Celtics face identity crisis as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown can't overcome another shooting collapse

BOSTON Great teams are born of a distinct identity.

It might not be unique, but its contours reflect the makeup of the locker room and the organizations vision.

For the past two years, the Boston Celtics defined the direction of the NBA with their endless versatility and unrelenting desire to shoot the 3.

It didnt always work, but it worked enough in the aggregate for the Celtics to win a championship and then enter the playoffs positioned to potentially do it again.

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It doesnt mean their theory is faulty.

The Celtics are facing an identity crisis, but its one they can resolve quite easily.

If their shots go down, theyre the defending champs again, a team that has an answer for every question posed its way.

Watching the Celtics now, they look like they stayed up all night preparing for an exam and could only remember the first few bullet points from their study guide.

The Celtics lost to the New York Knicks 91-90 on Wednesday, falling into an 0-2 hole as the series moves to New York, a shocking moment for the defending champions, who didnt lose two games in a series last season.

Both teams struggled to score, and the difference between winner and loser in this series has been perilously close, but the Celtics simply look off.

This was like watching the Golden State Warriors play the Houston Rockets from Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals.

If anyone hit a 3, it was a miracle.

The Knicks were able to adapt better than the Celtics, and another Mikal Bridges walk-off steal won it for New York.

The Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons in the first round by coming back again and again.

It seemed obvious a week ago that those opportunities wouldnt come against a Celtics team with far more talent and experience.

Somehow, the Knicks keep defying logic.

At the end of regulation in Game 1, Tatum couldnt get past Mitchell Robinson because OG Anunoby and Bridges were waiting in the wings, missing a stepback 3 that led to overtime.

This time, he tried to attack and was reminded why he resisted 48 hours earlier.

TATUM DOESN'T GET THE SHOT OFF !! KNICKS WIN GAME 2 pic.twitter.com/q8JH0dYKvU NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 8, 2025 Tatum threw it away in a possession inexplicably devoid of coherent execution for such a big moment, then was bailed out by the fire alarm, as the media horde had to evacuate before he stepped to the podium.

When they returned, he was gone, along with the last chance for a thorough explanation of this continuous collapse.

Advertisement The narrative the Knicks brought in Anunoby and Bridges to match up with Tatum and Brown looked farcical during the regular season.

The Knicks hoped their defense would be built for the postseason instead, with the chances of a Celtics matchup looking likely when the Cleveland Cavaliers made it clear early in the season they would chase down the one seed.

Its all proving true.

Bostons strategic approach was supposed to mitigate this.

If Tatum cant get to his looks, he could at least create them for others.

The Celtics are doing that and shooting terribly, following up a 25 percent 3-point shooting performance in Game 1 with a 25 percent performance in Game 2.

Even when their 3-point volume returned to Earths atmosphere, the temperature remained frigid.

Jalen Brunson is still taking over fourth quarters, whereas Brown and Tatum have just two field goals apiece in the fourth for the series.

When Tatum and Brown clanked genuinely wide-open 3s in crunchtime, it became strange.

It looked like something was holistically wrong with the team.

Brown said after Bostons Game 1 loss that the team was too reliant on 3-pointers when it attempted and missed an NBA playoffs record amount.

When Brown is the one Celtic willing to speak out about the game plan often on this particular point about playing too passive shooting the ball he tends to get his way the next game.

Maybe its because he picks the right moment to call things out; perhaps its just the natural swing of the strategic pendulum.

His message after another bewildering loss was that whats done is done.

You dont have to be perceptive to see the team is failing.

Its obvious, and Brown wasnt hiding from it.

Two games we were up 20 points, and somehow we come out not with wins.

Its inexcusable, he said.

But were going to learn from it.

Were going to respond.

Advertisement The NBAs playoff 3-point average entering Wednesday was 35 percent, down from 37 percent in the regular season, according to former Washington Wizards coach Dean Oliver .

Watch any game around the league and the scoring is far below what were used to seeing in the regular season and miles from where things were last season.

Teams have gotten more attuned to scouting poor shooters to leave unguarded, which usually pays off.

But Josh Hart burned the Celtics on that strategy in Game 2, scoring a game-high 23 points as the Celtics watched him bury shots from afar.

We need some urgency, even if the 3-ball isnt falling up to our level, Kristaps Porzingis said.

We need urgency in other areas, and we can still do it.

Maybe the pressure is alleviated for a locker room focused on winning the next game.

But look at the grand scheme of things to find a historically expensive roster in a league in which every repeat champion has had multiple Hall of Famers.

Does this team have multiple Hall of Famers? Porzingis acknowledged that the illness that kept him out for the second half of Game 1 and rendered him a shell of himself in Game 2 is likely connected to the one that kept him out for eight games in March, something Joe Mazzulla revealed at practice Tuesday.

He described it as a big crash now and that his energy hasnt been good.

Im not feeling my best at all.

But it just kills me inside that its happening in this moment, and what Im super appreciative about is (the) support, Porzingis said.

Its not no injury or nothing, but Im just not feeling my best.

And its tough for me, honestly.

But who cares? Nobody feels sorry for us, sorry for me, and we have to keep going.

Of the 28 teams that have dropped the first two games at home in a seven-game series, only four have come back to win.

Porzingis has not been able to do any of the things that gave the Celtics endless versatility in the past, and the Knicks might match up too well against them to win without the 7-foot-3 center taking control.

But the Celtics arent too far from turning things around.

Advertisement They have lost both of these games by a single shot, which Bridges didnt even let them get off.

Its an embarrassment, and one they cant hide from, even if this series is closer than it appears.

They can live with that.

But their core identity letting them down once again while their stars struggle, thats something that cant be easily fixed.

It should sting.

Let it sting.

Let it sting for the night, Brown said.

Then, tomorrows a new day.

We move forward.

(Photo of Jayson Tatum and OG Anunoby: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images).

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