A 20-point deficit, a lopsided scoring run and a Mikal Bridges steal to ice the victory. Again.
That is how Game 2 went down between the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics on Wednesday at TD Garden. It is also near exactly how Game 1 played out, and it has resulted in a shocking 2-0 series lead for New York.
The Knicks, looking to overcome their second straight 20-point deficit, were down 12 heading into the final frame. They cut the deficit to seven points with roughly five minutes to play, and to four points near the three-minute mark. A Karl-Anthony Towns and-1 with 2 1/2 minutes left brought New York within one. And the NBA Clutch Player of the Year, Jalen Brunson, gave the Knicks their first lead of the night with under two minutes to play.
Bridges, who scored no points through the first three quarters, finished with 14 points. Josh Hart paced the Knicks with 23, Towns had 21 and Brunson 17.
The Celtics put together another uncharacteristic shooting night, going 34-for-94 (36.2 percent) on field goals and 10-for-40 (25 percent) on 3s.
Derrick White and Jaylen Brown each had 20 points for the Celtics, and Jayson Tatum finished with 13 after scoring only two points in the first half.
Game 3 is Saturday in New York.
Déjà vu
This is déjà vu in basketball form. Boston was up by 20 against the Knicks in Game 2 on their home floor, just like in Game 1. The same result: New York wins.
The cardiac Knicks keep finding ways to win. The defense has done just enough and Boston missing more 3s than there are fans between the two historic franchises combined has led them to blowing back-to-back large leads.
Now New York goes back home with a 2-0 series lead against the defending champions, who continue to look rattled in the game’s most pressured moments because their 3-ball isn’t falling.— James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer
Tatum needs to find his footing
Tatum averaged 33.5 points per game against the Knicks during the regular season. Much of the discussion entering this series centered around how they had no answers for him. Through two games, the Celtics star’s regular-season dominance has given way to playoff problems.
Game 2 turned into a disaster for him. He finished the game with just 13 points on 5-of-20 shooting, missing four of five 3-point attempts, five of nine attempts inside the paint and all five of his other two-point attempts. With less than four minutes left, he misfired on an open corner 3-pointer that would have put the Celtics ahead by nine points. Two minutes later, he bricked a fadeaway jumper with the Celtics’ lead down to one. He briefly flirted with his first single-digit postseason scoring game since 2021 before finally reaching double digits on a pair of free throws inside the final minute.
After giving the Celtics a lead with 18.5 seconds left by going full-court for a clutch slam dunk, he finalized his team’s collapse by committing a turnover on his team’s final possession after two Brunson free throws put the Knicks back ahead.
Boston needs more from Tatum. A lot more. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer
This is why the Knicks acquired Bridges
This is why the Knicks traded four unprotected first-round picks. And another protected one. And a first-round swap. It wasn’t because they thought Bridges was some future MVP, worth a haul on par with other deals for superstars of the past. It was because he was the piece to put them over the top. It was because of the defense that he didn’t always show during the regular season, the shot-making he didn’t even present until the final quarter of Game 2.
But this is why they wanted him. Bridges went for 14 points in the fourth after failing to score over the first three quarters.
For a second consecutive game, he ripped off the greatest defensive play of the Knicks’ season, this time obliterating a Tatum shot that could have won it for Boston.
Bridges is making up for an up-and-down season in the loudest of ways. — Fred Katz, senior NBA writer
Celtics can’t rely on 3-point shooting to turn series around
Remember the Celtics? The team that won a title by burying the world under an avalanche of 3s. The squad that always had an offensive answer for every scenario, with a star-studded lineup full of scorers in every phase of the game.
Well, that team isn’t answering the bell right now. The Celtics look like the kind of defending champ that reminds you why we rarely say, “repeat champ.” They look tired, plain and simple.
They can fix this easily. They lost both games on walk-off defensive plays by Bridges. Though they are collapsing, the gap is minuscule and the Celtics’ whole identity is in opening up those gaps. But they don’t look like themselves right now and turning things around means something has to change. — Jared Weiss, Celtics beat writer
(Photo: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)
