The Boston Celtics traveled to New York to play the Knickerbockers for their 79th game of the season. Boston needed just a single win to secure a second place birth in the Eastern Conference playoffs. In a classic regular season contest, both team’s had runs and chances to close it out, but it was the Knicks who prevailed downt he stretch, 112-106.
Prior to the tip, Jaylen Brown was ruled out of the clash with left Achilles tendinitis. The starting five for Boston would be Derrick White, Sam Hauser,
Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh, and Jayson Tatum. Jayson Tatum would return to the scene of his traumatic knee injury last season. For the Knicks, they started OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Brunson.
Mikal Bridges hit the game’s first three shots as the Knicks jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. Tatum scored Boston’s first two points of the game with a steal at half court and a layup. Tatum spun on Josh Hart and was fouled driving to the cup on another layup. Jordan Walsh got the nod ahead of Baylor Scheierman, who filled in for Jayson Tatum for much of the year; he hit his first three-pointer from the corner, game tied at 7.
Both teams traded buckets before Queta scored inside off a Tatum lob, with the C’s up 13-11 with 6 minutes to go in the quarter. Tatum had the ball in his hands for most of the first quarter and was picking apart the Knicks’ D. Derrick White had a pull-up jumper for his first two of the game. Payton Pritchard entered the game for Tatum and immediately hit his first shot, Boston up by 6 points, 19-13.
The Knicks were having a rough shooting start; they were just 5 of 13 to start the game and just 1 of 7 from downtown. Pritchard was having an early impact; his three quick buckets gave him the confidence to start talking trash at center court, presumably in the direction of Spike Lee. Pritchard drained a triple as the shot clock expired in the first quarter.
The Knicks rallied to start the second quarter with some good minutes from bench players Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet, and Jordan Clarkson. They took the lead back 31-35 with nine minutes to play in the first half. Boston was just 0-4 to start the third; Pritchard finally broke the drought with a back-cut score.
Boston countered the Knicks with a nice 7-0 run, Sam Hauser draining a triple to make it all square at 40 apiece. Both teams slogged it out to finish the half, a very even contest. Brunson was the driving force for the Knicks with 16 first-half points; OG Anunoby had 10 points for the home team. For Boston, Tatum was filling the stat sheet; he had 10 points, 9 boards, and 4 assists. Payton Pritchard was the team’s leading scorer at halftime, with 15 points on 7-12 shooting. It would finish New York with 52 points and Boston with 51 points at the half.
New York was white hot to start the third; they reeled off 4 straight three-pointers as Boston was struggling to stay with the open shooters. Joe Mazzulla burned a timeout at the 9-minute mark, the Knicks starting to pull away from Boston 57-66. NY got the lead out to 13 points, Mazzulla needing to call another timeout, as KAT was starting to attack the bucket and Boston’s D was starting to fall apart.
Boston finally got going in the third, with Tatum and Pritchard fueling the C’s to a 10-0 run. Vooch got in on the act, hitting his first three-pointer of the game. Baylor Sheierman had a dagger triple on the break, Tatum finding him with a deft pass out wide on the left wing, Boston down just 4 points with 3 minutes to go in the third, 72-76.
A Nikola Vucevic triple got it back to just one point; a play later, Pritchard laced his 21st point of the game with a triple, Boston up by 2 points, 78-76. Both teams once again traded buckets after going on mini runs, setting up the game for a big fourth quarter, with Boston by just 2 points, 83-81.
Baylor Scheierman was showing out in the Big Apple 🍎; he hit his fourth triple of the game to start the fourth quarter on a relocation triple. Tatum returned to the game, replacing DWhite. Boston’s bench was outstanding in this game; they had 43 points compared to the Knicks’ 18. Tatum had 6 straight points for the road team, Boston up 92-87 with a ton of time to go.
A Josh Hart corner triple cut Boston’s lead back to 2 points; it was very rowdy at MSG. New York was leading the battle in the paint with KAT and Robinson; they had 38 points to Boston’s 28 points.
Scheierman laced another triple for Boston, KAT hit back with one of his own, the lead see-sawing, Knicks up by 1 point, 98-99. Baylor’s fifth three-pointer of the night had the New York crowd stunned, both team’s throwing hay makers.
Turnovers started to hurt the C’s for Boston late, but Baylor Scheierman was still hawt, he nailed yet another three-pointer to give Boston the lead back. Scheierman had 24 points from Boston bench but it was a one point game with the Knicks ahead and a minute and a half to go.
Derrick White rimmed out a triple with a minute to go in the game he struggled all game with just one made field goal, Josh Hart converted his to make it a 5 point game, 104-109 New York. Nikola Vucevic converted on a offensive rebound to cut it to 3 points. Josh Hart hit his fifth three-pointer to seal it. Boston drop a heart breaker with their All-NBA player Jaylen Brown watching on.
Boston will next play the NOLA Pelicans tomorrow at home at 7:30pm EST.
