Celtics 110, Knicks 89: Scenes from God only knows

It’s common in college basketball for one team to simply out-class another, to be on another level. It’s rare in the NBA. If New York’s 110-89 loss to the Boston Celtics tonight contained nothing of value for Knick fans, the utter lack of competitive quality was nearly novel. Boston was quicker up and down the floor, quicker jumping off the floor, quicker thinking. It was like a game of chess where one player only had pawns and knights and the other was all bishops and rooks. It was like this:

The Celtics were up double-digits in the opening quarter and 21 at the half. The O’Jays (Jaylen and Jayson) were balling.

Tatum was laying the smacketh downeth.

Meanwhile, Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. missed 16 of their first 17 shots. Willy Hernangomez saw some minutes, finally, though long after Jarrett Jack did. Damyean Dotson didn’t play in a wire-to-wire blowout till it was 44 minutes over, ‘cuz that’s cool. On multiple occasions, Knick wings forgot how wide the court is and caught passes while standing out of bounds. MSG Network was reduced to having Rebecca Haarlow asking Frank Ntilikina about his NYC billboard, which was a weird look with his team down 20 and his summer league, preseason and regular season games played tally still stuck on the loneliest number. Frank did provide the only potentially positive moment of the night.

In their last loss to Detroit, the Knicks had no answer for the Pistons’ pick-and-roll. The Schrodinger’s Box of tanking NBA teams means at a given moment in time, the Knicks are simultaneously unable to stop the pick-and-roll or run it.

Then it got worse, ‘cuz Knicks.

Recap on its way. Take a look at the sky tonight, starchildren. Remember your roots.