Home Basketball Jayson Tatum takes over as the Celtics pull away from the Knicks

Jayson Tatum takes over as the Celtics pull away from the Knicks

Basketball — 11/14/2023

Jayson Tatum is nearly impossible to stop once he gets going.

That was reinforced for the Knicks on Monday night at TD Garden.

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Tatum led the Celtics with 35 points, including 23 in the second half and 17 in the fourth quarter, as he continued his MVP-caliber start to the season. He was the difference as the Celtics, who had been in a dogfight with the Knicks for the majority of the night, pulled away for a 114-98 win.

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The Celtics won their third game in a row thanks to 22 points from Jaylen Brown and 21 points from Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics struggled to generate separation against Jalen Brunson and the tough Knicks, as they did in the season opening at Madison Square Garden, but they relied on one of their stronger defensive efforts of the season to turn the game around.

For the first three quarters, the Celtics and Knicks traded haymakers, neither giving up until the C’s eventually got some breathing room. The score was 72-72 with 3:05 left in the quarter when the Celtics went on a 12-4 run to end the quarter, which featured Jrue Holiday’s 3-pointer with nine seconds left to give the Celtics an eight-point advantage.

The Celtics struggled to limit the Knicks to one shot in the first half, but they increased their defensive pressure in the second half. Tatum then took over. He finished a four-point play to put the Celtics up eight points, then he sank back-to-back 3-pointers with 3:30 left to seal the victory.

Takeaways:

– The Celtics were a step behind the Knicks for a majority of the first half before they finally kicked it into gear over the final 75 seconds of the second quarter to give them some momentum. The C’s went on a 9-2 run to end the half, which began with a Porzingis hook shot before Derrick White blocked a shot from Jalen Brunson that led to a transition dunk for Tatum. Another stop then led to a breakaway layup for Payton Pritchard. After Brunson hit a tough shot with eight seconds to go, Brown made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut Boston’s deficit to one at halftime.

– Sam Hauser’s hot November continued as he went 4-for-6 from 3-point range, which included a big triple in their run to end the third quarter. He’s now shooting 25-for-44 (56.8 percent) from deep this month.

Hauser has continued to make an impact beyond hit shooting, too. He also pulled down five rebounds in 21 minutes, and held his own defensively – which has been an early theme this season as he’s become a reliable option off the bench.

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– Tatum’s post-up game continued to make a big impact for him. Three of his first six makes of the game were from the post, which included one play where he bullied Josh Hart and imposed his physicality on him to get an easy bucket.

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– In their first meeting of the season in the season opener, the Knicks dominated the offensive glass with 17 offensive boards that led to 20 second-chance points. That theme continued Monday as the visitors scored 10 early second-chance points to build a lead in the second quarter. But the C’s ultimately cleaned it up, allowing just 12 offensive boards for 14 second-chance points in the game.