This scene looked awfully familiar.

Ray Allen standing at his locker after a poor postseason shooting performance, looking bewildered and befuddled to come up with answers as to why he wasn’t able to knock down jumpers from all over the court.

It happened over and over in the playoffs last season against Cleveland and Detroit before the perennial NBA All-Star finally re-discovered his silky smooth shooting stroke just in time to knock off the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

But the Celtics can’t afford to wait for Allen to find his shot this time.

Not with Kevin Garnett likely out for the entire postseason.

Allen was 1-for-12 from the field and missed all six of his shots from beyond the three-point arc in the 105-103 overtime loss to Chicago in Game 1 of the first-round series.

There have been some disappointing Allen playoff performances in his brief Celtics career, but this one had to rank at the bottom.

It’s a wonder that the C’s were even in the game.

Allen was off the mark for the entire game, yet he was still the guy who took the most critical shot of the game — a 17-footer with 1.5 seconds left in overtime that could have tied the score at 105.

“It was right on line,” Allen said of his potential game-tying shot.

But like nearly all of his other shots (except for one), it didn’t fall.

Both Allen and Paul Pierce were basically non-factors in the first half of the loss, but Pierce showed up and scored 19 after the break.

Allen didn’t score a single point in the second half and appeared every bit his 33 years of age. While the Bulls looked fresh in the fourth quarter, Allen appeared fatigued. Maybe it was having to chase Ben Gordon around for most of the night — or maybe it’s that the season has worn him down a bit.

After the loss that put the Celtics in an early hole — and a rare postseason home setback — Allen was stoic in an effort to explain his and the team’s poor performance.

“We have a formula and it works,” Allen said.

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It’s like the Three Stooges without Moe.

Except this one doesn’t have even a hint of humor.

Without K.G. on the court, Allen and Pierce command nearly all the attention of the opposition. Teams will gladly give Rajon Rondo 29 points — as he had against Chicago in the series-opener — as long as they can limit either Pierce or Allen.

They don’t worry about Kendrick Perkins or Glen Davis doing damage. They just make certain that Pierce and Allen are blanketed and forced to work that much harder for their looks.

Allen can ill-afford to finish with four points for the Celtics to beat anyone in the playoffs when Garnett isn’t on the floor. In fact, he’ll need to play as he has for much of the regular-season — when he was arguably the C’s most consistent offensive player.

“I honestly don’t worry about it,” Allen said of his recent postseason struggles.

Well, he’d better start worrying because it’s going to be a brief playoff run if he doesn’t start to make shots.

Doc Rivers said on Sunday that the team must set more screens to get Allen open looks. But it’s not quite that easy without Garnett on the floor.

Allen said spoke about the lack of intensity and not worrying about losing the homecourt advantage — something the Celtics had worked all season to earn - in the matter of 48 minutes.

He also talked about the new-look Chicago Bulls, the team that hardly resembles the same team that was floundering at the beginning of the season.

“This is a new team,” Allen said of Chicago.

It’s not the only one that looks completely different, though.

Jeff Goodman is a senior basketball writer for FOXSports.com. He can be reached at goodmanonfox@aol.com.