BOSTON, It was loud, it was wild, and it felt like Boston had it in the bag. But the Knicks had other plans.
Down by 20 points in the third quarter, the New York Knicks clawed their way back and stunned the Boston Celtics with a 108-105 win in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
And it all came down to hustle, heart, and a few clutch shots.
The Celtics started hot. Jayson Tatum looked locked in, scoring 13 of the Celtics’ 26 points. Easily. Points in the first quarter. Boston ran the floor well, played smart, and took a comfortable 72-52 lead midway through the third.
At that point, it looked like it was over. But the Knicks didn’t back down.
OG Anunoby caught fire, hitting back-to-back threes. Jalen Brunson finally found space to operate, scoring 8 quick points near the end of the third. The Knicks closed the quarter on a 23-12 run, suddenly cutting the lead to single digits.
In the fourth, New York kept pushing. Anunoby hit another three. Brunson knocked down two big shots from deep, giving the Knicks a lead for the first time since the first quarter.
Boston responded, Derrick White hit a clutch three, and Jrue Holiday tied it at 100 with a strong layup. Both teams missed chances to win it in regulation. So, we went into overtime.
In OT, it was all grit. Anunoby added another bucket. The Knicks held their ground. And in the final seconds, Mikal Bridges made the play of the night, stealing the ball from Jaylen Brown to seal the deal.
Brunson also scored 29 and took over when it mattered
The Celtics shot just 35.1% from the field and a wild 15-of-60 from three. That kind of shooting gave New York the opening it needed.
Kristaps Porziņģis, who’s been key for Boston, played just 13 minutes. He was dealing with an illness and never came back after the first half. That hurt the Celtics, especially inside.
Still, head coach Joe Mazzulla wasn’t making excuses.
“I haven’t seen him yet,” Mazzulla told reporters. “We’ll check on him. But obviously, it impacts the game with his ability on both ends of the floor, and it obviously changes sub patterns or changes the things that you’re able to do matchup-wise and play call frequency-wise. So yeah, I think we felt it, but it’s no excuse. We had plenty of opportunities to do it, and hopefully he’s ready for Game 2.”
Game 2 is coming up soon, and the pressure is now on Boston. New York not only won, but they also took away the Celtics’ home-court advantage.
