The Knicks complete a 20-point comeback in Game 1 thanks to a 31-11 run and some timely plays by Mikal Bridges in OT.
BOSTON — The New York Knicks sure know how to get off the schneid.
After going 0-10 against the three best teams in the league — Boston, Cleveland and Oklahoma City — in the regular season, the Knicks got their first win against the group by coming back from 20 points down to beat the Celtics, 108-105 in overtime in Monday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson each finished with 29 points, combining for 39 over the final 22 1/2 minutes as the Knicks outscored the Celtics 53-30. Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each had big buckets in overtime, and the Knicks finally got stops against the team that torched them to the tune of 130.2 points per 100 possessions in the regular season.
The Celtics had all six of their top players (their starters plus Al Horford) available for just the 19th time in their 88 games this season. But Kristaps Porziņģis was dealing with an illness and missed the second half on Monday, and they also lost Sam Hauser to an ankle injury in the third quarter.
Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the Celtics fell behind in a playoff series for the first time in these last two years …
1. Celtics’ offense settles (and sets a record)
In the first round against an Orlando defense that was the best in the league at limiting 3-point attempts, the Celtics took just 40% of their shots from beyond the arc, a huge drop from their NBA-record rate of 54% in the regular season.
Now, they’re playing an entirely different defense, the one that allowed them to tie the record for made 3-pointers in a game (29) on opening night. And with that, the Celtics set a pair of NBA records on Monday: the most 3-point attempts and most missed 3-pointers in a playoff game. Boston shot 15-for-60 (25%) from deep in Game 1, with those 60 attempts accounting for 62% of their total shots.
Some of those 3-pointers were good shots. Some of them … not so much.
The Celtics are a team that can waver between purposeful and apathetic possessions. They won the championship in 2023-24 because there were very few of the latter over the course of the postseason. But on Monday, there were more than a few.
The Knicks provide the Celtics with two defenders — Brunson and Towns — that they can attack to gain advantages. With Towns in foul trouble, Boston turned its attention to Brunson in the second quarter, when it outscored the Knicks 35-20 to take control of the game. The Celtics were 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the second, but 12-for-15 inside the arc and 8-for-9 from the free-throw line.
In the second half, they attempted only seven 2-point shots and six free throws.
Jayson Tatum hit two straight 3-pointers to put the Celtics up 15 late in the third quarter, but then got a little too comfortable beyond the arc. A couple of possessions later, he gained an advantage when the Celtics targeted Brunson, but pulled up for a long 3-pointer instead of attacking a seam in the New York defense.
As Tatum stood and watched his shot, OG Anunoby leaked out for a transition dunk …
“In those moments when the other team’s got momentum, we can’t just fire up 3s,” Jaylen Brown said. “To break that momentum, you’ve got to get to the free-throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. And then, maybe, the next 3-pointer feels a little bit better. I feel like we just settled in the second half a lot.”
There were a pair of fourth-quarter possessions where Brown did attack early in the clock, getting to the line to stem the tide a bit. But those attacks were few and far between, with Tatum missing stepback 3-pointers on several big possessions down the stretch. Of his 15 3-point attempts, 14 were off the dribble.
“For the most part, we fought for good looks throughout the game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “But you could find 5-10 that we could be better at.”
2. Knicks’ defenders make big plays
The Knicks weren’t just innocent bystanders on defense as their best defenders made some big plays in Game 1.
Anunoby was Tatum’s primary defender, so he’s the player who’s been taken off the ball when the Celtics have set screens targeting Brunson and Towns. But midway through the fourth quarter, Towns stopped Tatum’s initial attack. That allowed Anunoby to get back in front of his man and, with active hands, deflect Tatum’s pass back to Al Horford.
Anunoby took the ball the other way for a fast-break dunk that tied the game …
Those transition opportunities were huge in what was an ugly game for the most part (both teams barely cracked a point per possession). And the Knicks got another big one early in overtime thanks to Bridges’ defense.
Towns was caught on Brown, who crossed him over and drove left. Bridges dug down off of Horford in the corner, and got his hand on the ball. Brown recovered it, but when he tried to get it to Horford, Bridges was there again. He deflected the pass, jumped out of bounds to save the ball, and somehow got it to Josh Hart …
The Knicks didn’t have an advantage in transition, but Tatum allowed Anunoby to cut behind him for a dunk. With Tatum’s foul and Anunoby’s ensuing free throw, the Knicks had a three-point lead they wouldn’t give up.
3. Knicks benefit from attacking Horford
Horford isn’t the target that Brunson and Towns are on defense. At 38, he’s held up pretty well in the pick-and-roll this season.
But the Knicks need to attack somebody, and with Porziņģis out for most of the game, Horford was the guy.
New York set 19 ball-screens for Brunson with Horford’s defender on Monday. That was the most for any ball-handler/screener’s defender combination in Game 1, per Second Spectrum tracking. The Knicks scored just 0.75 points per chance on those occasions, but they got a some key buckets from that action in the fourth quarter.
First, there was a wicked, behind-the-back dribble into a stepback 3 that put the Knicks up three with a little more than four minutes left. Then, another stepback 3-pointer on an isolation against Horford (who switched the screen) on the very next possession.
The Celtics are generally loath to put two on the ball, but they did on the next possession. And they were excellent in scrambling behind the double-team, forcing an airball from Anunoby as the shot clock expired …
It seems doubtful that we’ll see that blitz-and-rotate strategy much from the Celtics going forward, but it’s interesting to know that they can manage it if needed.
4. Knicks hit from the corners
The Celtics’ reticence to put two on the ball is one reason why they don’t give up corner 3-pointers.
The best 3-point attempts are those that come from the corners, and Boston was tied with the Houston Rockets for the fewest corner 3-point attempts allowed in the regular season.
Though their opponents shot 41.4% from the corners, the Celtics allowed just 1.5 makes per game. In the first round, the Magic made just eight corner 3-pointers in five games.
The Knicks made almost that many in Game 1 (they shot 7-for-11 from the corners), including two of the biggest shots of the night.
With 1:15 left in regulation, Brunson spun away from another screen, putting Jrue Holiday behind him. Tatum had to help and Derrick White was left with two players to guard on the strong side of the floor. One of those was Anunoby, who drained a corner 3-pointer to put the Knicks up two.
In overtime, after the Knicks had taken a three-point lead on the Anunoby and-1 transition dunk, he posted up Tatum. Brown didn’t double, but he also didn’t stay attached to Bridges in the strong-side corner. Brown got caught in no-man’s land when Anunoby made the kick-out pass …
That made those first six points of overtime were preventable … if Tatum didn’t let Anunoby run past him in transition and if Brown was guarding somebody on the following possession.
5. Stars sit for big defensive possessions
The Celtics had a chance to win this game at the end of regulation, and a chance to tie it at the end of overtime. Both times, the Knicks took Boston’s primary targets off the floor.
When they got a stop late in the fourth, the Celtics called a timeout with 28.1 seconds left. At that point, Brunson and Towns were replaced by Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson.
Horford set a screen for Tatum, Robinson switched it, and Tatum missed one of those stepback 3-pointers over the 7-footer.
So when they were down three at the end of overtime with a live-ball rebound and Brunson and Towns on the floor, the Celtics didn’t want to call a timeout. But they were a little scrambled and Brown didn’t get the ball against Towns until there were only six seconds left.
One other problem? The Knicks had a foul to give. Towns immediately grabbed Brown, allowing Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau to take his stars off the floor again. The Celtics then called a timeout, but Bridges blew up their out-of-bounds play by stealing the ball from Brown, sealing the win for the Knicks.
They’ll try to steal another one in Game 2 on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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