BOSTON — If objects in the rear-view mirror are closer than they appear, it’s time for the Celtics to start watching their back.
Because the Knicks just stole Game 1 from underneath their feet. And now, what was supposed to be a dead series is very much alive.
And if you rinse the first three regular-season games from the record — or at least from memory — you have two overtime decisions: one that went the Celtics’ way with four games left in the regular season schedule, then Monday night’s result to open the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The game was nearly over when the Celtics built a 20-point lead in the third quarter. The Knicks responded with a 28-9 run to bring things close enough for Captain Clutch to seal the deal.
Jalen Brunson scored 29 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter alone, and OG Anunoby answered the bell with 29 points and six 3s of his own. The Knicks, who walked into their second-round series as overwhelming underdogs to unseat the reigning champs, just got their first win over the Celtics — and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Because on paper, the Knicks and Celtics stack up alongside one another. The Celtics are reigning champs built on a pair of All-Star wings. The Knicks hope to unseat them their own All-Star duo. The Celtics get stops with a pair of all-world defenders. The Knicks have two of the best 3-and-D wings in all of basketball.
But that is where the similarities end, and where the hesitance to believe the Knicks have a chance at the reigning champs seeps in deep. The Celtics, of course, have been there and done that. They have more reliable, tested depth than the Knicks. Plus they have the best player in the series. Or at least that was the prevailing thought. Jayson Tatum is the reigning NBA Finals MVP. It’s supposed to be his world, with the Knicks merely living in it.
Until he met Anunoby, who held the reigning Finals MVP to 23 points on 7-of-23 shooting from the field. Jaylen Brown also shot 7-of-20 from the field for 23 points of his own.
The Knicks held the Celtics to just 15-of-60 shooting from three-point range, a stark deviation from a regular-season trend that saw the Celtics pelt New York from downtown.
A key difference? Kristaps Porzingis left the game in the second quarter with an illness, and Boston sharpshooter Sam Hauser was assisted off the court in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the Knicks shot 17-of-37 from downtown and weathered a 3-of-13 shooting night from Mikal Bridges. Bridges couldn’t find the bottom of the net, but he came up with a steal on Boston’s game-sealing possession, then heaved the ball into the air as time expired.
And for a long stretch of Monday’s matchup between the two teams, the script looked familiar. The Celtics built a lead as large as 20 and were poised to run away with the series opener, and a blowout at home would have set the tone for more lopsided victories, just like the regular season.
The Knicks may have laid down and accept their fate during the regular season. With the stakes raised, New York punched back.
The Knicks ran off a furious 28-9 fourth-quarter run, much like the 21-0 fourth-quarter run they used to come from behind in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons. In a tight game, Jalen Brunson, the NBA’s reigning Clutch Player of the Year, came up massive, scoring 11 points in the final eight minutes of regulation.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not when the Knicks went 0-4 against the Celtics, 0-4 against the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, and 0-2 against the West’s best Oklahoma City Thunder during the regular season.
And after struggling through a first-round series against the Detroit Pistons — a team that nearly stole the first round had a few missed calls gone their way — the Knicks nearly picked up where they left off in the regular season on Monday.
But they didn’t. They didn’t succumb to the Celtics’ Hack-a-Mitchell Robinson tactic. They didn’t lose composure when Karl-Anthony Towns got in early foul trouble and found a way to win despite Towns finishing with just 14 points and 13 rebound on 6-of-13 shooting from the field.
The Knicks did what they did in the first round against the Pistons — they dug deep. They fought hard. Then they leaned on the captain to push them over the top.
And that’s where the Knicks are right now. On top in the series, ahead of a team that once saw them far, far away in their rear-view mirror. All they needed was proof of concept, that they had the pieces in the locker room to beat the reigning champs.
Concept proven. Win secured. Three more for the upset of a century.