The Celtics had their worst shooting night in years in loss to Jalen Brunson, Knicks: 7 takeaways

Boston Celtics

Boston went a brutal 17.1 percent from 3-point range.

By Hayden Bird

February 8, 2026 | 5:22 PM

6 minutes to read

Jalen Brunson and the Knicks crushed the Celtics on Sunday afternoon, as Boston went icy cold and couldn’t get on track in the second half in a 111-89 loss. 

Here are the takeaways.

The Celtics really couldn’t make anything

Less than 48 hours since they went 1-for-20 in the first half of a comeback victory against the Heat, the Celtics bricked their way to their worst performance of the season from 3-point range: 7-for-41, a brutal 17.1 percent from deep. 

Previously, the Celtics’ worst performance this season was 11-for-51 (21.6 percent) in a loss to the Jazz in November. The last time they shot 17.1 percent or worse was Dec. 10, 2021 in a loss to the Suns (a season, incidentally, that featured a lot of incredibly bad 3-point shooting, including a 2-for-26 performance against the Wizards). 

The poor shooting was evenly distributed. Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vučević were both 1-for-6. Jaylen Brown was 0-for-4. Luka Garza was 0-for-3. Baylor Scheierman was 2-for-7. Only Derrick White scraped together something nearly acceptable at 3-for-9, and he didn’t make a 3-pointer in the second half.

There isn’t much else to say about why the Celtics lost, which is not to say they would have beaten the Knicks if they shot better, necessarily — Jalen Brunson finished with 31 points on 12-for-21 shooting, Neemias Queta struggled enormously to defend without fouling, and other factors that we will get to shortly worked against them as well — but we really can’t tell how evenly matched the new-look Celtics and Knicks might be in a playoff series based on the Celtics’ worst shooting performance in nearly half a decade. 

“When you play against a great team like them, and you continue to have empty possessions on the offensive end, a good process of execution puts a ton of pressure on your other stuff,” Joe Mazzulla said afterward. “They’re really good at that, whether it’s their shot-making, whether it’s their fouling, whether it’s their offensive rebounds, you can only hold down the fort for so long.”

Vučević showed some growing pains

The Celtics’ newest acquisition had a quiet-but-helpful game in his debut against the Heat, but he struggled against the Knicks, who picked on him defensively. Vučević, along with Queta, struggled to defend without fouling, and he scored 11 points on 13 shots. While he dished out some nice passes, he failed to tally an assist. 

Integrating Vučević is a bit of a challenge — the Celtics have started double-big in their last two games, but that lineup hasn’t inspired a lot of confidence. Meanwhile, the Celtics might have benefited from Anfernee Simons, who they traded to acquire Vučević, in Sunday’s game — Simons was known for his offensive flurries, and the Celtics looked like they could have used one to knock the lid off the basket. 

That, of course, is a decidedly unhelpful way to analyze Sunday’s game — Vučević will add value on the court, the trade gives the Celtics even more opportunities to add value off it during the summer, and (perhaps most to the point), he is still extremely new to the Celtics and should be evaluated as such.

“I just understand it’s going to be a process,” White said. “I know what it’s like to be traded and on a new team, new system. I mean luckily for me, I knew most of the stuff and terminology, and so he’s kind of got it completely different. 

“Just going to welcome him with open arms and try to help any way I can.”

Defending Jaylen Brown with the face

The Knicks’ latest acquisition, Jose Alvarado, became the latest player to draw a foul against Jaylen Brown by putting his face in the way of the Celtics wing’s elbow as he went up for a jumper (which will not come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with Jose Alvarado).

Brown’s elbows do cause some issues — on Friday, Brown went up for a short jumper, and his elbow caught Andrew Wiggins on the way up. That contact was whistled for an offensive foul, and the Celtics challenged it unsuccessfully. Had the Heat made a jumper, Brown’s elbow could have been far more costly. 

Brown also earned a flagrant one after he inadvertently inflicted a lot of damage on Hawks big man Onyeka Okongwu with an elbow in the Celtics’ loss on Jan. 29. 

Opponents seem to be taking Brown’s elbow into account in their scouting reports, and the brave defenders who aren’t afraid of taking a shot to the face can use it to their advantage. 

“Just because their face is in there, they’re giving them the offensive foul,” Brown said. “I disagree, but we’ve sent clips to the league. They call it 50/50 every time inconsistently. 

“But a guy shouldn’t just be able to just put his face in there and get an offensive foul if I go up into my normal shot motion. If his face is there or not, that’s on him. But they allow guys to do that. They allow guys to do that to me when I’ve got on the ball. It almost cost us the game last game. We ended up winning. It should’ve been an and-1. Tonight, it was the same thing. Hopefully we find some consistency on it.”

Brown finished with 26 points on 11-for-25 shooting to go with four assists. The assist total would have been significantly higher if the Celtics hadn’t had their aforementioned historically bad shooting night.

Baylor Scheierman might just genuinely be good

A small positive for the Celtics: Baylor Scheierman had another good game, continuing a solid two-way stretch. Scheierman finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds (cleaning up a number of boards as others boxed out the Knicks’ dangerous offensive rebounders) and five assists. When Scheierman grabs a rebound, he’s dangerous pushing the ball up the floor himself and making a play. 

The Celtics have gotten nice performances from their bench wings all season — they have almost taken turns, as Jordan Walsh, Hugo González and the now-departed Josh Minott all impressed at various times — and now Scheierman appears to be enjoying his moment in the sun.  

“His rebounding outside of his area is a big one,” Mazzulla said. “So whether he’s boxing the guy out or whether he’s on the perimeter, he comes back and crashes defensively and gets those, and so that helps us get out in transition, but I think he’s playing at a great level for us defensively, and really on the rebounding piece on both ends.”

Karl-Anthony Towns wore Amari Stoudemire’s glasses

ABC’s coverage of the game unearthed a fun nugget: Karl-Anthony Towns, who received 16 stitches over his right eye and needed to wear eye protection, got the goggles from Amar’e Stoudemire, the former Knicks star who famously wore goggles for much of his career.