When the teams play on Friday, the Boston Celtics will look to win three straight home games against the New York Knicks and maintain their undefeated record this season.
On October 25, Boston defeated New York 108-104 to start the season with a 34-point performance from Jayson Tatum. On November 13, he scored 35 more points as the Celtics defeated the visiting Knicks 114-98.
In Monday’s NBA in-season tournament quarterfinal matchup between Boston and the Indiana Pacers, Tatum finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds. Due to the loss, the Celtics would not be heading west to Las Vegas for the tournament semifinals; instead, they would be playing their next game at home.
Tatum declared, “I wanted to (expletive) go to Vegas.” “I was reluctant to return home. My desire was to visit Vegas. I suppose next year.”
The Celtics, who had been winning three straight games, lost their three-game run behind 30 points and nine rebounds from Jaylen Brown.
After missing the previous four games because of a mild strain in his left calf, Kristaps Porzingis anticipates being in the starting lineup on Friday.
“Of course, everybody was a little bit upset and mad at ourselves for not getting it done (against the Pacers),” said Porzingis. It stings, especially for me because I know the vision we had, to not be able to help out there. But that’s just the way it works like this. We’ll be back, as I mentioned.”
The Knicks were eliminated from the NBA in-season tournament on Tuesday, falling to the Milwaukee Bucks 146-122, just like the Celtics.
With three straight wins and ten of thirteen before that defeat, New York, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week, saw Julius Randle explode for a season-high 41 points.
Against Milwaukee, Randle made 11 of 12 attempts from the free-throw line and 14 of 19 shots from the field.
Regarding his improved play, Randle told Newsday, “I’m just getting to my kill zones.” “The spots that I’m comfortable getting to on the floor and creating a shot for myself, my teammates.”
But Tom Thibodeau, the coach of New York, had no intention of giving Randle a verbal bouquet. He needed to fry bigger fish.
“I’m more concerned with taking a good, hard look at what we have to improve defensively,” said Thibodeau. “Obviously, we fell very short in that area.”
After the Knicks gave up the Bucks to shoot a solid 60.4 percent from the field and 60.5 percent from three-point range, Jalen Brunson concurred.
“Throughout the game, we didn’t really do anything defensively. That is the narrative. That’s all,” stated Brunson. “We were playing well offensively, to be sure. We simply did nothing on that side of the ball in terms of defense. That concludes it.
With a team-best 24.9 point per game average, Brunson scored 24 points on Tuesday. In their most recent meeting, he scored a team-high 26 points against Boston.
Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett both scored 24 points in the team’s first-round loss to the Boston Celtics.
Leave a Reply