Celtics Blow Another Lead, Fall to Knicks 131-129 in 2 OT

Here’s a full snapshot of everything you need to know about the Celtics 131-129 double OT loss to the New York Knicks.

The Breakdown

It wasn’t a collapse on the scale of Friday’s 28 point blown lead to the Nets but for the second straight game the Celtics had a chance to put a team away and failed, losing a double overtime thriller to the Knicks 131-129 at TD Garden.

The Celtics led by as many as 14 points midway through the 3rd but again took their foot off the gas and found themselves down 11 in the span of just over 9 minutes. Boston did roar back from down 7  with 1:25 to tie the game thanks to a couple clutch threes from Al Horford and a tough and one from Jaylen Brown.

Boston had a chance to win it on the last possession of overtime but had a difficult time getting into their actions and Jayson Tatum missed a somewhat rushed would be game winning attempt at the rim. Down three in double overtime the Celtics similarly struggled to get a play started forcing head coach Joe Mazzulla to call a desperation timeout. The Celtics still got a good look at what would have been a game winning corner 3 from Al Horford which rimmed out.

The loss dropped the Celtics to a game and half behind the Milwaukee Bucks – who won earlier in the day – for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. For the Knicks, this was their 9th straight win and second over Boston in the span of a few days. New York know sits 5th in the conference, one game behind Cleveland for 4th.

 

Studs and Duds

Studs:

Al Horford: Old man Al keeps turning back the clock and has really found his stroke from deep of late. Horford dropped 20 points, shooting 6-of-10 from deep. Two of those 3s came late in the 4th and helped get the Celtics to overtime. Horford has now scored 20 or more two of the last three games after having only down it twice prior all season.

Jaylen Brown: Jayson Tatum dropped a 40 burger but needed 30 shots (17 from deep) to do it and was just all around inefficient most of the night so he does NOT make this space. Brown does. JB made big plays when they mattered most including the clutch game tying bucket and foul in regulation and subsequent steal to send the game to overtime. Brown finished with 29 points on 12-25 shooting with 4 steals and a block.

Immanuel Quickley: Quickley did as much dancing as he did scoring on this night, and he did plenty of both. Subbing for the injured Jalen Brunson, Quickley put on a show. He poured in a career high 38 points to go with 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. Thought he started, Quickley’s performance Sunday may have just vaulted him past the injured Malcolm Brogdon in the 6th man of the year race. 

Duds:

Marcus Smart: Smart made his fair share of winning plays late but not enough to erase the stink of an otherwise very uneven performance. Smart was the worst version of himself for most of the game, turning the ball over and jacking 3s. Smart had 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, 3-of-11 from 3, with six turnovers and only 4 assists before fouling out in the second OT.

Grant Williams: After a recent DNP and another game where he logged only 6 minutes, Williams was thrust into action on Sunday, largely due to Rob Williams injury. Williams did not make the most of those minutes. He did play some decent defense on Julius Randle but got cooked repeatedly by Quickley who was hunting him on switches late in the game. Grant also committed 5 fouls and again really struggled to find his offense finishing with 9 points on 2-of-7 shooting, 1-of-5 from 3.

Joe Mazzulla: Say what you will about Joe Mazzulla, the rookie coach sticks to his guns. Mazzulla who hoards timeouts like rations on the “Last of Us” refused to call a timeout late in overtime and double OT to set up a play. Boston had a chance to win in overtime but Jaylen Brown held the ball too long before shoveling it off to Tatum to take the final shot. And then in OT where the Celtics needed a bucket to tie, Mazzulla did call a timeout but not until the Celtics cluelessly frittered away most of the clock. Mazzulla also continues to struggle with rotations. He put Derrick White on ice in crunch time and only subbed him back in after Smart fouled out. He couldn’t find anything useful to do with Mike Muscala, instead opting for 44 minutes of mostly inefficient Grant Willams. Payton Pritchard also never saw the court despite Brogdon being out. There is also clearly a disconnect between Mazzulla’s desire to have his team launch more 3s (59 on Sunday) and the way the players seem to want to play.

Turning Point

There were plenty of instances late in both overtimes where the Celtics had a chance to put the game away but the turning point has to be the aforementioned blown lead. Up 14 in the third with a chance to put the hammer down and the Celtics once again failed to respect their opponent and let the Knicks not only claw back but sprint by them for an 11 point lead. Boston did well to even get the game to overtime but the battle could have been won much earlier. Instead it was lost altogether.

That’s what he/she said: Quote of the game…

Al Horford acknowledged that the reason for the loss was that the Celtics were “not locking in.” When pressed by the reporter as to why the Celtics can look like world beaters one night and on others like they completely forgot how to play basketball Horford hesitated before responding.

“That’s a very fair analysis, and it is true. I don’t have that answer,” Horford said. “It is frustrating – how you look so good on one end, and then on the other end, a complete opposite type of thing … all year, we’ve had a good mindset of good or bad, continuing to play through things, and for whatever reason, these past few games, we haven’t been like that, and it’s literally the last two games. Before that, I felt like we were on a good pace. So this is something that we need to be conscious of and need to be better and try to eliminate those bad runs. That’s the biggest thing.”