Five Reasons the Celtics Lost to the Knicks, Including a Lack of Coaching Adjustments

Joe Mazzulla will change coverages many times during most games, but he didn't against the Knicks

Apr 9, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) celebrates after hitting a three pointer late in the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images | Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics had their chances against the New York Knicks, holding a lead from the end of the third to midway through the fourth quarter, but the Knicks were able to finish strong and pull away for a six-point win.

Here are five reasons the Knicks won

Boston dared Josh Hart to beat them, and he did

The Celtics did what a lot of teams do, and that's play off Hart. All that got them was 26 points, including 15 in the fourth, to bury the Celtics. They weren’t exactly closing out hard on him.

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— John Karalis (@JohnKaralisClip) April 10, 2026

There's living with certain shots, and not caring about shots. They didn’t care that he shot these in this game. I don’t know if this is a ploy to encourage him to shoot in a playoff game, thinking he won’t go 5-7 every night, or if this was just lazy defense. Whatever it was, Hart enjoyed every minute of it.

Joe Mazzulla made no adjustments

Part of the plan to defend Hart a certain way involves a center starting on him and a wing on Karl-Anthony Towns. Everyone knows this, but the Knicks have still struggled with it.

The Celtics, as I recall, did it for one possession.

Boston played a traditional defense, which is the exact kind of defense they feast on.

So why would they do that? I’m guessing Mazzulla has a plan, and that he didn’t forget how to coach. I think he didn’t want to give the Knicks any recent memories of how they’ll be defended in a playoff series, so they stuck with the traditional way of doing things without variation.

Mazzulla is always constantly making adjustments, so not changing things up is clearly intentional. We’ll see if this gamesmanship pays off.

Derrick White is ice cold…

Without Jaylen Brown, the Celtics needed everyone to contribute. White did not, at least not in the points column.

He had three games leading into this one where he shot 11-17, so there's some good shooting in that right hand of his, but he’s under 33% for the season.

If there ever was a time for him to get hot, now would be great.

… In fact, Everyone was to start the game

Boston shot 5-21 from three to start the game. Hitting a normal percentage would have gotten them three more in the first half. Going into the third with an eight-point lead instead of one-point deficit changes things.

Jayson Tatum struggled

Tatum was 0-5 from three in the first half. Add White’s totals and they were 0-9 combined.

That's just not good enough, even though Tatum did so many other good things.

Tatum gets a bit of a pass because he did clear a pretty big mental hurdle just by playing in his game at MSG, so that makes him a big winner in my book.

At the same time, shooting 32% overall when the Knicks were at full strength and motivated to shut the Celtics down is tough. Boston needs everyone to pitch in on a night like this, and that wasn’t the case.

Up Next: The Celtics play their penultimate game of the season Friday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.