If at first you don’t succeed, strive, strive, strive, strive, strive once more.
Earlier than tonight, by way of a scheduling quirk courtesy of the In-Season Event, the Celtics and Knicks had already confronted every 4 instances on this common season with Boston taking all 4. Add within the preseason schedule and Summer season League, it’s been seven head-to-heads since July. Outdoors of their Opening Evening thriller, Boston has dealt with their Atlantic Division rivals for essentially the most half, however that’s earlier than seeing OG Anunoby as a Knick and NY dropping Julius Randle for the yr.
In Recreation #5 of their common season collection, the Knicks lastly beat the Celtics 118-109 at TD Backyard.
New York leads the league in offensive rebounding, grabbing 12.6 an evening. On Thursday evening, they used that hustle to their benefit; the Knicks had a whopping 17 offense boards and outscored the Celtics 22-12 in second likelihood factors.
It was a little bit of an anomaly sport for the Celtics on the glass. Boston is a top-10 defensive rebounding staff (72.6% defensive rebounding price), however on an evening with nothing to achieve within the standings, boxing out was apparently elective for the general #1 seed.
Three-point capturing isn’t precisely a measure of effort. The Celtics lead the league with 42.6 threes tried per sport and no one would accuse the 62-18 Cs of low power or lack of need. Nonetheless, there may need been some settling over their final two video games with nothing to play for. On Tuesday evening, they chucked up 52 triples in Milwaukee, making simply 17. In opposition to the Knicks, the starters mixed for 5-for-24 by way of three quarters earlier than waving the white flag.
Jayson Tatum completed with 18 factors and 7 assists. Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis chipped in with 15 and 14 respectively. MVP candidate Jalen Brunson had 39 factors on 15-of-23 capturing for New York.
For these watching the standings, for the Celtics to satisfy the Knicks within the playoffs, it wouldn’t be till the second spherical or extra seemingly, the Jap Convention Finals. With the win, New York is sort of a lock to complete second or third within the East.
The Celtics play the backend of a back-to-back tomorrow evening in opposition to the visiting Charlotte Hornets at 4:30 pm EST. With the top-9 all enjoying tonight, count on lots of the starters to sit down out with solely the common season finale on Sunday vs. the Wizards left earlier than the playoffs subsequent weekend.
