New York was down by 20 halfway through the third quarter, but it made things more interesting after that. After going on a 9-0 run — featuring two OG Anunoby 3s — the Knicks were down 75-64 with 3:39 left in the third quarter. I wouldn’t say this put them in a great place, but it at least put them in striking distance.
After that Jayson Tatum made back-to-back 3s, but the Knicks kept coming. After Sam Hauser fouled Anunoby on a 3-point attempt (and Anunoby made two of the three ensuing free throws), New York was down 81-75. Now that would have been an awesome place to be, especially given how unimpressive the Knicks were for the first two-and-a-half quarters.
Hauser appeared to hurt himself on that play. He went to the locker room afterward.
Al Horford, however, knocked down a big 3 to extend the Celtics’ lead to eight points heading into the fourth.
Anunoby scored 12 points in the third quarter and has 18 in the game.
Boston shot 7 for 19 (36.8%) from deep in the third quarter. That’s not great, but it’s progress — they shot 5 for 23 from 3-point range in the first half.
The Celtics’ Al Horford started the second half in place of Kristaps Porzingis. According to the team, Porzingis is questionable to return due to a non-Covid illness.
Porzingis played 13 minutes in the first half, but checked out with 7:34 left in the second quarter and hasn’t returned.
If he’s done for the night, he’ll finish with zero points, four rebounds, one assist and one turnover. He missed all four shots he attempted, and he didn’t get up any 3s.
This lineup change has not slowed Boston down. The Celtics are up 72-52 with 6:18 left in the third quarter.
About five minutes into the second half, Karl-Anthony Towns picked up his fourth foul when he charged into Jrue Holiday. On the next possession, Derrick White blocked Towns at the rim, which led to a transition dunk for Al Horford. New York immediately called timeout.
This is getting out of hand.
Heading into the third quarter, Boston appears pretty comfortable offensively. The Knicks have some excellent perimeter defenders, but they also have weak spots, so they don’t present the Celtics the same sort of problems that the Orlando Magic did in the first round.
In the last four minutes and 10 seconds of the first half, Boston went on a 13-3 run. It led by just a single point at the end of the first quarter, but outscored New York 35-20 in the second.
Jaylen Brown scored 13 of his 14 points in the second quarter. He’s shooting 5 for 11, but has missed all four of his 3-point attempts.
Jayson Tatum scored all 13 of his points in the first quarter and is shooting 4 for 10 (and 2 for 6 from deep). Tatum also has seven rebounds.
Payton Pritchard, the Sixth Man of the Year, scored 13 points (3-5 FG, 2-4 FT, 5-5 FT) in 15 minutes. Kristaps Porzingis, however, continues to struggle offensively — in 13 minutes, he is scoreless on four shot attempts and has not attempted a single 3-pointer or free throw.
Karl-Anthony Towns has a team-high 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting for the Knicks, but he has only played nine minutes because he picked up three quick fouls. Mitchell Robinson played 12 minutes off the bench before Tom Thibodeau got tired of watching him miss free throws and subbed Precious Achiuwa in for him. (Boston was intentionally fouling Robinson.)
Jalen Brunson has scored nine points on 3-for-9 shooting, with three assists and two turnovers. Boston fouled him on a 3-pointer, but otherwise did not send him to the free throw line.
Boston is shooting just 5 for 23 (21.7%) from 3-point range, but it has taken care of the ball, found extra possessions and gotten to the free throw line.
The Celtics went on a 15-5 run in the second quarter in part because they were intentionally fouling Mitchell Robinson. The Knicks big man has missed six of the eight free throws he has attempted in Game 1.
After his last trip to the line, Robinson himself took a foul so he could get out of the game. With Towns in foul trouble, New York put Precious Achiuwa in at center. Achiuwa did not play at all in the Knicks’ first-round series against the Pistons.
With 3:27 left in the first half, Boston is up 50-42.
It hasn’t been a great quarter for New York, but, hey, at least Josh Hart is hitting the offensive glass:
The Celtics have been the superior rebounding team tonight, but that was a big (extended) possession for the Knicks.
With 9:46 left in the first half, Karl-Anthony Towns went back to the bench. The Celtics are targeting him in the pick-and-roll like they always do, and he has picked up three fouls in nine minutes.
Before he checked out, he got a couple of buckets against the smaller Jaylen Brown. Here’s the first:
And here’s the second:
Mitchell Robinson is now manning the middle for New York. He’s a better defender than Towns, but Boston has successfully attacked him in pick-and-rolls too. After Towns checked out, Payton Pritchard created a clean pull-up 3 this way:
And Pritchard got an easy layup this way:
With 7:23 left in the first half, the Celtics are up 40-38. Both teams are shooting an identical 5 for 7 from the field in the second quarter.
Jayson Tatum spent much of the first quarter going at Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson and Mitchell Robinson in the pick-and-roll. He has 13 points on 4-for-9 shooting, and all of his buckets came in a four-minute span.
Tatum, by the way, entered the game with 2,836 career playoff points, good for sixth all-time on Boston’s all-time playoff scoring list. He’s now fifth on that list, having passed Paul Pierce, who scored 2,843 points in the playoffs while wearing a Celtics uniform.
Another Celtic making things happen: Backup big man Luke Kornet. As soon as he checked in, Kornet threw down a nasty putback dunk.
After that, Kornet blocked OG Anunoby at the rim.
Kornet picked up three fouls in his three first-quarter minutes. Two of them seemed to be intentional and resulted in Robinson going to the free throw line, where the Knicks big man has missed three of his four attempts so far.
This is a feel-out game. New York committed four turnovers in the opening quarter, and Boston committed five. (Each team committed three live-ball turnovers.) The Celtics are winning the rebounding battle, but they’re shooting just 4 for 14 from deep.
A nice development for the Knicks: After a rough first-round series against Detroit, Deuce McBride made two 3s as soon as he checked in.
With about seven minutes left in the first quarter, Jayson Tatum got Karl-Anthony Towns in the air with a pump fake, then drew a foul on a 3-point attempt.
Fouling a 3-point shooter is never good. This possession, though, was extra bad for New York because it was Towns’ second foul of the game. At the time, Josh Hart was already on the bench with two fouls.
Knicks coach Tom Thidoeau does not lean heavily on his bench. Early on in this one, though, Mitchell Robinson is in for Towns and Deuce McBride is in for Hart.
With 6:29 left in the first quarter, the Celtics are up 14-11 and Tatum is on a personal 8-0 run.
Also, here’s an update on the Hart vs. Porzingis situation:
Not ideal!
As expected, the Celtics have started the series with Kristaps Porzingis guarding Josh Hart and Jayson Tatum guarding Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks have to figure out how to counter that. Is it by using Hart as a screener? Posting up Towns against Tatum?
Here’s one small victory for New York: Early in Game 1, Hart put the ball on the floor against Porzingis, faked him out of his shoes and then made a reverse layup.
With 8:27 left in the first quarter, the Knicks are up 8-7.
