Celtics 132, Knicks 109: Scenes from an opening night Boston beatdown

The 81-game win streak starts on Friday.

It’s been 155 days since the New York Knicks ran out of gas in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and things look a bit different since then. Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and Isaiah Hartenstein are out of town. Mikal Bridges and Karl Anthony Towns have slotted into the starting lineup in their place.

The expectation is that the Knicks can compete for a championship this year, and after a tumultuous offseason, fans were eager to see how the roster changes translated onto the court.

The talent is there on paper, but the preseason was a mixed bag, as some pieces struggled to gel. Roles were being questioned. So was roster depth.

There’s only one way to settle this. How about the reigning champion Boston Celtics on banner night as a measuring rod?

First Half

The first couple minutes of the game started off innocently enough.

OG got to the rim early. Brunson got to the rim a couple of times. And then – the Celtics started hitting threes.

The C’s knocked down seven from long range before the Knicks hit one. They hit ten in the first frame, and when all was said and done, they finished the first half with seventeen triples. Tatum had 25 points in the first half, and the Knicks’ defense looked… atrocious. They couldn’t rebound. They weren’t rotating. They were a step slow the entire way through. The Celtics were getting wide-open threes, and it felt like they were nailing every single one of them.

The Celtics ended the first half with 74 points.

On the offensive end of things, things weren’t actually that bad. The Knicks shot above 50% from the field. Brunson shot 6/6 from the field for 15 points. Miles McBride offered a strong offensive punch off the bench, too.

But all you need to know about the opening half is that the Knicks could not get a defensive stop to save their lives. The Knicks were getting buckets on one end of the floor, but it’s impossible to keep up with a team shooting that well from downtown. And they had no one to blame but themselves.

These were not the Knicks of old.

At the half: Celtics 74, Knicks 55.

Second Half

Remember everything I said about the first half? The whole ‘Celtics can’t miss from three’ thing?

Yeah.

That.

First, some good, good news to cleanse your palate: the Knicks were still getting to the rim at will. Obviously, trading twos for threes won’t win you games, but the offense was… actually operating pretty well. It’s a shame they were down 20 the entire game, but Brunson looked good with more room to operate. After a tough first half, Mikal Bridges finally got things going a bit.

Unfortunately for us, the Celtics’ halftime shootaround continued well into the third quarter. The Celtics added nine threes in the frame. The NBA record of 29 threes in a game was being seriously threatened. Boston were up to 26 with a frame to go.

Tatum had 37 on 8-11 from three heading into the fourth.

With 8:54 left in the fourth quarter, Al Horford hit the Celtics’ 29th three of the night, good enough to tie the NBA record.

Boston proceeded to miss their last 13 threes of the game. The scene was pretty funny; Boston was coming down and chucking shot after shot from thirty feet to try and set the record, mostly uncontested. The crowd was on their feet for about 20 minutes, patiently waiting for imminent glory.

Thanks to the defensive effort of Ariel Hukporti, Tyler Kolek, and Jacob Toppin, glory never came.

On a night like tonight, we’ll take any moral victory we can get. Not the fourth-quarter victory I envisioned, though. A thoroughly embarrassing effort overall.

Next up are the Pacers on Friday night. I’ll settle for 81 and 1. Recap to come in the morning. Rest well, New York.