The Eastern Conference's No. 2 and 3 seeds, the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, faced off in a high-stakes conference semifinals series this past May.
Despite the fact that the Celtics came into the series with the better regular-season record (and a more convincing first-round win), they were defeated in six games. It also didn't help that Jayson Tatum, their leading scorer, was injured in Game 4 and later learned he had ruptured his Achilles tendon, which could rule him out for the 2025-26 season.
That loss stung for a lot of people. But few have been as vocal about last season's shortcomings last season than Celtics franchise legend Bob Cousy.
In a conversation with Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe, Cousy blasted head coach Joe Mazzulla for the Celtics' inability to get the job done against the Knicks.
“You have to be there to have a sense of what’s going on, and I’m not. I get the impression that Mazzulla did a good job and had their attention. But in the playoffs, in my experience, the best team wins," Cousy said. "There are upsets occasionally, but I have no understanding of how the Celtics could collapse, especially against the [expletive] Knicks. As the Knicks proved in the next round, they were not a legitimate contender.”
Cousy was especially critical of the Celtics' offensive system, which was heavily reliant on players hoisting three-point shots.
“I like the three as a weapon, but not as the first [expletive] option,” Cousy said. “It’s always going to be there for you. It’s not something you have to create. You’re going to have it when you want it. So why eliminate the other options?”
That strategy seemed to work for the team during the regular season, as it finished 10th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage (36.8%) through 82 games. A similar trend followed them in the postseason — their 36.0% three-point percentage ranked sixth among playoff teams.