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Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown lead Celtics to another double-digit win vs. Knicks: 7 takeaways
A late rally by the Knicks didn't stop the Celtics from cruising to victory in Boston on Sunday.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led a balanced scoring attack on Sunday, as the Celtics routed the Knicks 118-105.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Jayson Tatum is a big problem for the Knicks.
The Celtics are a matchup nightmare for the Knicks for a number of reasons, but the biggest nightmare is also the most obvious: Tatum is one of the NBA’s most well-rounded, dangerous superstars, and he is demolishing opponents right now.
The Knicks are far from the only team who struggle to defend Tatum, but their struggles might be the most pronounced. Unlike some teams, who have one player Tatum can target repeatedly, the Knicks have both Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, which gives Tatum a smorgasbord of offensive options.
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On Sunday, Tatum did a lot of his damage in the first quarter as the Celtics raced out to a big lead. He finished the first 12 minutes with 10 points and three assists, and the Celtics won the quarter 38-19 — setting the tone for the game.
Tatum finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds. He missed his second consecutive triple-double by just one assist after he opted to dribble out the clock in the final minute rather than stat-padding (even though Mikal Bridges was inexplicably firing away to try to trim the lead).
As long as the Celtics can run Tatum at mismatches, the Knicks are going to have a lot of problems, and as long as the Knicks really need to have one or both of Brunson and Towns on the floor, those mismatches are going to be there for him.
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“Finish your breakfast,” Brown bellowed at Tatum after he failed to finish off a one-handed slam in the first half, which felt appropriate — for Tatum, the Knicks’ defense is a meal.
2. Jaylen Brown got going late.
Brown, meanwhile, started the game slow. He couldn’t find the range in the first half, and when Tatum exited the game at first, his lineups struggled to keep the Knicks at arm’s length.
In the second half, however, Brown was essential as the Celtics pulled away again. He scored nine straight points for the Celtics in the fourth quarter, which essentially put the game away, including a pair of twisting layups through a thicket of defenders and a corner triple that pushed a 14-point lead to 17 and seemed to finally send a skidding Knicks team over the cliff.
Brown scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half and looked a lot more like himself in the final two frames.
“Obviously the game wasn’t going the way he wanted to, but I thought he did a tremendous job just fighting, playing through and it doesn’t always have to be defined by scoring,” Joe Mazzulla said. “His ability to really lock in defensively for us, he had a couple steals, he was in his shifts, got some deflections, got out in transition.
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“So I was just really happy with his mindset throughout the game of playing through those things, and that play was big because I thought it kind of started what he was able to do for us in the second half. He just has the ability to do so much for us without scoring, and he takes a lot of pride in that.”
Brown said he had trouble getting his body going.
“I didn’t feel my best today and stuff like that. I was balancing, juggling a lot but second half, I was able to make some plays, even when I wasn’t really feeling my best today. Just maneuvering through the journey is normal,” he said. “We’ve just got to be ready each and every night, and our guys played well.”
3. Derrick White came up big (again).
Brown might have delivered the knockout blow, but Derrick White may have hit the biggest shot of the game, an above-the-break triple after Towns cut the lead to four with a 3-pointer and pointed to the ground to show how deep he was behind the 3-point line. A minute later, with the Celtics’ lead still at a tenuous five, White drilled another one. Shortly afterward, he threw a perfect inbound lob to Kristaps Porzingis, which the Celtics’ big man punched down authoritatively.
White finished with 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting as he continued his leaps and bounds back from his shooting slump.
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“I think as you become a better player, which he’s done since he’s gotten here and with the success that he’s had, the expectations rise, and when the expectations rise, it’s easy for the joy to be robbed,” Mazzulla said. “And that’s just kind of the natural ebbs and flows of a career, and I think there are moments where you have to fight for that.
“So when he’s at his best, he plays carefree, he makes big shots like he did tonight, and he just defends at a super high level, but you have to go through those. I’m glad he went through it. It was important for his growth. It was important for us to see him struggle, because it shows how much we need him, and it was important for him to fight for that confidence, because he’s one of the best point guards in the league, and when he plays like that, we’re a different team.”
Tatum said it’s important for White to remember that stretch.
“Everybody felt for him — one, because he’s such a great person and obviously a great player, and what he means to our team,” Tatum said. “You see firsthand how hard guys have worked and how badly you want things to go the right way. It’s just not always the case — 82 games, you might go through a slump where you’re not shooting the ball well and things aren’t clicking the way you’d like or hope.
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“But it’s part of being a great player, it’s part of being a professional. Being consistent with the work that you put in and trusting and believing that it’s going to turn around.
“It’s not always perfect. You wish it was. But that’s our job as teammates is to keep him encouraged, keep his confidence high because we need him.”
4. The entire starting five scored double figures.
The Celtics got a little boost from everyone in their starting lineup. Tatum, Brown and White led the way with 25, 24 and 19 respectively, but Porzingis added 15, and Jrue Holiday scored 14 efficient points on 6-for-9 shooting.
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Tatum might be the biggest issue the Knicks face against the Celtics, but he’s far from the only one.
Porzingis was impressed by the starters’ work.
“I think that’s a credit to JT especially, because he’s getting a lot of attention,” Porzingis said. “He’s seeing all kinds of defense, blitzing, everything they’re throwing at him. Like, switching, blitzing, and he’s being selfless, he’s making the right play.
“And the same with JB. He’s also doing the same thing. He’s running out in transition when he can, but if not, he’s always willing to make the right play. Kick-outs to me, I just missed a few in the second half today, but I had, like, perfect looks.
“So I think it’s the selflessness of this team that’s really contagious, and when we play like this everybody’s scoring and everybody has really high energy on defense.”
5. A scary moment for the Knicks.
With nine minutes remaining, Towns went up to try to throw down a huge dunk, but he was contested by Porzingis and couldn’t put it down.
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Towns appeared fine at first, but as he started to jog back up the floor, he pulled up limping and he started to jog to the bench. As he got closer, he appeared to be in more and more pain, and by the time he reached the seats, he flopped to his side, holding onto his knee. He soon hobbled off to the locker room, then returned to the bench, still massaging his knee.
Then with 4:12 remaining (and, importantly, the Celtics up by 18), Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau put Towns back in the game. He limped up and down the floor over the next four minutes, picking up two more fouls and doing absolutely nothing to turn the game in the Knicks’ favor, which should come as little surprise given that he was visibly in pain.
Thibodeau has a reputation for being a little reckless with his players, even his stars. Sunday’s game won’t do anything to counter that reputation, even if Towns ends up being fine.
6. What did the Knicks’ rally mean?
After the Celtics went up by more than 20 in the first half and as many as 27 in the second, the Knicks, led by Brunson and Towns, came roaring back. They closed the gap as low as four before the Celtics reasserted control. They pushed their lead as high as 14 before Towns went out, and then they slammed the door in his absence (and locked it during his inexplicable return).
The Celtics were, of course, very respectful of their Atlantic Division rivals postgame.
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“They have really talented offensive players, but our versatility and the guys we have on the team can make it really difficult for them,” Porzingis said. “Obviously it’s a dangerous team anyway, but we respect them and we came out the right way in the first and we set the tone for the game.”
But the rally, frankly, didn’t feel like a serious threat, even when the Knicks pulled as close as four. The Knicks got hot and the Celtics got sloppy, a recipe for a rally.
The Celtics are 5-0 in their last five games against the Knicks, and all five victories have been by double digits. Sunday’s was tied for the closest margin of victory, and it was nursed back to respectability by Bridges in the closing seconds.
The Knicks, meanwhile, are yet to win a game against the Celtics, Cavaliers, or Thunder this season.
First place and fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings are now separated by 14 games. The Cavaliers lead the Celtics by 5.5 games, the Celtics lead the Knicks by four games, and the Knicks lead the Pacers by 5.5 games (the Pacers, incidentally, lead the Bucks by half a game).
Those standings would work out pretty neatly for the Celtics: Sticking the Cavaliers with either Giannis Antetokounmpo or the chaotic Pacers in the second round wouldn’t be a bad outcome, and — as Sunday’s game continued to prove — a second-round matchup against the Knicks wouldn’t exactly inspire a lot of fear.
7. A road back-to-back.
The Celtics will look to keep rolling with a pair of road games on Tuesday and Wednesday when they take on the Raptors and Pistons. On Friday, they return to TD Garden for a big showdown against the Cavaliers.
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