BOSTON — Midway through the third period Monday night, just about everything was going wrong for the New York Knicks in their series opener against the defending-champion Celtics.
Star center Karl-Anthony Towns was in dire foul trouble. The Knicks were getting bludgeoned by Boston on the offensive glass. And shots weren’t falling from anywhere for them; even at the free-throw line, the club was a hair under the 50% mark by that point.
But when the Knicks called timeout down by 20 after an Al Horford transition dunk, they managed to stay composed, even through their frustration.
“We told each other to just keep believing; keep firing. Keep sticking together and chipping away,” star guard Jalen Brunson said. “There wasn’t going to be a 20-point shot, so we had to keep chipping away possession by possession.”
The result: The Knicks stormed all the way back and stunned the Celtics and their fans at TD Garden by forcing overtime before winning Game 1 of the conference semifinals, 108-105.
The Celtics were wildly uneven in their defeat, launching an NBA-playoff record 60 3s and missing a postseason-record 45 of those tries. Jayson Tatum — who finished just 7-for-23 overall and 4-of-15 from outside — repeatedly settled from outside instead of playing aggressively to get to the basket, even as the Knicks were saddled with foul trouble and thin in the frontcourt.
In fact, at one point New York was forced to go to its third-string center, Precious Achiuwa (who hadn’t played all playoffs), because Towns had four fouls. Mitchell Robinson, New York’s second-string center, was played off the floor after the Celtics repeatedly fouled him and sent him to the line, where he shot for 2-for-8 in the contest.
Still, Boston sought to connect from three. It marked a shift from their first-round series, where Orlando’s aggressive defense played the Celtics off the three-point stripe.
As Boston went cold, the Knicks started their comeback midway through the third, and had the deficit down to nine by the start of the fourth.
OG Anunoby was stellar, hitting six triples and logging the highest scoring game of his playoff career with 29 points. He had a dunk to tie the score at 86 with five minutes to play in the fourth.
And shortly after, Brunson — continuing his clutch play after hitting the game-winner to seal the team’s first-round series victory over Detroit — hit a pair of triples to give the Knicks their first lead since the second period. He also finished with 29 points on the night.
Boston’s Derrick White and Jrue Holiday hit key buckets down the stretch to help the Celtics force overtime. But Anunoby, Towns and Mikal Bridges had scores in the extra session for the Knicks before Bridges stole the ball from Brown on the final sequence with Boston trying to tie the game.
It would’ve been an improbable outcome for any team; let alone one that got swept — including three losses in blowout fashion — during their four-game regular season meetings. It was a theme of sorts for the Knicks, who went 0-8 against the top two seeds in the East, making them the first No. 3 seed to go winless during a regular season against the two clubs ahead of them.
“We’re just gonna keep fighting until the clock hits zero. We’ve been showing that,” Bridges said of the effort.