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke…

Still, Bridges tried to fix something and the results were troubling. He made just 2 of 19 three-point attempts in the preseason and began the season by missing all five of his shots from the floor in the first half against the Celtics. New York moved heaven and earth to acquire him last summer, trading four unprotected first-round picks for the elite two-way wing. If he suddenly becomes a problem on offense and has trouble making shots, the Knicks will be much less dangerous.

However, Bridges finally found a rhythm in the second half, going 7 of 8 and hitting a few shots from distance. Maybe he’ll ditch his new sweater or maybe he just needs to get used to it. No one should be in a rush to declare the trade a catastrophe and Bridges a negative player. But it’s something to monitor, because Bridges’ ability to take away some of Jalen Brunson’s scoring and play is critical to the Knicks’ hopes of a deep playoff run.