The Boston Celtics pulled off a season sweep of the New York Knicks with a 119-117 overtime victory Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Jayson Tatum (32 points) forced overtime with a clutch 3-point basket with two seconds remaining in regulation before a huge 3-point shot from Kristaps Porzingis late in overtime helped secure the win for Boston.
The visitors trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half in the potential second round playoff preview between the Atlantic Division rivals. However, Boston slowly chipped away at the lead and held control of most for most of the second half in one of the final tuneups of the year for the starting five. However, the Knicks used a 12-2 run late in the fourth quarter to take the lead back before Tatum’s clutch basket forced to overtime.
Kristaps Porzingis finished with a game-high 34 points while knocking down a career-high eight 3s. Jaylen Brown (six points) was limited to 22 minutes as he continues to deal with a bone bruise in his knee and did not play in the fourth quarter and overtime due to a minutes limit. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with a double-double, a game-high 34 points and 14 rebounds. Jalen Brunson also chipped in with 26 points in his second game back from an ankle injury.
Boston now will take a long flight to Orlando for their final road game of the regular season on Wednesday night against a potential first round opponent.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday’s overtime thriller:
Kristaps Porzingis shoots the lights out from the perimeter: The former Knicks draft pick loves playing in front of the bright lights at Madison Square Garden and he put on a show Tuesday night from long distance. The seven-footer came back from a one-game absence to knock down seven of his first 11 3-point attempts, before tying his career-high with a clutch 3 in overtime. The offensive explosion showed off a weak point in the Knicks defensive personnel as Porzingis repeatedly punished slow closeout by Karl-Anthony Towns as he sagged in coverage. There’s not a lot of good options to defend Boston’s starting five but giving open looks to Porzingis is turning into a riskier option with performances like this.
No one could guard Karl-Anthony Towns: The Celtics weren’t able to play double bigs much in this contest with Al Horford (knee) getting the night off. The Knicks were able to take advantage of that for much of the night with Towns work inside the arc. Boston repeatedly tried using smaller defenders on the All-Star but Towns managed to bully his way to easy looks at the hoop no matter who Boston threw at him. He made 10 of his first 15 shots over the first three quarters and shot a scorching hot 75 percent from the field from 2-point range in that stretch, carrying a Knicks offense that wasn’t shooting well from the perimeter.
Celtics are officially no longer playing for seeding: Boston has been headed for No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the past couple of months but it became officially on Tuesday night with the Cavs blowing out the Bulls at home. That victory clinched the top seed and homecourt advantage for Cleveland in a potential East Finals putting Boston firmly in the No. 2 spot where they will likely await the winner of a likely matchup between the Magic and Hawks for the right to be the No. 7 seed. With three games left, Boston will only be focused on staying fresh as they gear up for the start of the first round next weekend.
Boston’s pursuit of NBA road history continues: The Celtics only have one road game remaining this season in Orlando on Wednesday night and it’s likely they will be extremely shorthanded on the back-to-back. However, the team will have a chance to cement themselves in regular season NBA history if they can pull off a victory in Florida. That would give him 34 regular season wins, matching the 2016 Golden State Warriors for best road record in NBA history. Just how many regulars will go for that mark after an overtime battle is up in the air but odds are we will be seeing a lot of the second unit Wednesday night trying to make history.
