The Knicks CRUSHED the Celtics from start to finish — playing 48 minutes of intense defense and aggressive, team-oriented offense — to win in a romp, 119-81, and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with a 4-games-to-2 series victory.
At an ELECTRIC and LOUD Madison Square Garden on a Friday night.
Every Knick was on his game. NY came at Boston from every angle, with each Knick contributing their forte:
OG was hitting 3’s from the corner off the pass, and driving to the bucket when the opportunity was there.
Karl-Anthony Towns was powering to the basket for efficient buckets, taking no prisoner.
Mikal Bridges was hitting 3’s and snipping pullup J’s off drives into the lane like a Messerschmidt.
Jalen Brunson was Brunson — the heart of the team — scoring on drives and hitting 3’s at key points to keep fueling the Knick momentum.
Josh Hart was hitting his jumper and attacking the rim on the break for drives.
Miles McBride was hitting 3’s and taking it inside.
Mitchell Robinson was ripping down offensive rebounds to give Knicks 2nd opportunities.
The final scoring totals were as distributed as imaginable: Brunson had 23 pts; OG had 23 pts; Bridges had 22 pts; KAT had 21 pts; Hart had a triple double of 10 pts, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.
And the Knicks Defense was Intense and non stop. One one play Mitchell Robinson suffocated the entire Boston team — guarding one guy at the 3, switching to cut off another guy, then speeding to the other side of the court to suffocate an open Jaylen Brown in the corner and steal the ball from him.
Afterwards, there was intense jubulation by fans outside Madison Square Garden, but inside the Knicks players did not celebrate. To a man they said there is a lot of work to do.
“We knew we would have to play 48 minutes against them,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards about Boston. “They’re terrific on both sides of the ball. They play their style no matter what. They’re not going to hand you anything; you have to earn it and I felt that we did that.”
Next up: Game 1 against Indiana, starting Wednesday at MSG.
1. NY Comes Out with Aggression; Leads by 6 After 1
The Knicks were dead serious from the start, coming out with aggression on Defense and Offense. Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, and OG Anunoby attacked and scored efficiently from the get-go.
A Bridges tip-in followed by a Bridges 3 put NY up 11-5.
NY was up 13-9 when Mitchell Robinson came in for KAT with 4:39 in the 1st. Boston immediately fouled Mitch despite the fact that Robinson was 6-6 from the line the prior game. Mitch missed the first free throw but hit the 2nd and NY was up 14-10.
NY immediately put KAT back in for Mitch.
And KAT immediately hit a bucket inside, but Kristaps Porzingis answered with a 3 to tie the game 16-all. It would be the last time the Knicks were not leading.
OG Anunoby slammed inside off a Brunson assists, and KAT and Bridges hit back-to-back 3’s and NY was out to a 24-16 lead.
A Jaylen Brown floater pulled Boston to within 26-20 at the end of 1 quarter. It would be the last hurrah for the Celtics.
2. Knicks Pour It in 2nd Quarter to Take 27-Pt Halftime Lead
Mitchell Robinson came back in the game in the final seconds of the 1st and helped provide a wall of defense to start the 2nd quarter, and NY went on a 16-4 run, started by a Miles McBride 3.
Brunson wasn’t even on the court. Bridges was hitting deuces, Towns was scoring on drives, OG was hitting 3’s, and McBride was adding buckets.
Brunson re-entered with 7 minutes left in the quarter and NY up 38-24, and he immediately started cooking — hitting a drive and then feeding Josh Hart for a drive.
Hart hit a floater-and-1, then Brunson hit a drive and NY was up 49-27. The rout was on.
“Tweeted this below back in 2020 on Josh Hart,” tweeted NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Notice how 50/50 balls become 20/80 when you’re talking about Josh Hart or how he out rebounds you on the glass because he wants it more or how he finds the open man because it’s the right play? Josh Hart truly plays for name in front.”
NY continued to attack from everywhere — a McBride drive, a KAT drive-and-1, a Brunson 3 followed by a McBride 3 and NY was up 64-37 at the half.
3. Knicks Keep Coming in 3rd to Up Lead to 41
NY did not let up in the 3rd — in fact they amplified their intensity, showing a killer instinct to put Boston away.
OG, Bridges, Brunson, KAT, and Towns continued to do their thing — taking it to the rim, hitting deuces in the lane, and nailing off-the-pass 3’s.
A KAT drive-and-1 put NY up 80-43.
An OG 3 put NY up 92-51 — a 41-pt Knick lead — with 1:51 left in the 3rd.
Amidst it all was a hounding Knick defense, with proper switching, that caused Boston to miss and miss and miss contested 3’s.
Jaylen Brown was playing frenetically on defense — edging on dangerously the way Joel Embiid played in last year’s playoffs against the Knicks when he injured Mitchell Robinson’s ankle. Brown picked up his 6th foul with 2:33 left in the 3rd with NY up by 33.
4. Boston’s Last Attempt
Boston gave it their last effort — Payton Pritchard rallied for 3 straight buckets in the final minute of the 3rd to bring Boston to within 35 pts — at 92-57 — entering the 4th. Torrey Craig hit a 3 to start the 4th, and Baylor Scheierman followed with a drive to pull Boston within 30.
5. NY Leads by 30+ throughout 4th
But Brunson answered with a drive, Hart hit 2 free throws off a drive and Bridges hit a 3 and NY was back up by 37.
A Scheierman 3 was answered by a Bridges deuce; a Pritchard 3 was answered by a Brunson 3 off a Mitchell Robinson offensive rebound and NY was up 104-68 with 8:24 left.
Pritchard and Sam Houser continued to do their best to get Boston back to a respectable score but the Knicks continued to have answers, with Thibs managing with concern from the sidelines like it was a tight game.
Precious Achiuwa entered the game with 8 minutes left, and NY up by 36.
Boston waived the white flag with 5:37 left, down 110-76 — taking Pritchard and Houser out for the 3rd team.
6. Knicks Took Care of All Business
The Knicks took care of all business — as Al Pacino said at the end of The Godfather.
Derrick White was 3-11 (2-8 from 3) for 8 pts and was a -45.
Jrue Holliday was 1-8 (0-2 from 3) for 2 pts and was a non factor.
Jaylen Brown — giving his all but at time playing a bit recklessly — had 20 pts but fouled out in the 3rd (see above) and was a -30.
Luke Kornet — a hero of Game 5 with 7 blocks — was limited to 5 pts, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 21 minutes as the starting center.
Kristaps Porzingis, sadly, was still playing under some sort of undiagnosed illness and was a shell of himself — 4 pts on 1-4 shooting in 11 minutes. “I tried to give what I could, which obviously wasn’t much,” he said afterwards. “The support from the Knicks fans was through the roof tonight and all throughout the playoffs. Unbelievable fans, unbelievable city and there’s a side of me that’s very very happy for them.”
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401769751