Knicks win, get closer to No. 2 seed in the East
Jalen Brunson scored 39 points in three quarters and the New York Knicks kept up their quest to finish with the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference by beating the Boston Celtics 118-109 on Thursday night.
One day after clinching a playoff spot, the Knicks pulled within a game of the Milwaukee Bucks for second, with each team having two games remaining. New York would have to win both and have the Bucks lose their games at Oklahoma City and Orlando, because Milwaukee has the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Brunson shot 15 of 23 from the field and 6 of 11 from 3-point range. Backcourt mate Donte DiVincenzo had 17 points and Josh Hart finished with 16. New York also received a lift off the bench from its primary acquisition at the trade deadline, as Bojan Bogdanovic had 14 points.
Jayson Tatum scored 18 points for Boston. Payton Pritchard had 16 points off the bench and Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser each had 15.
Despite having already clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, the host Celtics took the court with their top eight players. With the Knicks up 29, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla opened the fourth quarter with a unit entirely of reserves.
BULLS 127, PISTONS 105 >> DeMar DeRozan scored 39 points and Chicago sent Detroit to its franchise-record 67th loss of the season. Detroit (13-67) broke the franchise mark set by the 1979-80 team, while Chicago (38-42) moved closer to wrapping up home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference play-in game against Atlanta. HAWKS' JOHNSON, OKNOGWU TO MISS PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT >> Atlanta will be without forward Jalen Johnson and center Onyeka Okongwu in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament because of injuries. The Hawks announced Thursday that Johnson, one of the team's most productive starters with his averages of 16.0 points and 8.7 rebounds, will miss at least three weeks after spraining his right ankle on Tuesday night against Miami. Okongwu will miss at least four weeks following a non-surgical procedure on Tuesday to address inflammation in his left big toe. Okongwu averages 10.2 points and 6.8 rebounds.