Mikal Bridges and the Knicks sealed another 20-point return to knock out the Celtics, escaping with a 91-90 victory to increase 2-0 in the series.
Boston – The New York Knicks did it again.
Decf from 20 to the third quarter of the match 1. down 20 to the third quarter of match 2.
Two major returns. Huge games at both ends of the ground. Contributions from everyone in rotation. Two incredible victories … on the road … against the title champions of the NBA.
This was a little uglier, but just as surprising, a 92-91 victory which gave the Knicks an improbable in advance of the 2-0 series on the Boston Celtics in the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference.
The score was 73-53 Celtics in the first 33 minutes, and it was 38-17 Knicks in the last 15. Jalen Brunson scored the decisive points at the Line of the Free throws with 12.7 seconds, and Mikal Bridges proposed the defensive judgment which sealed the game.
“These are the playoffs,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “You have to keep fighting. Each possession is important and you have to play 48 minutes.”
Here are some notes, quotes, figures and films after three shocking days at TD Garden…
1. Already seen again
The Knicks remained aimlessly during their first nine possessions of the match, collected four points with just over four minutes in the first quarter, and totaled only 33 in the first and third quarter combined.
Although the Celtics offensive is not much better than in match 1, they were still up 16 with 8 1/2 minutes. But then, they scored on only one of their next 12 goods, and it was a transitional leak that led to two free throws for Derrick White.
In the Halfcourt, the Celtics came empty. They were 0 for 13 on the field (0 for 7 in the range of 3 points) in this section, with five guys contributing to all these failures. There were superb looks, but they did not enter.
Brunson even obtained some stops. He went twice to Jaylen Brown, one of the games that the Celtics worked to get all the series. But Brown failed on a jump hook and an elbow sweater on the leader of the Knicks. White rebounded the second of these blows, but missed a point at close range.
After the Knicks increased three with a 19-2 race, Jayson Tatum attacked Karl-Anthony Towns in the pick-And-Roll and arrived. The Celtics stopped and then they finally obtained a bucket.
After a dead time, they decided to grab the ball in the rear area. This allowed Tatum to go downhill, using an Al Horford screen in Midcourt and blowing Mitchell Robinson so that Dunk takes the lead with 18.5 seconds.
After Brunson put the Knicks forward by passing in front of Jrue Holiday and drawing a fault, the Celtics chose to perform the same exact game.
This time, Og Anunoby was not completely removed from the game by the screen, and Robinson was able to stop the initial thrust of Tatum. Tatum tried to cross and drive on the left, but lost its handle a little.
There were bodies in the paint, so he tried to get a stepback rider from the left base line with four seconds to play. It was then that the bridges left Jaylen Brown and invaded Tatum.
Bridges was initially credited with a block and a rebound, but the official score was then changed in flight. Tatum saw the double team, but just a second too late. He tried to repel the ball in brown, but Bridges was everywhere on him with his seven feet scope.
During the last two Celtics games, the Knicks were able to release Brunson and Towns from the ground. Robinson could not contain Tatum first, but the defensive programming of the Knicks obtained the final stop.
“We just couldn’t convert to the fourth quarter,” said Brown. “This was what it was boiled down. Our defense, I thought, was great. We had physicality, we had energy in defense. Our offense dropped us. ”
The Celtics have now scored 38 anemic points out of 50 possessions in the fourth quarter and in overtime of this series. They pulled 11 for 53 (21%) during these 29 minutes.
2. Bridges raises Knicks in the fourth
Although the return of the Knicks began, at the end of the third quarter of match 2, Bridges had no points, after missing his eight shots. But his night was far from over.
Bridges scored 14 of the 30 points of the Knicks in the last period, his six goals on the ground being one more than the Celtics had had in the last 12 minutes.
Bridges scored nine of the first 11 points of the Knicks of the period, beating a tête-à-tête vacation to put the Knicks in 12 years. The Knicks therefore kept the ball in his hands, even after the game of Kia Clutch plays the year (Brunson) returned to the match with 6:39 on the left.
This choice has borne fruit, with bridges beating a vacation again for a setback that made a 10 -point game …
Following possession: transition 3.
Brunson, Towns and Josh Hart managed the scoring after that, but the Knicks returned to this match because of the burst of the fourth quarter of bridges. He went from 0 for 8 to have beaten Jrue Breeping Holiday on several possessions of the fourth quarter to raise his team to an incredible victory. And of course, he crowned it with the defensive game of the night.
3. Hart makes the Celtics pay to leave him alone
When the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday and without a glance at the box score, you would have struggled to identify the top scorer in the game. It was not Brunson or Towns, Tatum or Brown.
It was Josh Hart, who scored 23 points (a shy in his career in playoffs) on the shooting of 9 for 15.
The Celtics were very willing to help Hart, the non-shooter in the starting range of the Knicks. And this aid led to two of the 16 reversals of the Knicks (the defenders leaving Hart to dig against the ball handlers of the Knicks) and a pair of blocks when Al Horford left Hart to double the cities in the post.
But the non-shooter is now 11 for 25 (44%) of the 3-point range in the playoffs, he gave the Knicks a very necessary transition offense, and he was able to take advantage of the disinterest of the Celtics to keep it.
Hart was 3 for 6 beyond the arc on Wednesday, and he made himself available when the Celtics took care of Brunson.
In the fourth quarter, after organizing a bridges screen, Hart ran freely towards the glass, caught the offensive rebound and fed Brunson for a 3 -point pointer who obtained the Knicks in the Six.
Later, he was able to pass in front of the closure of Horford after the great man of the Celtics was hung in the painting in a help position …
“He’s really intelligent,” said Thibodeau. “He plays much larger than his size. The rebound, but also the capacity of finishing inside. But he worked a lot on his shooting. If you leave him open, he does not hesitate. He just lets him fly. I think it’s huge for us.”
Despite the 23 points in match 2, Hart will continue to be left open. As a team, the Knicks have only scored 100.5 points for 100 possessions in this series, so it is not as if the global defensive strategy of the Celtics did not work.
And the chances of New York to get two other victories could continue to depend on Hart’s ability to take photos and take games.
4. Porziņģ Is it a non-factor
Kristaps Porziņģis played at 12:58 p.m. in match 1, shooting 0 for 4 and missing the second half because of a disease. He was available for match 2, but left the bench for the first time this season.
Porziņģis scored eight points on shot 3 for 5, with a big dunk to start the fourth quarter. But was apparently still hampered by everything he is dealing with.
It was not long after this dunk that he reported on the bench that he needed to get out of the game. He checked with 8:27 to play, after playing at 1:53 p.m. and with the Celtics having been ahead of nine points (they scored only 23 out of 26 offensive possessions) at that time.
5. Champions are not supposed to fold like that
The Celtics are the first team of the 29 years for which we have gaming data to lose several qualifying matches which he led by at least 20 points.
The increase in the rate of 3 points in the past 15 years has increased variance from one quarter to another, but not a ton. The teams are still 590-34 (.946) in the matches they led by at least 20 points this season.
Most importantly, the first team to explode two 20 -point playoffs should not be the team that dominated the playoffs a year earlier, never feeling threatened to the title. There should not be a feeling “Oh no, we are still going there” in the building with 18 championship banners suspended on the ceiling.
But it is the same Celtics who did not lose more than a game in a series last year that separated into two consecutive this year. The last 51 hours have provided more drama than their entire trip to the title 2023-24.
“This is an opportunity to show what we are made,” said Brown. “Obviously, we would not want to be in this position, but we are here now. So we have been able to answer.”
The Celtics will go to New York knowing that they played better on the road than at home. In fact, when they played outside Boston in the regular season, they have ahead of the opponents of 9.5 points for 100 possessions, the second best road brand of the 29 seasons for which we have Play-By-Play data.
They have not yet finished, but they will have to show the championship Mettle in match 3 Saturday (3.30 p.m., ABC) at Madison Square Garden.
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John Schuhmann is analyst of senior statistics for NBA.com. You can send him an email herefind His archives here And Follow him on x.
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