After raising the 18th championship banner following last year’s finals victory, the Celtics dominated the guests on their way to a commanding 132-109 win. It rained three-pointers, and early in the 4th quarter, the NBA record set by the Milwaukee Bucks was matched.
Then the Celtics attempted 13 times to hit number 30, but were unsuccessful. The crowd chanted “one more 3,” and TV commentators repeated over and over “for the record” as a Celtics player tried from distance, but shot after shot hit the rim or completely missed.
– It was like a curse, said Jaylen Brown, who scored 15 of his 23 points on three-pointers. He even recorded an “airball” in his attempt to set the record.
Barn Door
– As long as we just played and had fun, everything went in. But when the crowd started calling for the record, and we chased it, we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.
It should be noted that towards the end of the game, mostly backups were on the court. The starting five made 26 of 41 three-point attempts, while the reserves only hit 3 of 20.
In the last minute, the Celtics had another chance, but Payton Pritchard (who had missed eight of nine three-point attempts, five of the game’s last 13) settled for dribbling the ball out on the court and letting the clock tick down to zero, while disappointed spectators either booed or tore at their hair.
Missed Title
On the opposite coast, LeBron James and his son Bronny made history by being the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game. Senior also set another, less proud record by surpassing Kobe Bryant’s NBA record of 14,481 missed shots. In the 3rd quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, he missed for the sixth time in the game and the 14,482nd time in his career.
The record number is, of course, a result of him being one of the league’s very best players for over two decades. The first 37 players on the list of most missed shots are either in the Hall of Fame or clearly on their way there. LeBron already holds the NBA record for most points (40,490 including 16 on Tuesday). Bronny, by the way, missed his first two shots in the NBA and will have to wait for his first points.