The Celtics were able to hold off the New York Knicks with a 114-98 win Monday night at TD Garden.
Jayson Tatum scored 17 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, to finish with 13-of-23 from the field, including going 5-of-12 from behind the arc after missing his first six 3-point attempts -- to go along with six rebounds and seven assists.
"I've played enough games, had enough tough shooting nights," Tatum said in his postgame comments, after hitting 6-of-8 shots in the final period. "All really, really good scorers know it just takes one to change your momentum, change how you feel about yourself shooting the ball. And once you see one go in, you just feel a lot better about yourself."
Jaylen Brown had 22 points, six assists, while Kristaps Porzingis added 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Jrue Holiday chipped in 14 to reach 15,000 career points and also collected seven rebounds to help secure the C's third straight win -- improving to an 8-2 record on the season.
Jalen Brunson scored 26 points and Julius Randle had 25 points and nine rebounds for New York, which was without RJ Barrett (migraine). Josh Hart started in Barett's place and notched 16 points, nine rebounds for the Knicks, who had won three in a row heading into Boston -- dropped to 5-5.
The Celtics used a 9-2 spurt, capped off by a Brown 3 at the buzzer to end the second quarter and erase an eight-point deficit to trail 53-52 at the half.
Boston pulled ahead 84-74 with 10.1 seconds left in the third period following a Holiday 3-pointer (to clinch his career milestone), but the Knicks kept it to single digits and got as close as three (91-88) on a Hart 24-footer with 8:20 remaining in the final frame.
Tatum's hit a step back 3 from 28 feet on the ensuing play to jump start a 17-4 run for the Celtics and never looked back -- going up by as many as 17 (largest margin of the night) in the final 1:15 to play.
"I missed so many wide-open 3s. I made the toughest one of the night, and I missed all the easy ones," Tatum said. "That kind of got me going. I'll take it."
Despite taking multiple double-digit leads, the Knicks, who have lost two to their longtime division rivals to start the season, kept coming right back and exchanging baskets throughout much of the night.
"I love games like this, because it's going to reveal who we are, what we've been doing and where we need to get better," Boston's coach Joe Mazzulla said. "You're not playing as well as you can be, and you're only down one. You've got to be thankful for that, because it could be a lot worse. And I thought our guys just stuck with it, with the right mindset."
The Celtics, who swept their three-game mini homestand to remain undefeated (5-0) at the Garden, will head back out to Philly once again in a rematch against the 76ers (8-2) on Wednesday. ESPN has the tip-off at 7:30 pm ET.
Game Notes:
Boston was 50.6% from the field, including 19-of-43 (44.2%) from 3-point territory, while the Knicks were 41.8% from the floor and 15-of-35 (42.9%) from long distance. The Celtics outscored New York in the paint 34-18 and both teams grabbed 37 boards respectively. The C's handed out 27 assists (11 turnovers) on 40 baskets and the visiting team had 17 dimes on 33 made shots.
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