With the odds stacked against them once again, the New York Knicks took a commanding 3-1 Eastern Conference semifinal lead with a 121-113 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
“They hit us early, but I love the way we fought back,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Showed a lot of toughness and more discipline in the second half.”
New York erased a 14-point deficit in the third quarter, which was fueled by a 9-0 run in the frame. Jalen Brunson and Jayson Tatum traded haymaker after haymaker, as the two All-Stars lit up the Garden.
Brunson took over the third quarter by scoring 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Clutch Player of the Year finished with 39 points, 12 assists, and multiple clutch buckets down the stretch.
Tatum’s huge 42-point night ended on a catastrophic note. Late in the game, he suffered a non-contact leg injury and was forced to leave in a wheelchair, which casts serious doubt not just for Game 5 but well beyond this postseason.
Boston entered the final frame trailing New York 88-85, which was New York’s first lead since they led 28-27 in the first quarter.
The Knicks received clutch buckets from multiple players, including Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, and OG Anunoby.
Towns finished with a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double while shooting at a 71% clip. Bridges added 23 points, three steals, and a block. Anunoby knocked down four of his eight three-point attempts and was a force defensively.
“I thought OG gave us a huge game, and I thought Jalen, of course, [made] timely shot after timely shot,” Thibodeau said. “I thought [Mitchell Robinson] gave us big minutes, KAT gave us really good minutes, Deuce got us at a faster pace, so I thought that was good for us as well.”
Derrick White and Jaylen Brown played their part, complementing Tatum’s 42-point masterclass. White finished with 23 points and played elite defense on just about every player he guarded.
Brown went 4-of-6 from behind the arc in his 18-point outing.
The Knicks took their largest lead of the series with a fadeaway jumper by Bridges as the shot clock expired. They led 111-104 with 3:21 to go in the fourth quarter.
“We always say we’ve got the best fans in the world,” Thibodeau said. “We’ve got to make sure we give them stuff to cheer for.”
New York hasn’t seen a team win like this in quite some time, and this is the team the Knicks envisioned they could be when they traded for Towns and Bridges this past summer.
Game 5 will take place back in Boston on Wednesday night. A win from the Knicks will send them to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET.
