The Celtics chased a side quest and failed. They're not alone.

SB Nation

REFRAME is a series in which we parse great photos of sports moments to find how those moments fit into historic context. In this episode, we examine the Celtics' opening-night quest to break the NBA three-point record ... that ended with them merely tying the record because they missed like a dozen three-pointer in a row.

Transcript

00:00Every sport has a clear, ultimate objective of winning.

00:04But, in every sport, we keep a record of so many other things besides and beneath winning.

00:10Stats.

00:11And sometimes, when the ultimate objective is no longer in play,

00:15like when a game or a season has already been decided, or it just doesn't matter anymore,

00:19we focus instead on the stats.

00:22And sometimes, if a statistical record sits within reach,

00:25a game that was once focused on that objective of winning starts to look very different and very bizarre.

00:31And that's what's happening in this picture.

00:33This is a picture of opening night of the 24-25 season between the Celtics and Knicks.

00:38It is garbage time, as you can tell by the fact that the Knicks have three rookies on the floor.

00:42Yeah, I don't know who these guys are.

00:44That's Tyler Kolek, Ariel Huckporty, and Paco Mbadie, all playing their first ever NBA game.

00:49Good for them.

00:50It's garbage time.

00:51Peyton Pritchard is a bench player for the Celtics.

00:54He's shooting a wide-open three.

00:56There's like a minute and a half left, I think you can see in the corner.

00:59The defense doesn't look particularly good.

01:01It's a wide-open three.

01:03And yet, look at the crowd.

01:05Everyone's fucking into it.

01:06Yeah, even Henry Louis Gates down here.

01:09Henry Louis Gates is captivated.

01:10He's like up on his feet, captivated.

01:12And Kai Sanat.

01:13And Kai Sanat.

01:14Other people have their phones out.

01:15During this game, with about eight or nine minutes left,

01:18the Celtics tied the NBA record for most three-pointers ever hit in a game.

01:22Right.

01:23Insane.

01:24So they spent the next eight or nine minutes attempting to beat the record

01:28for most three-pointers ever hit in a game.

01:30And this is Peyton Pritchard taking one of those attempts.

01:33Doesn't go in.

01:34Over the course of the final eight or so minutes of the game,

01:37they missed 12 in a row.

01:39So the Celtics, to be clear, failed to break the NBA record for three-pointers in a game.

01:44They did not hit 30.

01:45They only hit 29.

01:46They mashed a record.

01:48And failed to break it.

01:50Which if they had done that, and that was the night, success.

01:53Right.

01:54If number 29 came late in the game.

01:56You're now in the record books.

01:57Five seconds left.

01:58We matched the record and we won the game.

02:01Yes.

02:02The fact that this played out how it did, failure.

02:05The fact that this played out how it did is almost what created the failure.

02:09Because, and I can tell you, I watched this whole game.

02:12I am ashamed to admit, looking at this picture, a very big Knicks fan.

02:15And this was opening night.

02:17But you only watch for Dolan.

02:19Yeah.

02:20And he wasn't even there, so.

02:22The Celtics achieved their feat of 29 three-pointers in like 40 minutes

02:27by playing the most elegant, effective offense I have genuinely ever seen in my life.

02:32They played beautiful, high assist, free-flowing, screening, intelligent basketball.

02:38Offense that would win you a championship.

02:40Offense that, yeah, would win you a championship.

02:42This was ring night.

02:43And that got them to 29 threes.

02:45And then the thought entered their heads of, oh, we almost have a record.

02:49Well, we're here.

02:50And the game was decided, so they didn't really have to play particularly effectively.

02:54And then they just played idiot basketball.

02:56It was just heaving threes.

02:58All of that flow was gone.

03:00All of the sharing and all of the camaraderie out the window.

03:04That has got to feel really good because it's a little bit like,

03:09even though you keep using the word that they failed, Will,

03:14but I think they didn't go into game one looking to break the NBA record for threes.

03:20They just found themselves in that place to do that.

03:24So it becomes almost like a bonus round.

03:26It's like a side quest or like when you're playing Metal Gear Solid and they're like,

03:31great job.

03:32You successfully extracted the hostage.

03:35See if you can find the other five gold bars that went missing before you leave.

03:41Someone is whispering that in Peyton Pritchard's ear right now.

03:45I do think you describe that as fun and it's fun,

03:48but also that creates a weird amount of pressure that you would usually associate

03:52with a playoff game where Peyton Pritchard is taking this shot with the weight

03:57of knowing that if he hits it, he will make history and the whole crowd will go nuts

04:02and it'll be a momentous thing and people will be watching this highlight forever.

04:05And I think that's why you missed 12 in a row is because they all come with that.

04:09They're all trying to be the answer to a trivia question.

04:11Exactly.

04:12I could see that argument if we were talking about like a home run record where people

04:15are showing up to the stadium and being like, tonight's the night we're going to see it,

04:18you know, or like every game it doesn't happen.

04:20Then the next game there's a little bit more pressure of like tonight's the night

04:23it's going to happen, whereas they walked into TD Garden being like,

04:27let's just open up the season strong and then found themselves in the third quarter

04:30being like, oh shit, we could do this.

04:32Maybe we should.

04:34Is that really like pressure?

04:36Not a perfect equivalent, but this is almost like if you're at a bowling alley

04:40and someone is like on their way to bowling at 300 and then you watch them succeed

04:47in bowling at 300, but then the screen's like, ah, here's some more frames.

04:51Can you keep it up? Can you keep going?

04:53And it's like, well, I achieved the thing I was trying to do, which is hard to do.

04:57It's hard to win a basketball game.

04:58It's hard to have it in hand with nine minutes to play.

05:01Side quest.

05:02Side quest.

05:03For this to be like a coordinated team effort.

05:05At some point, someone had to be like, we've won the game.

05:09Fuck it mode.

05:10Someone had to explicitly lay out the game plan, right?

05:14I just know it wasn't the coach.

05:15Like it was not Joe Mazzulla telling them, hey guys, you have 29 three pointers.

05:20Let's try and break the record.

05:21Cause Joe Mazzulla is not on that sideline talking about normal stuff.

05:25He's quoting the town.

05:28He's the man is intense.

05:30He has a sort of military quasi religious presence on the sideline.

05:34Okay.

05:35He says really goth stuff.

05:37So if not him, then someone at some point had to step up on the sideline

05:42and be like, we need to go for this.

05:43Right.

05:44I think it's an assistant.

05:45I think it's an assistant or like an injured player.

05:47Like Chris steps for Zingas is there in the suit.

05:49Yeah.

05:50And I think he's got, you know, they get the score sheets printed out.

05:52And you're talking about lurch.

05:54He's a tall fella.

05:58And he was like, Hey guys, I don't know if you guys have seen this box score,

06:02but you guys are about to make history.

06:04If you just keep shooting those threes,

06:05the final three minutes of the game passed without the Celtics attempting a

06:09two pointer.

06:10Yeah.

06:11Okay.

06:12Like, because there was such intentionality,

06:14that is why it feels like a failure in my mind.

06:17If it was like, we matched the record,

06:19we want to rest our starters and we're just going to like play the clock.

06:23We're going to control the ball.

06:24We'll take an easy shot if it's there.

06:26Then they would have broken the record.

06:27I'm serious.

06:28Like this is like,

06:29when you think about breathing too much and it starts to get a little awkward,

06:33the Celtics playing like the Celtics and running their sets and playing Celtics

06:38basketball that won them a championship generate a ton of threes.

06:41It's not an accident that this team did this.

06:43What changed is that they stopped playing Celtics basketball and just started

06:46jacking up threes like a bad team.

06:48I honestly think if what you described happened,

06:51they just played regular old garbage time ball.

06:53Yeah.

06:54They would have broken the record.

06:55There's no reason to have pressure in this moment yet.

06:57Exactly.

06:58Piled on pressure.

06:59Exactly.

07:00What this has been making me wonder is if this is the best example of this

07:03phenomenon of someone matching a record very quickly,

07:07like on pace to just blow the record away,

07:10but failing to actually break the record and that sort of surplus of time

07:14they've been given.

07:16Obviously there's only one person to ask about this.

07:20With the Celtics in their season opener,

07:22able to tie but not break the NBA record for most three-pointers in a game,

07:26it harkens back to the 2019 Minnesota baseball twins who entered game 162,

07:31but a mere 16 total bases shy of matching the single season record of

07:362,832 set 16 years earlier by the Red Sox.

07:40Looked like a lock when they got nine of the 16 in the first inning,

07:43and they recorded their 16th total base of the game by the sixth inning to

07:47match the 0-3 Bo Sox.

07:49All they needed was a single single in any of the final three innings to pass

07:53them.

07:54And they couldn't.

07:57With three homers in the game, however,

07:59they did edge by one the Yanks from the season prior for the single season

08:03record in that department.

08:05Only for the Braves to do four years later to them with homers what they'd

08:08themselves done with total bases.

08:11I guess the thing that that has me thinking about is when in 2024,

08:17Ravens bills.

08:18Derek Henry was at 196 rushing yards.

08:22He had already matched.

08:23So he would have set the record for most 200 yard rushing games in a career.

08:27He's at 196.

08:29They give him the ball picks up one.

08:31Give him the ball again.

08:33He picks up to third down.

08:35They get him in the ball picks up one more yard,

08:38but it was a reception.

08:40Oh,

08:41so is he like dipping his toe over the line of scrimmage and be like,

08:45that's like a Peyton Pritchard is pump faking here.

08:47And he's like, sure.

08:48No, you know what?

08:49This isn't the one.

08:50It was like shoot the ball because like in my mind,

08:52it's like this is it's it's the coaches being like,

08:55we're going to keep you on the game plan.

08:56You're still in the game.

08:58We have other backs who could do this,

08:59who are younger and we don't need to worry about the injury risk or whatever

09:03like that,

09:04but we're going to throw you the ball instead of hand it off to you one more

09:07time to pick up a yard like Derek Henry can just take a hand off in the

09:12backfield, fall forward, pick up a yard and be at 200.

09:15It's tough when it's an individual thing.

09:17That is the nice thing about the Celtic situation is that the whole team gets

09:22to participate and the entire weight of the experience isn't placed on one

09:27single person,

09:28you know,

09:29like they can share the blame in a way that makes it like,

09:31don't worry about it.

09:32Instead of like,

09:33damn bro,

09:34you missed eight threes at the end of the game all in a row when you could

09:37have set the single game record to be fair.

09:39That is the J.

09:40R.

09:41Smith experience on the Knicks.

09:42It's him gunning for a record by himself.

09:45Once the Knicks figured out what was going on,

09:48do you think there was a moment where they were sort of the villain,

09:51the inverse of this,

09:52where they were like,

09:53fuck,

09:54we lost this game,

09:55but we have got to keep them from getting this,

09:56uh,

09:57this record.

09:58Apparently not.

09:59No,

10:00they continue to play poor defense.

10:01It looks like they're doing like a substitution on the fly off the bench

10:05with the guy.

10:06Yeah.

10:08Where are you going,

10:09bud?

10:10Looks like he is a streaker.

10:12Looks like he just ran onto the court.

10:14The defense had been playing so poorly.

10:16He was trying a different stealth approach.

10:18He's not going to see me coming up on him.

10:21God,

10:22you know,

10:23you're making me realize what would be the,

10:25the Knicks best option here is to just foul intentionally every time

10:29down.

10:30Don't let them dad's really good.

10:31Forget defending the threes.

10:33Cause clearly that wasn't working for them.

10:35Yeah.

10:36It's like,

10:37if you get over,

10:38just go fucking.

10:39Yeah.

10:40You get nothing.

10:41We will let you score as many points as you want,

10:43but not that way.

10:44But what if you accidentally then let them set a record for most free throw

10:47attempts?

Category

Transcript

Recommended