C’s nicked up by much hungrier team
It could have been a dress rehearsal.
One final regular-season test for the Celtics against worthy competition. A nationally televised game buzzing with playoff energy and atmosphere, yet none of the stakes.
Instead, Thursday night was an undressing.
The Knicks handled the Celtics 118-109 at TD Garden, leading by as many as 31 before Boston swallowed its first home loss since Feb. 1.
New York took 13 more shots and dominated the glass around a 22-3 run that closed the first half. Jalen Brunson and Bojan Bogdanovic lit the second-quarter blaze that eventually burned the Celtics’ chances down, a fire their teammates fed with offensive boards the rest of the night.
According to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pulled, a different kind of fire is what separated the Knicks from his team.
“I saw that one team in the East has their (playoff) seed set,” Mazzulla said of Boston’s second straight loss.
The Celtics pulled their starters late in the third quarter and will host the lowly Wizards and Hornets to close out their regular season later this week. Yet Thursday’s film will likely carry more weight with the coaching staff, considering Boston played all of its regulars and may see New York in the second round or the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Knicks clinched a playoff spot less than 24 hours before Thursday’s game, yet showed the fight of a team still fighting for its postseason life. New York staked a 32-29 lead after the first quarter, following its bruising possession-game formula. The Knicks snatched half of their missed shots for offensive rebounds and protected the ball, going plus-3 in the turnover battle.
Jayson Tatum (18 points, 7 assists) punched back with a quarter-closing block of Brunson, but New York’s all-star point guard was unbothered. Brunson poured in a game-high 39 points, more than doubling every other player who took the floor. Brunson shot 15-of-23 and splashed six 3s, while just two Celtics starters, Tatum and Jaylen Brown (15 points) finished in double figures.
“We just got out-toughed (in) the last two games,” Brown said, referring to Tuesday’s loss at Milwaukee. “We haven’t played to our standard in terms of physicality, and it’s shifted a little bit. And it’s gonna shift even more in the playoffs.”
Without Brunson, New York’s bench extended its lead to seven early in the second quarter. After a Derrick White layup cut the Celtics’ deficit to 47-45 minutes later, Brunson and Bogdanovic unleashed a barrage of unanswered 3s and fast-break layups and combined for 14 of the Knicks’ next 17 points. Tatum finally ended the Celtics’ drought with less than 90 seconds left until halftime by hitting one of two foul shots; a soft jab amid a series of New York body blows.
Brunson landed his final firsthalf punch at 0.6 seconds before the break, nailing a pull-up jumper to silence a sold-out Garden crowd. While Brunson’s 18 points led all scorers for the first half, it was a three-man show at the Garden between him, Bogdanovic and Josh Hart.
Hart posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds at the break, easily working around Boston’s initial strategy of guarding him, a non-shooter, with Kristaps Porzingis. There were glimpses of Celtics fight — forceful Brown drives and an Al Horford block at three and a half minutes remaining before halftime — yet New York kept pulling away and led 100-71 at the end of the third quarter.
“I did not like the effort level in the first half, but like you said, I think it’s just a tough spot to be in,” Mazzulla said. “I thought our guys handled it as best as they could, and we ran into — in our last two games — two teams that are highly, highly desperate. And as much as we want to be able to simulate that, that’s just not the position that we’re in.”
The Celtics clinched the No. 1 seed in the East two and a half weeks ago, and opted to sit Porzingis and Horford for Tuesday’s loss at Milwaukee. Once they were cleared Thursday evening, along with Tatum, Brown and Jrue Holiday, Boston flipped from a 2.5-point underdog to a 3-point favorite.
Yet the Celtics’ whirring dive-and-kick offense was too often interrupted by the Knicks’ superior effort, which also yielded 22 second-chance points at the other end. Backups Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Svi Mykhailiuk shot the Celtics back to a respectable margin in the fourth quarter, and went a combined 8-of13 from 3-point range. Boston never trimmed its deficit to less than nine down the stretch, and dropped its second straight since losing both halves of a two-game set in Atlanta last month.
The Knicks’ win saved them from a five-game series sweep against the Celtics and increased their odds of clinching the No. 3 seed in the East, while Boston will continue to run out the clock until the playoffs arrive.
“We’re gonna have some tough practices,” Brown said, “and we’re gonna be ready.”