Six days earlier, the Knicks had clobbered the Celtics with a try-hard components.
More foul pictures, extra rebounds, extra goal over a 15-point blowout in New York.
Two days earlier, the Nets had out-worked Boston on their option to finishing a 28-point comeback, the most important of the NBA season.
On Sunday evening, examined once more by the tireless Knicks, the Celtics regarded primed to grab a modicum of revenge and apply the week’s lesson by outlasting New York of their longest recreation of the season.
They didn’t.
The Knicks survived a missed Al Horford 3 on the ultimate possession of double time beyond regulation to depart city with a 131-129 win. Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 40 factors, however dished to Horford on the ultimate play after drawing defensive assist away from Horford’s place in the correct nook. For all of Tatum’s efforts, nobody may match indefatigable Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley, who recorded 38 factors, eight rebounds and 7 assists over a game-high 55 minutes.
“Situations like this, it’s good players making good plays,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla stated. “And they made one more shot than we did.”
Quickley scored a game-tying basket within the remaining seconds of the primary time beyond regulation and opened the second with a 3-pointer. After two Celtics misses, he dropped the hammer with a wide-open dunk that put New York up by 5 at 3:47 to play. The Knicks led by two possessions for many of the remainder of the evening, although tense moments rose after a Tatum layup lower New York’s result in two at 46 seconds left, and the Knicks turned it over on their subsequent possession.
Instead, Boston (45-20) misplaced and fell 1.5 video games behind the conference-leading Bucks, who gained at Washington on Sunday. Despite Jaylen Brown’s 29 factors and 20 factors and 14 boards from Horford, the Celtics have now misplaced three of their final 4.
“We just gotta kind of get our swagger back,” stated Derrick White, who added 12 factors. “Find a way to play with each other, have fun out there, and I’m sure we’ll get it back soon.”
Tatum, Brown, Horford and Grant Williams all performed greater than 44 minutes in opposition to the Knicks, and now head to Cleveland for the second evening of a back-to-back Monday.
Their issues Sunday evening felt acquainted, as a big third-quarter lead evaporated in opposition to a fiesty, undermanned underdog. While star guard Jalen Brunson rode the bench, Knicks ahead Julius Randle poured in 31 factors round 9 rebounds and 4 assists, and R.J. Barrett scored 29. The Knicks once more shot extra free throws (32 to 25), although the Celtics matched them within the paint.
Together, Randle and Quickley mixed for 11 unanswered factors heading into the fourth quarter and took an 88-87 lead when Randle canned a buzzer-beating, step-back 3. The Knicks stretched their result in 11 early within the fourth on the again of a 21-2 run. After calling timeout and reinserting their starters at 9:04 left, the Celtics stabilized and lower their deficit to 102-99 on a thunderous Tatum dunk.
Two scoreless minutes of bodily, up-and-down play adopted, highlighted by Brown’s block of Randle within the mid-post. Second later, Brown tied the sport by dropping an and-1 transition layup by way of at 4:08 remaining. Undeterred, the Knicks hit two foul pictures on their subsequent possession, and Williams answered with a put-back rating.
But between three empty Boston possessions, New York scored on each journey and staked a 111-104 lead on one other Randle 3 with a minute and a half left. Dusting themselves off, Horford splashed a triple, and the Celtics protection pressured a shot-clock violation. Then, Williams wrestled away an offensive rebound off a missed 3, Smart misfired from downtown, and Brown tapped out one other board.
This time, Smart hit from the left nook and lower Boston’s deficit to at least one with 17.9 seconds left. A Smart foul despatched Randle again to the road, the place he hit each pictures to raise New York to a 113-110 benefit. Breaking from a timeout, Brown drew a foul and scored on a mid-post turn-around at 12.9 ticks to go left in regulation.
After drilling the game-tying free throw, Brown poked the ball away from Randle on a double-team with seconds left to power time beyond regulation.
Neither workforce may draw back by greater than a possession within the first interval, regardless of a gap 3-pointer from Smart and one other trey from Horford with lower than a half-minute to go. All of the Celtics’ pictures from the sector within the first time beyond regulation got here from behind the arc, indicators of drained legs in opposition to a tireless opponent.
Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams had been dominated out pregame with accidents.
Source: www.bostonherald.com