BOSTON — For the second straight game, the New York Knicks found themselves in a hole the Boston Celtics have rarely let teams out of this season. The Knicks again found a way — almost the same way, in fact — to pull off the improbable. And now they are two wins away from knocking the defending champions out of the playoffs.
Mikal Bridges sealed another 20-point comeback with his second straight game-ending steal and the New York Knicks stunned the Boston Celtics again Wednesday night, winning 91-90 for an improbable 2-0 lead in the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals.
“Just finding ways to win,” Bridges said.
Jalen Brunson scored 17 points for New York and made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left for a 91-90 lead. Jayson Tatum then couldn’t get to the rim and Bridges moved in to bat the ball away and recover it. Bridges also scored all of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart had 23 points and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks, who will host Game 3 on Saturday.
“Going home we realize the opportunity we have. We just have to stay locked in,” Brunson said.
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White scored 20 points apiece for the Celtics, who were 10 for 40 from 3-point range after going 15 for 60 in Game 1. Tatum was limited to 13 points on 5-for-19 shooting for the Celtics, who went more than eight minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter.
Teams that win the first two games of a best-of-seven series on the road win the series 85.7% of the time. The Knicks took the opener when Bridges stole the ball away from Brown with a second left in overtime.
“Opportunity to show what we’re made of,” Brown said of a Boston team that swept New York 4-0 in the regular season. “We’ve got to respond.”
Kristaps Porzingis didn’t start after sitting out the second half of Game 1 with an illness. He came off the bench for just the fifth time in his NBA career and finished with eight points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.
All eyes were on the Celtics’ offense after they missed an NBA-record 45 3-pointers in their Game 1 loss. They went 24 for 54 from 2-point range Wednesday. Despite their shooting struggles, the Celtics found some traction late in the third quarter, using a 16-6 run – keyed by their effort on the defensive end – to turn a 10-point lead into a 73-53 advantage late in the period.
It was 84-68 after Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer with 8:40 to play but the Celtics wouldn’t make another basket until Tatum’s driving dunk with 18.5 seconds remaining. New York cut it to 86-82 on a floater by Hart before Towns’ three-point play cut it to 86-85. Tatum missed a jumper, and Brunson made an 18-footer to put New York in front.
A jumper by Brown rolled off the rim on Boston’s next trip up the floor. Brunson then found a lane to the basket and dropped in a layup to make it 89-86. Tatum connected on a pair of free throws and then got it back following a New York miss that rolled out of bounds with 24.2 seconds left. Trailing 89-88, Tatum pushed the ball in to the front court and drove easily past Mitchell Robinson for a dunk to put the Celtics back in front.
Brunson was fouled and connected on both free throws. Hart said they are going home knowing they can still play better.
“I don’t even think we know what we’re capable of,” he said.
The New York Knicks are getting good at this. The Knicks, just two days after mounting a 20-point comeback in the second half to stun the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, have done it again. They came back from the same deficit on Wednesday night, thanks to a huge fourth-quarter showing and a late block from Mikal Bridges, to grab a 91-90 win over the Celtics.
That gave the Knicks a 2-0 lead in the series as it heads to Manhattan for Game 3 on Saturday afternoon. They are also now the first team in NBA playoff history to come back from 20 points down in consecutive games.
By comparison, the Celtics blew just one 20-point lead throughout the entire regular season. The Celtics looked very solid for three quarters on Wednesday night. They opened the game on a 16-4 tear, held the Knicks scoreless for nearly five full minutes to start the game, and then took a 20-point lead in the third quarter. Everything was going their way.
But the Knicks broke open a 21-4 run in the final period while the Celtics essentially shut down. Boston missed 12 straight shots and went more than eight minutes without a field goal. Finally, Jayson Tatum ended the dry spell with about the easiest bucket he could have gotten. Tatum drove the length of the floor in a matter of seconds and threw down a dunk to put the Celtics up by a point.
On the other end, Jalen Brunson drew a foul on an elbow jumper and hit both free throws to lift the Knicks back on top. While the Celtics had one last look, Tatum couldn’t get a shot off. The Celtics, with a timeout available, tried to run a play but Bridges blocked Tatum in the corner at the buzzer to seal the one-point win and leave Boston fans in disbelief.
The reason they didn't take their final timeout, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said, was that they felt they could run the same play again and didn't want to let Brunson sub back out of the game. "Had one [timeout] left, got a good look on the exact same play 20 seconds later," Mazzulla said. "Tried to execute the exact same thing, they did a better job of their lower pick-up point and we weren't able to get the advantage that we had on the last Tatum dunk ... Brunson had action there, just didn't execute."
Derrick White had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics in the loss. Jaylen Brown added 20 points, too, and Tatum finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds. The Celtics made just 10 of 40 attempts from the 3-point line. They had an NBA playoff-record 45 missed 3-pointers in Game 1. Josh Hart led the Knicks with 23 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points and 17 rebounds. Bridges scored all 14 of his points in the final period, and he added eight rebounds and five assists.
Game 3 of the series is set for Saturday at 3:30 ET in New York. While the Knicks still have a ways to go to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000, they undoubtedly have the league's defending champions up against the wall.
