Fourth is Kemba’s time
C’s solid late once again
But after their second frigid start in three games, the Celtics pulled away from a bigger Knicks team in Saturday night’s 118-95 win, their second straight.
Kemba Walker, whose fourth quarter scoring pulled out a win over Toronto on Friday night, came through this time with 10 of his 32 points in the fourth as the Knicks abruptly started to melt.
Brad Stevens once again got the most out of his small ball lineup. He got significant contributions from rookies Grant Williams and Carsen Edwards (10 points, 3-for-11) against a big Knicks front line that had a dominant presence on the glass all night, but couldn’t turn the game despite a 23-14 edge in second chance points and 53-43 lead in rebounds. The Celtics, playing without the injured Enes Kanter and Daniel Theis, started Robert Williams but soon went small.
Jayson Tatum’s threepoint play triggered a 10-4 Celtics run over the last 3:31 of the third quarter for an 8276 lead, with Grant Williams not only contributing a free throw and alley-oop finish off a Brown lob, but also blocking New York’s Bobby Portis, setting up a Tatum free throw to complete the run.
The rookie, again playing center in a small lineup, also opened the fourth off a Brown feed. Tatum was blocked the next time down, only for Smart to bury a three at the shot clock buzzer, turning to trot back down the floor as the shot swished. Edwards pulled up from 15 feet for an 89-76 lead, forcing a Knicks timeout and capping the Celtics run at 8-0.
Brown’s three-point play two minutes later was good for a 93-81 edge, and as was the case a night before against Toronto, Walker took over, scoring the next seven Celtics points. Tatum followed up with a 3-pointer with 5:34 left, and came back to dunk home a Gordon Hayward miss for a 105-85 lead with 5:11 left.
The Celtics were on familiar ground, in terms of the sheer ugliness of their first half offense. Tatum was the coldest of the cold, as evidenced by his two-point, 1-for-9 first half. But the Knicks also held a 35-19 rebounding edge, which translated into a 17-7 edge in second chance points and, above all, a 51-46 halftime lead.
This kind of ugliness required what Walker had provided a night earlier during a win over Toronto in the Garden. This time he hit four straight shots, including three straight 3-pointers, finally giving the Celtics a 63-60 lead with 8:08 left in the quarter with a pull-up bomb.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, Walker’s one-man burst was a little too important, for the Celtics were deep into matching baskets with the Knicks. But at least they were now responding, later with Carsen Edwards hitting a 3-pointer seconds after another big Barrett shot.
Overall the Celtics took the lead five times in the last eight minutes of the third, and finally made it stick, starting with a Tatum threepoint play with 3:31 left in the quarter. That sequence triggered a 10-4 run for an 82-76 Celtics lead.
The Celtics started slow, with the Knicks running off a sugar high for an early 13-2 lead, with the C’s finally waking up mid-way through the first quarter.
A pair of Smart bombs led the comeback, with the Celtics briefly tying the game at 20-20 on the guard’s latter shot, before the Knicks eked out of the first with a 24-22 lead.
The kids kicked off a quarter-opening 7-0 run, with Carsen Edwards and Grant Williams each scoring at the start of the burst. And with Smart, Walker and Edwards all launching from deep, the Celtics pushed their edge out to 36-30 before the Knicks used their size – behind a pair of Mitchell Robinson put-backs, one for a three-point play – to cut the margin to a point.
Robinson kept up his pressure on the glass, and with 3:32 left in the half, Julius Randle tied the score at 4141.
New York took control over the last 2:26 of the quarter with a 6-0 run for a 49-46 halftime lead.