The Celtics keep rolling, as they beat the New York Knicks 116-102 at Madison Square Garden Saturday night to win their eighth straight.
Jaylen Brown finished with 30 points on 13-of-24 from the field and eight rebounds, while Kristaps Porzingis added 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting to help the C's improve to a league-best 45-12 record.
Jayson Tatum only took 15 attempts and made seven of them to register 19 points, six assists and Derrick White chipped in 13 points and also handed out six dimes in the four-game season sweep of the Knicks.
"I thought today was a beautiful display of basketball from Jayson," Mazzula said of Tatum. "It won't go into the most valuable category, but his ability to control the game with his pick-and-roll pace, his pick-and-roll passing, his defense. He put himself on [Jalen] Brunson, welcoming 2-on-1s and creating for others was great. My hats off to him for knowing that's a way for us to win."
All-Star Jalen Brunson had a game-high 34 points on 12-of-25 from the floor, and nine assists while Josh Hart recorded 16 points, eight rebounds, and six assists for the Knicks -- who dropped to 34-23.
Boston had a 62-58 advantage coming out of halftime before using a 30-11 run in the third quarter and never looked back after the Knicks only trailed 67-66 with 9:00 left in the period.
Tatum and Porzingis buried five of the team's eight 3-pointers to push the lead to as many as 20 in that span, which drew loud "Let's go Celtics" chants from visiting fans -- followed by boos from the Knicks faithful.
"I prefer any kind of emotion over no emotion," Porzingis told reporters, as he was booed by Knicks fans during player intros. "If it's cheers or boos, I want them, tonight was no different. Big game, [national] TV game, fans were into it and we just took care of business."
New York went on a 13-2 spurt starting at the 1:22 mark of the third quarter that bled into the final frame and got within nine (99-90) -- but that would be the closest they'd get the rest of the way.
The Celtics return home to face the Philadelphia 76ers (33-24) on Tuesday night at TD Garden. TNT has the top-off at 7:30 pm ET.
Game Notes:
Boston hit 56.8% from the field, including 15-of-35 (42.9%) from 3-point range, while the Knicks were 45.1% from the floor and 13-of-38 (34.2%) from deep. The Celtics were out-rebounded 39-36 but did outscore the home team 58-38 in the paint. The C's handed out 27 assists (seven turnovers) on 46 baskets to New York's 21 dimes (14 turnovers) on 37 made shots.
No comments:
Post a Comment