Amazing but true: Knicks win away from ousting stunned Celtics
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson drives by Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis in the 4th quarter of Game 4 on Monday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Yes, the Knicks are for real.
They are one win away from history. They are one win away from knocking off the defending NBA champions. They are one win away from becoming the first Knicks team in 25 years to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Madison Square Garden rocked as it hadn’t in decades Monday night as the Knicks took a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 121-113 win over a stunned Boston Celtics squad.
How stunned?
Well, let’s put it this way. The one image that seemed to capture the magnitude of what transpired was of six-time Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum sobbing in a wheelchair as he was wheeled to the locker room.
Tatum, who scored 42 points, suffered what appeared to be a serious lower-leg injury while fighting for a loose ball with about three minutes left and the Knicks about to take a 113-104 lead on OG Anunoby’s fast-break dunk.
The Knicks haven’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 1999-2000. They were on the precipice last season but, fighting injuries, lost the final two games of their series against the Indiana Pacers.
This year, the Knicks added Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges in the offseason with the hopes of being the kind of team that could get past the Celtics in the playoffs. On Monday, they did it with a complete team effort, beating a team that had taken a 31-point lead and destroyed them in Game 3 two days earlier.
“It took us all a little while to figure out how to play off each other,” said Bridges, who came up with big shot after big shot in the fourth quarter. “Everyone wanted us to show success early on, but it took us some time to figure it out.”
Yes, the Knicks seem to have figured it out, even though the way they play can be nerve-wracking to fans.
They again came up with some second-half magic to beat a team that some predicted would sweep them in the series. After rallying from a 20-point third-quarter deficit in each of their first two wins of the series in Boston, the Knicks came back from 14 points down in the third quarter of this game.
Multiple Knicks starters made big plays in the comeback as the Knicks outscored Boston 63-41 in the final 20:47.
Brunson came up huge in the third quarter, scoring 18 of his 39 points. Bridges, who struggled to score in the Knicks’ first two wins, came up huge when the Knicks needed him most, scoring 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and finishing the game with four steals. Towns had 23 points and 11 rebounds and shot 11-for-15. Anunoby scored 20 points and made big defensive play after big defensive play.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best basketball yet,” Brunson said. “Big game for us. Means a lot. The way we responded, I’m just happy with how we fought and kept fighting.”
Said Bridges: “We just kept fighting. We had been down worse than that before. We knew if we just stayed the course that we had a chance. Jalen just likes to win. He doesn’t want to lose. It’s great to watch and I’m glad he’s on my side.”
The Knicks were 0-4 against Boston in the regular season — falling behind by 35, 35 and 27 in the first three losses — so no one expected them to put up much resistance. No one except for the Knicks themselves.
Now, with people elbowing each other to get on the bandwagon, they know they have to keep their heads on straight and head into Boston looking to get that one win.
“No statement. No statement. We’re a good team. We’ve known that all year,” Josh Hart said. “We’ve just got to build from this. Obviously, we’re up 3-1, but that doesn’t mean anything. We’ve got to go into this next game with a sense of desperation, a sense of urgency from the jump. We’ve got to stop giving up leads in the first quarter, those kinds of things. We’ve got to fix that. No statements. Just us getting better.”
And doing it in front of their home fans.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
