Knicks embarrassed in season-opening beatdown to reigning champion Celtics

BOSTON — The new-look Knicks were just guests to a Boston Three Party.

Touted as the top threat to the Celtics in the East, New York put up the resistance of a wet paper bag as the Celtics nearly cleared the all-time record from beyond the arc in their ring night blowout win, 132-109.

It was a mess right away for the Knicks, who trotted out their expensive and star-studded lineup and trailed by as many as 21 in the first quarter.

Tom Thibodeau’s squad never recovered.

Rather, it folded, allowing the deficit to hit 35 points in the second half.

Still, the coach was measured in his postgame criticism.

“I think you have to have the appropriate reaction to it,” Thibodeau said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t play better. But I’m not disappointed in our team.”

The Celtics, who were honored before the game for winning their 18th title, knocked down 29 from beyond the arc, tying the NBA record.

The matchup was so noncompetitive that the Boston crowd, in the final minutes, kept chanting, “One more 3,” because the Celtics were a trey short of the all-time record.

With their starters already pulled, the Celtics reserves obliged by launching attempts on every possession but missed, amazingly, their final 13 attempts.

That didn’t negate Boston’s starters combining for 26 3-pointers despite none of them playing more than 31 minutes.

“The NBA needs to drug test them dudes,” Josh Hart said. “I ain’t ever seen anything like that.”

Issues for the Knicks were widespread but none more glaring than the first half from Mikal Bridges, who altered his form before the season, threw up bricks in preseason and was misfiring early Tuesday as if infected by a case of yips.

The Knicks even tried to help Bridges’ confidence by giving him a technical foul shot in the third quarter.

He missed.

Bridges, acquired for five first-round picks in the summer, finally broke the seal in the second half and finished strong with 16 points on 7 of 13 shooting.

If there was any positive Tuesday, it was Bridges perhaps getting off the schneid at the end.

But Bridges was also barbecued on defense by Jayson Tatum, who dropped 37 points in 30 minutes — including 8 of 11 on 3-pointers.

The Knicks were outscored by 33 points with Bridges on the court.

The Celtics, who received their championship rings before tip-off, had clear and uncontested looks at the rim.

It would’ve been hard to imagine a worse debut for Leon Rose’s construction. But they largely chalked it up to an anomaly performance by the opposition.

“They tied an NBA record in 3s,” Hart said. “I mean, you always have about three to four games a year where a team just shoots the ball at an absurd clip and sometimes there’s not much you can do about it. We shot 58 percent. There was some bad defensive breakdowns and lack of communication. You’ve just got to give them credit. Man, they had amazing energy, ring night, and they came out and shot the ball at a clip that I think we’ve only seen once before.”

Jalen Brunson (22 points, 9-for-14 shooting) and Miles McBride (22 points, 8-for-10) were strong individually on offense.

But the debut from Karl-Anthony Towns (12 points, seven rebounds) was underwhelming and the Knicks looked like they didn’t belong in the same league as the Celtics, let alone as any threat to dethrone them.

Boston won every statistical category and the Knicks, who swapped out rim protection and rebounding for shooting and spacing in the offseason, grabbed only five offensive boards, well below their league-leading 12.7 average last season.

TD Garden was fired up from tip-off, riding the emotional high of ring night and raising the Celtics’ 18th banner.

The Knicks chose not to observe the Celtics’ coronation, hanging in the locker room. If that was a strategy to avoid distractions, it didn’t work.

Thibodeau burned his first timeout after 2 ½ minutes and it only got worse from there.

Brunson didn’t want to use the excuse that the Knicks were newly assembled while Boston had been together for years.

“Yeah that’s the easy way out, but we still got our ass kicked,” Brunson said.

They sure did.