Celtics 133, Knicks 118: “The Celtics will never miss a 3, jeezus”

The Celtics (6-3) defeated the Knicks (4-5) at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night 133-118 as New York loses their fourth game in the last five.

Boston was led by an incredible shooting effort from three as the visitors set a franchise record with 27 made threes and shot 52.9 percent from deep for the game. As P&T’er Jaybugkit noted, they weren’t missing. Jaylen Brown had 30 points to lead all scorers and made six threes, as did Jayson Tatum, who finished with 26 points in the win. The Celtics had five players in double figures.

The bench for the Celtics made an impact as well. Sam Hauser, Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams combined for 43 points and nine three-point makes as reserves.

New York struggled to guard the three-point line all night as many of the Celtics looks were uncontested, but take nothing away from Boston as their ball movement was superb throughout the contest. The C’s had 30 assists on 47 made field goals.

The Knicks were led by 29 points and nine rebounds from Julius Randle, and it was good to see RJ Barrett play at a high level with 27 points on just 15 shots. However, he did miss some looks in close that could’ve changed the game.

Jalen Brunson started the game out slowly on the offensive end and didn’t score until the second quarter of the game. However, he finished with 22 points and 10 assists in defeat.

Mitchell Robinson missed the game with a sprained right knee and will be re-evaluated in about a week. In his absence, Isaiah Hartenstein shined as a starter with energy and intensity on both ends of the floor. He finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds and showed plenty of positives as part of the starting five. Derrick Rose added 10 points off the bench, but no one else off the pine finished in double figures.

In the end, New York did many things well in this game. They had to comeback from a double-digit deficit in the first half and they did. The Knicks made 15-16 shots from the free throw line, had five players in double figures and shot 51% from the field as a team. However, the defensive side of the game was lackluster, and it was really poor when guarding the three-point shot. In the end, it cost them the game.

Both teams were coming off a back-to-back, but the Celtics lasted the longest and outscored the Knicks by 10 in the fourth quarter and by 14 in the second half.

The Celtics were just the better team on the night. It continues a bit of theme of late as teams like Atlanta, Cleveland, Milwaukee and now Boston seem to be a cut above the Knicks. The NBA’s eastern conference has tiers, and New York is just not on the same level with the other playoff contenders at the moment.

The Knicks won’t see the Celtics again until January, but the schedule doesn’t ease up on New York. On Monday, the Knicks head to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. Tip off from the Target Center is scheduled for 9:15 PM eastern. We will have all of the coverage of the game right here on the site. Talk to you then!