Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown React to Celtics' Historic Shooting Woes in Loss vs. Knicks

The Boston Celtics' reliance on three-point shooting over the past two seasons has been tremendously successful overall, but Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night was a test case of what happens when those shots aren't falling.

In blowing a 20-point lead against the New York Knicks with a 108-105 overtime loss, the Celtics missed 45 of their 60 three-point attempts.

Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown didn't really have an explanation for why the shots weren't falling, but they did acknowledge the team could have been more aggressive in attacking the basket.

"Obviously in hindsight, if we could go back, we'd probably drive the ball a little bit more because we missed a lot of shots tonight. You can always go back and look and see what you should have done differently," Tatum said.

Brown felt like many of the Celtics' looks were good, they just didn't get them to fall for whatever reason.

"Some of 'em felt good, some of 'em felt like we maybe forced the issue," Brown said. "Definitely our rhythm and our timing was a little bit off. We got a lot of great looks, but it may be some truth [to shooting too many] today."

Tatum, Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday shot a combined 12-of-48 from deep.

Per NBA.com, the Celtics had 32 three-point attempts classified as open (no defender within four to six feet) and only made 21.9 percent of those.

If you go by wide-open threes (no defender within six feet), the Celtics were just 7-of-24 on those attempts. They set playoff records for three-point attempts and missed threes in a single game.

Despite not shooting the ball well, the Celtics were able to build a 75-55 lead midway through the third quarter. The problem was the Knicks started making their shots after that point.

New York outscored Boston 45-25 over the final 18 minutes in regulation to force overtime.

Despite the difficulties they had making shots behind the arc on Monday night, history has shown the Celtics won't change their style because of one bad game.

Three-point shooting is what made them one of the best teams in the NBA. They set a new league record with 1,457 threes made this season.

Boston will look to bounce back and avoid falling in an 0-2 hole in Game 2 at TD Garden on Wednesday at 7 pm. ET.