On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics fell behind 0-2 in their second round playoff series vs the New York Knicks with a second straight 20-point collapse in front of the home fans. It’s been a particularly brutal series for Jayson Tatum, who turned the ball over on the final Celtics possession in Game 2, sealing the victory for New York.
One person who was crushed by the loss was Celtics legend Paul Pierce, who guaranteed a Boston victory in Game 2, promising to walk to work at the FS1 studios in Los Angeles if they lost.
On Thursday, Pierce stayed true to his word, documenting himself on his Instagram account as he walked down a Los Angeles street and happened to run into former Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett on his way.
“What are you doing?” wondered Garnett, per Fullcourtpass on X, formerly Twitter.
“I’m halfway there,” replied Pierce.
“Hey man, you be careful out here,” responded Garnett before driving off.
It’s unclear if Pierce actually made the entire journey to work on foot, but he clearly was upset with his Celtics, along with the rest of the city of Boston.
A disastrous start for the Celtics
Many pundits expected the Celtics to make quick work of a Knicks team that they swept 4-0 in this regular season.
However, despite controlling the majority of the first two games, Boston now inexplicably finds itself down 0-2 with the series shifting to Manhattan this weekend. The biggest issue for the Celtics thus far has been their horrific three-point shooting, as Boston is just 25-100 from beyond the arc through two games.
It certainly hasn’t helped matters that Tatum has played the worst two-game playoff stretch of his career to open up this series, and that Boston has found itself unable to contain Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in crunch time situations.
The Celtics will have to use every bit of their championship pedigree to claw their way back into a series that looks like it could be over before it even begins. Game 3 is slated for Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM ET from New York City.
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