Knicks stun Celtics
The Knicks upset the Celtics 112–106 in one of the evening’s notable results, a win that matters because it shakes East seeding conversations and shows the Knicks can close tight games against top teams. (Social game recap lists the Knicks’ 112–106 victory over the Celtics.) (x.com)
New York trailed by 2 entering the fourth quarter, then closed on a 31-23 final period to beat Boston 112-106 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, April 9. Josh Hart scored 15 of his 26 points in that last quarter, and Jalen Brunson added 25 points with 10 assists. (nba.com) (apnews.com) Boston came in at 54-25 and could have tightened its grip on the East’s No. 2 seed. Instead, the Celtics left at 54-26, while the Knicks improved to 52-28 and kept the gap close with only a few games left on the schedule. (espn.com) (apnews.com) That race matters because the top six teams skip the play-in tournament, but the top seeds are really fighting for home court. New York is now 28-9 at home, and Thursday’s win came in the same building where a second-round series could easily swing on one late-game run. (espn.com) (nba.com) The game also looked like a stress test for New York’s closing lineup. Hart shot 10-for-15 from the field, Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Brunson ran the offense well enough that the Knicks won the fourth quarter without needing a huge scoring explosion from one player. (espn.com) (nba.com) Boston still had the usual star power on the floor. Jayson Tatum finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds in his return to Madison Square Garden, and Jaylen Brown scored 22, but the Celtics shot 43.7 percent from the field and did not win the final six minutes. (espn.com) (apnews.com) This was not a one-off against Boston either. Before Thursday, the Knicks had already beaten the Celtics 111-89 on February 8, which gave New York a 2-1 edge in the season series entering this game. Thursday pushed that edge to 3-1. (sports.yahoo.com) (nba.com) That season-series detail matters in a tight standings race because the National Basketball Association uses head-to-head record as the first tiebreaker between two teams with the same record. If New York somehow catches Boston, these April wins are not decoration; they are paperwork. (nba.com) The bigger shift is psychological as much as mathematical. Boston has spent most of the year looking like the safer late-game team, but on Thursday it was New York that got the stops, owned the glass with a 49-48 rebounding edge, and made the cleaner push when the game got tight. (nba.com) (basketball-reference.com) So the result lands in two columns at once. It counted as win No. 52 for New York in the standings, and it also gave the Knicks one more piece of evidence that a Boston matchup no longer has to feel like a sentence. (espn.com) (nydailynews.com)
