The New York Knicks (13–6) brave the snow to visit TD Garden tonight for their second meeting of the season with the [Boston Celtics](https://www.celticsblog.com/) (11–9).
Our heroes arrive in Beantown riding a four-game streak, including Sunday’s 116–94 dismantling of Toronto. New York took the first matchup versus Boston back in October with a 105–95 win. They led by 24 in the opener and won by ten with relative ease.
The Celts are fresh off a gutsy 117–115 road victory in Cleveland, powered by Payton Pritchard’s career-best 42. Both teams have postseason aspirations, but the Knicks have depth and two-way balance that Boston can’t quite match without Jayson Tatum.
Boston has survived Tatum’s absence admirably, taking seven of their last ten tilts. They rank as a top-five offensive team with a middling defense (16th) and the league’s slowest pace. This is a team that takes a ton of shots—92 FGA’s per game, making 46%; and 43 threes, making 36%—and also gives up a ton of shots. Whenever teams get lured into going shot-for-shot for them, the victor is the club with the hottest hand. The Knicks have shot the three-ball nearly 40% at home and just 33% on the road. Perhaps hoisting a ton of shots at TD Garden will be a less than ideal strategy?
With all that shooting and not a lot of driving, it’s no surprise the Celtics take the league’s fewest free throws (19.3). They don’t log many steals or assists (bottom-third of the NBA for those), but they protect the ball (the league’s fewest turnovers per game) and are a decent rebounding team. And while that defense isn’t stellar, they limit opponents to the NBA’s second-best points per game, 110.9.
Carrying the load in the absence of Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown is the team’s go-to scorer (28.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 4.8 APG, 35% 3P%), with a mixed diet of midrangers and longballs. He’s followed by Anfernee Simons (13.7 PPG, 41% 3P%), Derrick White (16 PPG, 5.1 APG, 4 RPG, 32 3P%), and Payton Pritchard (17.5 PPG, 4.8 APG, 4.3 RPG, 34% 3P%).
Boston expects Derrick White and Neemias Queta to return from the injury list tonight. That will give them a boost in playmaking and rim protection. Queta has been a solid contributor, collecting 9.8 PPG and 8.5 RPG this season.
ESPN.com says the Knicks will win and gives them a 57% chance. Sounds good to us. The Celts will have their crowd at their backs and will be primed to test New York’s perimeter defense. Given the Knicks’ rebounding edge and how well they’ve been playing (individually and as a unit), we expect Mike Brown’s club to withstand a Boston barrage by sticking to their strengths and letting Josh Hart run around like a rabid animal. By the final bell, New York will have been terrible houseguests and won by three. Beating Boston? Ain’t life grand.
Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Place: Madison Square Garden, NYC
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