Celtics-Knicks takeaways: No answers for Brunson in lopsided loss

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Celtics-Knicks takeaways: No answers for Brunson in lopsided loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics fell to the New York Knicks at TD Garden on Thursday night for their second consecutive loss.

It was a tightly contested matchup until the midway point of the second quarter when the Knicks went on a 25-5 run. The C’s didn’t make a shot for the final 6:38 of the frame and went down 21 points at the half.

From there, New York cruised to a 118-109 victory behind a game-high 39 points from Jalen Brunson, who certainly would have had his third straight game with 40+ points had he played the fourth quarter. Boston trailed by as many as 31 points to overtake Tuesday’s loss in Milwaukee (24) for its third-largest deficit of the season.

Jayson Tatum led the C’s with 18 points on a modest 5-of-13 shooting (1-7 3-PT). Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser were bright spots with 16 and 15 off the bench, respectively.

The Celtics (62-18) will host the Charlotte Hornets (20-60) for their penultimate regular-season matchup on Friday night. First, here are three takeaways from Thursday’s action.

Bullied on the boards

Before the game, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla told our Abby Chin that rebounding would be the key to a victory over New York. That was an accurate assessment, because Boston’s poor performance on the glass directly resulted in the blowout defeat.

The Knicks flat-out dominated in the rebounding department. They tallied 12 offensive rebounds in the first half to just three for the C’s, translating to a 17-2 advantage in second-chance points. New York outrebounded Boston 32-17 through the first two frames.

That troubling trend continued for the Celtics the rest of the night as they were beaten on the offensive glass (17-10) and in second-chance points (22-12). The Knicks finished with 52 total rebounds to the C’s 36. Kristaps Porzingis (8) was the only Celtic with more than five boards.

The Celtics have been outrebounded in each of their last four losses. They allowed 15 and 17 offensive rebounds in their respective losses in Atlanta before giving up 10 in Milwaukee.

Jalen Brunson making late MVP push

Knicks fans…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-knicks-takeaways-no-answers-020243280.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-04-12 02:02:43

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