Tatum Went 0-for-7 From Three. Mazzulla Says Keep Shooting. The Knicks Come to the Garden Friday.

One game in, and the Celtics already have a storyline they'd rather not have.

Boston opens at TD Garden on Friday night against the New York Knicks, tip at 7 p.m., according to TD Garden and NBA.com. The Celtics walk in 0-1, after Detroit erased a 22-point second-half lead and beat them 121-113 in the season opener on Tuesday.

And the guy everybody's watching is Jayson Tatum.

The Tatum line

Tatum went 6-for-23 from the field and 0-for-7 from three. Thirteen points, according to Boston.com. With Jaylen Brown traded to Philadelphia, The Big Lead noted, this is Tatum's team now, and the first box score was ugly. Meanwhile Brown had 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists in a 76ers win in his debut, according to Boston.com. That's going to come up on talk radio all week.

But here's the thing people skipped past: 11 assists. He kept moving it. He kept making plays.

Joe Mazzulla went straight to that number afterward. "I just want him to continue to make the right play," Mazzulla said. "If he's open, shoot it. I don't care if he's 0-for-10. If you're open, shoot it."

That's a coach telling you he's not worried. Whether you should be worried is a different question, and The Big Lead put it plainly: everybody is going to be watching every move Tatum makes for any sign of rust from his long injury rehab. Friday is the next chance.

The Paul George part was real

Thirty-eight points. In his first game in green. That broke the Celtics' record for points in a debut, topping Kristaps Porzingis' 30 from 2023, according to NBA.com. Before Porzingis, the record belonged to Dominique Wilkins, Boston.com noted. George, a nine-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA pick, had 17 in the first half and 14 in the third quarter alone.

"The game found him," Mazzulla said of George. "He made some great reads throughout the game. It was good that he was able to find advantages for himself and others and be aggressive. We just have to continue that."

How Boston lost it

The Celtics led 72-50 with 8:32 left in the third, according to NBA.com. They were still up 99-89 with 8:19 left in the fourth. Then Detroit went on a 23-0 run over about five minutes and led 112-99 with 3:33 to go. Game over.

Mazzulla pinned it on the offense. "I think some of our empty offensive possessions led to their transition," he said, per The Athletic's Jay King, via Boston.com.

Detroit had help from everywhere. Jalen Duren had 22 points and nine rebounds, Cade Cunningham had 22 points and eight assists, and Duncan Robinson scored 21, including 15 in the fourth, NBA.com reported. Javonte Green didn't play in the first half, came in with the Pistons down 74-53, and dropped 11 of his 19 points in about two minutes. Green and Robinson each hit five threes. Detroit also had a 24-16 edge in second-chance points, which means Boston kept giving them extra looks.

NBA.com said Detroit's 22-point comeback was the largest on the first day of an NBA season since 1997-98. Not the kind of history you want to be part of. "When we outwork you, we're going to be hard to beat," Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. Hard to argue with him on Tuesday's tape.

Now the Knicks

And it doesn't get softer. NBA.com pointed out that New York came back from 22 down in the fourth quarter against Cleveland in Game 1 of last season's conference finals, and from 81-52 down in the third quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio, and won both. So a big lead against this team isn't safe either.

What to watch Friday: Does Tatum get downhill early and get to the line, or does he keep hunting threes until one drops? Does George's scoring carry over, or was Tuesday a hot night? And can Boston close a game when it's ahead, because that's the only thing that went wrong in Detroit.

It's one game out of 82. Nobody sane is panicking. But a home opener against New York, with the whole building watching Tatum's jumper, is about as loud as an early-season game gets.