The sequel.
It could not have ended any other way other than defensive stalwarts Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby stifling Jayson Tatum on the baseline Wednesday night.
“Great feeling,” Bridges said late Wednesday.
He and Anunoby were the face of the New York Knicks’ struggles against the defending champion Boston Celtics in the regular season, dropping all four games. But in the final seconds of Game 2, Anunoby and Bridges forced Tatum into a turnover to seal another inconceivable win, 91-90.
It is completely understandable to think that that kind of magical moment would spark wild celebrations in the Knicks locker room. They had come back from 20-point deficits in back-to-back road playoff games against the reining champs.
But there was no party to be had in the visitor’s locker room at TD Garden on Wednesday. Instead, the Knicks treated it like a business trip in which they got the deal done and sounded like a team that knew they should and needed to play better to finish off the defending champs.
“We’ve got to watch the film, see where we can get better,” Anunoby said. “…. I don’t think we’ve played as well as we can.”
Josh Hart echoed those sentiments.
“We have to continue to build. We have to continue to put together a full game. I think that’s something that we haven’t done during the course of these playoffs,” he said after scoring a game-high 23 points. “We get leads. We surrender leads. We come back from big leads. We’ve got to figure out (how to put together) a complete game.”
The Knicks will have the opportunity to do just that on Saturday at home at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, at 3:30 ET.
Embed from Getty ImagesCeltics Kristaps Porzingis did not start after sitting out the second half of Game 1 with an illness. He came off the bench for just the fifth time in his NBA career and finished with eight points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.
All eyes were on the Celtics’ offense after they missed an NBA playoff-record 45 3-pointers in their Game 1 loss on Monday. They went 24 for 54 from inside the arc on Wednesday.
Despite their shooting woes, the Celtics found their shooting stroke late in the third quarter, using a 16-6 run, keyed by their effort on the defensive end, to turn a 10-point lead into a 73-53 advantage late in the period.
It was 84-68 after Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer with just under nine minutes to play but then the Celtics unraveled and would not make another basket until Tatum’s driving dunk with 18.5 seconds left.
“I’m scared to see when we put it together on defense and let that push the offense and get dangerous,” PJ Tucker said.
Even though they are the lower seed at three, the odds are stacked heavily in New York’s favor at this juncture. Ninety-three percent of the 463 teams who had 2-0 series leads in the NBA playoffs went on to win that series.
They did not get to this position without another remarkable performance from Bridges.
For the second straight game, he shook off a poor shooting night to play a crucial role in the Knicks’ comeback. Bridges missed his first eight shots in Game 2 but then hit six of 10 in the fourth quarter. His 14 points in the final frame helped spark the Knicks comeback.
What kept Bridges focused during the first three quarters when his shot was not falling?
“Just everything with my teammates, man… It’s really, truly been them just holding me together and keeping me mentally right and just telling me to keep going,” said Bridges, who hit a huge three-pointer late in Game 1 after missing 10 of his first 12 shots.” And I think coach also is just trusting me — coming out in the fourth, running a play for me, putting that confidence in me. But man, it’s really my teammates and my coaches, man. They really held me up.”
Bridges and Anunoby forced Tatum into the game-sealing turnover on Wednesday. But the play does not come to fruition without fantastic defense from big man Mitchell Robinson.
Robinson stayed in front of Tatum and slid his feet while guarding him one-on-one off of a switch. He forced Tatum to his right and Anunoby and Bridges took over from there.
Just like the Knicks wings, this was a fitting ending to a great night for Robinson. The team’s longest tenured player finished with eight rebounds and three steals in Game 2, wrecking the game again and again for the Celtics. Boston coach Joe Mazzulla was intentionally fouling Robinson repeatedly to try to get him off the floor.
“That makes me feel like a threat,” Robinson said afterward.
The Knicks could have traded for a veteran center at the 2024 deadline. Robinson was still rehabbing from offseason foot surgery at the time. But they chose to stick with Robinson, betting that the homegrown center could make it all the way back from his injury.
It was a risky bet, but it’s certainly paid off.
“Mitch was all over the floor,” Tom Thibodeau said after the win. “Guarding, switching – just a great impact.”
