Boston Celtics

Knicks, 101-77

By Gary Dzen

1 minute to read

The Celtics (4-8) fell to the Knicks (5-9) 101-77 tonight at the Garden. Boston dropped its second straight game and was unable to get its first three-game home winning streak of the season.

The third quarter was Boston’s undoing against the Knicks. The Celtics scored just 14 points in the period and trailed by 20 heading into the fourth. Boston’s second unit of Rajon Rondo, Leon Powe, Tony Allen, Gerald Green, and Brian Scalabrine could not help the Celtics climb out of that hole.

Paul Pierce had just 12 points for the Celtics. Steve Francis led the Knicks with 22 points.

  • Tonight’s official attendance: 18,624 (a sellout). Number of fans present when the game clock hit zero: substantially fewer than that. My best estimate is about a third of the original crowd.
  • A group of Celtics fans began chanting “Fire Doc” as the fourth quarter wound down. The chant was loud enough for several players on the Celtics bench to hear. Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak looked back at the fans.
  • A conversation between two Celtics fans in the men’s restroom (with 8:30 left in the fourth quarter) summed up how Celtics fans felt about their night at the Garden and the performance of their team:

    Fan No. 1: “We should have won that game.”
    Fan No. 2: “What, this one?”

    Check back here in a bit for postgame comments from the Celtics locker room.

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