The Boston Celtics made NBA history for all of the wrong reasons on Wednesday. The defending champions became the first team to blow a 20-point lead in two consecutive postseason games as they suffered a 91-90 loss to the New York Knicks, falling into a 2-0 hole in the series.
Making matters worse, the series will now shift to Madison Square Garden, which figures to be rowdy as ever during Saturday's Game 3. A former Celtics NBA champion appeared on ESPN's "Get Up", revealing that he believes that the team's hopes of repeating for the first time since the late 1960s are now over.
"This series is over. I don't give a damn about the Celtics road wins and what their record looks like," ESPN's Kendrick Perkins stated Thursday. "First of all, do you realize how rocking the Madison Square Garden is going to be in Game 3? The energy in itself is going to have the Knicks players making shots. Do you realize that they have the best clutch guy in Jalen Brunson? Do you realize that role players actually play better at home?... Right now, they have the mental edge over the Boston Celtics. I don't give a damn what nobody say. The Celtics are done. They're not coming back in this series. I have all the trust and faith in the New York Knicks. They're going to win this series. The Celtics will be lucky to get one game."
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Boston's historic collapse in back-to-back games has left them on the brink of being bounced in the second round. Much of their struggles have been due to their inability to consistently knock down three-pointers after they led the league in that department during the regular season. The Celtics have shot just 25-100 from three-point range.
Meanwhile, their two stars -- Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown -- have both struggled. The former has averaged 18.0 points, 15.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game while shooting 28.6% from the field, 25.0% from three-point range and 77.8% from the free-throw line. The latter has averaged 21.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.0 apg and 1.0 spg on 34.9/17.6/71.4 shooting splits.
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