NEW YORK — — The Knicks didn’t make a 3-pointer in Game 3 because the Celtics did.
Payton Pritchard scored 23 points, Jayson Tatum had 22 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, and Boston easily defeated New York 115-93 on Saturday to earn their first victory in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Celtics went 20 for 40 from 3-point range after going only 25 for 100 in their two losses in Boston, when they squandered 20-point leads in the second half of both games. The defending NBA champs raced ahead by 31 in this one and there was never anything like a comeback for the Knicks.
“You must defeat us four times.” That’s the crux of the matter. Jaylen Brown, a player with the Celtics, stated, “Not twice, not once, not three.” “There is a lot of basketball to be played because you need to win four games.”
Pritchard, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, and Tatum, an All-Star who only shot 12 for 42 overall in Boston, each made five three-pointers.
The Celtics, who will try to square the series Monday night in Game 4 before traveling back to Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday, had 19 points from Brown and 17 from Derrick White.
The Knicks, who lost a 2-0 lead in this round last year and are still vying for their first conference finals appearance since 2000, had Karl-Anthony Towns with 21 points and 15 rebounds and Jalen Brunson with 27 points.
“I don’t believe that we arrived with a mindset of satisfaction, but I believe that being ahead 2-0 was a subconscious source of satisfaction,” Brunson stated. “It’s simply not how we should play the game.”
During the regular season, Boston swept all four meetings with New York, making more 3-pointers than any other team in NBA history. However, the Celtics started this series chilly, missing 45 shots in Game 1, setting a new NBA playoff record.
They got out to a fast start on Saturday, making their first four 3-pointers and never really slowing down. A crowd that paid over $600 per ticket to be in the arena with the celebrities for one of the Knicks’ biggest games in the 2000s was swiftly deflated as they went 6 for 7 behind the arc on their way to a 36-20 lead, their highest-scoring first quarter of the postseason.
“It will happen eventually,” Tatum stated.
With 4 1/2 minutes left in the half, Boston led 71-46 going into the locker room after Tatum and Pritchard made back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 55-33 advantage.
Mitchell Robinson was 4 for 12 as the Celtics purposefully fouled the poor free throw shooter, which was largely responsible for New York’s 5 for 25 shooting from beyond the arc and 68.6% free throw percentage.