The Boston Celtics (34-19) suffered their most lopsided loss of the season on Sunday afternoon (February 8, 2026), falling 111-89 to the New York Knicks at TD Garden in their final game before the All-Star break. The defeat snapped a five-game winning streak and exposed ongoing struggles with perimeter shooting and third-quarter execution.
Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla Makes Shocking Admission After Loss to Knicks – Newsweek
Boston shot an abysmal 17.1% from three (7-of-41) and 37% overall (34-of-92 from the field) — numbers that doomed them from the start. The Celtics fell behind early and never truly recovered, despite flashes of competitiveness.
Mazzulla Addresses Shooting & Defensive Pressure
Head coach Joe Mazzulla spoke candidly postgame about the offensive struggles and their ripple effect on defense:
“When you play against a great team like them, and you continue to have empty possessions on the offensive end, but a good process of execution puts a ton of pressure on the other stuff… You can only hold down the fort for so long. So I thought we showed great ability to try to get there, get it back to five. I thought we got some great looks, but they put a ton of pressure on our defense throughout, and you have to be able to answer the call there. We can shoot a little bit better. We can get some more offensive rebounds. We can execute a little bit better. But I thought our defense worked to hold the fort down as long as we could.”
The Knicks capitalized on Boston’s cold shooting by pushing the pace, getting into early offense, forcing rotations, and punishing misses with second-chance points and transition opportunities.
Jaylen Brown on the Offensive Struggles
Jaylen Brown (26 points on 11-of-25 shooting, 0-of-4 from three) was one of the few bright spots, but even he acknowledged the night’s shooting woes:
“I think we got a bunch of, created a bunch of open looks. We just got to step in with confidence and knock them down. I think on offense, we did a good job creating advantages. We just got to make some shots we couldn’t make today. It happens, they made shots and I think that was the difference.”
Brown’s 0-for-4 from deep was indicative of the team-wide struggle — Boston couldn’t buy a bucket from beyond the arc.
Rotation Adjustments & New Challenges
With Sam Hauser ruled out (low back spasm) and Anfernee Simons recently traded (for Nikola Vučević), Mazzulla started Neemias Queta and Luka Garza together — an experiment that didn’t yield positive results. The Celtics are clearly still searching for the right combinations after multiple deadline moves.
Derrick White addressed the adjustment period:
“Obviously, got some new guys, new spots. And so, I want to say we’re not as crisp as we were maybe a few weeks ago, and we’ve had offseason and the beginning of the year to kind of figure those parts out. But it’s exciting that we can continue to learn and grow and just understand it’s going to take day by day and get guys comfortable, get guys in the right spots, and we got a lot of guys that know how to play. So, I think it will be quick. We’ll be able to pick it up quickly.”
Nikola Vučević (recent addition) and others will need time to gel, but the Celtics’ core remains intact: Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and the frontcourt depth.
What’s Next
The loss drops Boston to 34-19, still second in the East but with the Knicks (now 34-19) closing the gap. The team heads into the All-Star break looking to reset and fix the shooting and third-quarter issues that have plagued them.
The Celtics’ next game is after the break — but the focus now shifts to health, chemistry, and consistency. If they can rediscover their shooting touch and sustain effort for 48 minutes, they remain one of the East’s true title threats.
Celtics fans — how concerned are you about the shooting slump and third-quarter collapses? Do you trust Mazzulla to figure out the new rotations quickly? And what adjustments do you want to see post-break? Let me know your thoughts below — the second half of the season starts soon!