The Pistons. The Cavaliers. And now, the Knicks.
The Celtics dispatched yet another Eastern Conference contender Tuesday night, defeating New York 123-117 in front of a revved-up TD Garden crowd.
Jaylen Brown, who’s shined this season in injured co-star Jayson Tatum’s absence, punctuated a 42-point outing with an emphatic dunk in the final seconds. It was the second 40-point game in four days for the Celtics star, who overcame an uneven start to shoot 16-for-24 from the field and 8-for-9 from the foul line.
“Some days you just feel like, when the ball hits your hands, the ball just feels different,” Brown said. “Today was one of those days. It didn’t start off that way, because I had some turnovers and probably was playing a little bit too fast. But I just told myself, ‘I’m going to just slow it down a little bit,’ and it was off to the races after that.”
Derrick White added 22 points, and Jordan Walsh scored six of his eight points in the final six minutes to help deny a late Knicks charge. Mikal Bridges scored 35 points to lead New York, and Karl Anthony-Towns had 29, but Hugo Gonzalez’s stingy second-quarter defense against the latter tilted the game in Boston’s favor.
The Celtics largely contained All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson (15 points, 11 assists), who went 6-for-21 and attempted just three free throws.
Boston improved to 12-9 on the season, with victories in seven of its last nine games. Since an 0-3 start that included a loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Celtics have won two-thirds of their games. They’ll visit the last-place Wizards on Thursday before returning home for a Friday night showcase against LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the Lakers.
The Celtics fell behind 17-4 during a haphazard start that featured two turnovers by Brown and one by White. The Knicks scored on six of their first nine possessions, with four of those producing 3-pointers.
Brown’s third giveaway sparked a Mikal Bridges fast break, giving New York an early 11-0 edge in points off turnovers.
Boston also had a difficult time working the glass against Mitchell Robinson, who pulled down three offensive rebounds in the first quarter. That prompted Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla to briefly bring back the “Hack-A-” strategy he used against the poor-shooting center at times in last season’s playoff series.
Late in the opening period, with New York in the bonus, rookie Amari Williams checked in, intentionally fouled Robinson away from the ball and then immediately subbed back out. Baylor Scheierman also had two deliberate fouls on Robinson in the ensuing 90 seconds. The second of those was deemed an “away from the play foul,” giving the Knicks one free throw (taken by Brunson) and possession. Robinson went 1-for-4 from the line.
Keeping New York’s other big man away from the basket was another problem for the Celtics. Towns had success bullying his way through the paint in the early going, making his first four field-goal attempts from inside 10 feet.
The Celtics’ solution: send in their 19-year-old attack dog and have him hound, disrupt and otherwise annoy the five-time All-Star. Gonzalez handled that challenge with aplomb, pestering the much taller Towns into two turnovers while holding him scoreless for the final 10 minutes of the first half.
Once Towns checked out, Gonzalez shifted his attention to other Knicks targets. The high-energy rookie picked Brunson’s pocket, leading to a transition layup for Boston. He and Josh Minott induced a delay-of-game technical foul by aggressively boxing out Robinson on a free throw. Gonzalez, whose NBA breakout came in the teams’ previous meeting on Oct. 24, played the entire second quarter and was a plus-17 at halftime.
“He just did a good job of getting underneath (Towns), just kind of being physical with him,” Mazzulla said. “You saw just kind of the depth of our team throughout some of that game, and it started with Hugo and finished with Josh and Jordan.”
At the other end, Brown was atoning for his early sloppiness by igniting the Celtics’ offense. He scored 18 second-quarter points to help the Celtics turn a 14-point deficit into a 58-52 halftime lead.
Brown, White and Minott all hit 3-pointers during that rally, but Boston did much of its damage inside the arc. The Celtics made just four threes in the first half, well below their league-leading average of 8.3, but dominated the paint, outscoring New York 32-14 on 16-of-18 shooting.
Quality shot-making from Bridges kept the Knicks within reach for most of the third quarter. Then, New York cracked. The Celtics scored on their final five possessions of the quarter as part of a 12-0 run. The quarter ended with a White steal that led to a Sam Hauser three, followed by Hauser steal that set up a White triple. Minott also blocked Brunson at the rim during the Celtics’ scoring binge, which put Boston ahead 94-76 entering the fourth.
Brown poured in another 15 points in the quarter, pushing him past the 30-point mark for the 11th time in 21 games this season.
Then, Gonzalez’s physicality – a major asset for Boston during its comeback – helped spark a Knicks resurgence. Up 102-90, Gonzalez was called for a flagrant foul for an illegal closeout on Bridges, giving the Knicks three shots and the ball. Bridges made all three, and Towns converted a three-point play under the basket on the ensuing possession. White missed a 3-pointer, and Bridges nailed one, cutting the Celtics’ lead from 12 points to three in less than a minute.
The Knicks never closed the gap, however, thanks to clutch plays from two of Boston’s other young wings. Minott answered Bridges’ make with his third 3-pointer of the game, and Walsh scored consecutive second-chance baskets off his own offensive rebounds. Walsh also stole a Brunson pass, grabbed a third offensive board and finished a tough layup in traffic that put the Celtics up 115-110 with 2:13 to play.
“It was an evolution for both Jordan and Josh,” Mazzulla said. “(The Knicks) went to doubling Jaylen, so they did a good job catching the ball in the seam and just making 2-on-1 reads. So it starts with Jaylen’s ability to trust his teammates, and then it goes to Jordan and Josh’s evolution of just understanding they’re being guarded by different matchups throughout the game.”
Minott and Walsh shared the floor in crunch time, with Mazzulla favoring a smaller, more athletic lineup. Starting center Neemias Queta logged a modest 21 minutes in the win, Williams played just a handful of seconds, and backup bigs Luka Garza, Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher all were healthy DNPs.
Mazzulla said Walsh, who registered his first career double-double in Sunday’s win over the Cavs, showed great playmaking instincts during that closing stretch. Brown said he’s “starting to see Jordan playing like a grown man.”
“And it’s amazing to see,” he added.
Late free throws by Brown and White, followed by a White layup and Brown’s coffin-nail dunk, closed out another impressive win for the Celtics. In the last 10 days, Boston has beaten New York, Cleveland, Detroit and Orlando – four of the top six teams in the latest Eastern Conference standings. Its only loss during that stretch was a four-point road defeat against Anthony Edwards and the talented Timberwolves.
“It’s easy to focus on what you see now, but if you go back to preseason, before the season, we’re in a much different space now,” Brown said. “You can see the difference if you go back and look at some of those early games in the season. It’s only been 20 games, and there’s been a huge amount of growth from a lot of guys. … But the best is yet to come, so we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
