The New York Knicks might have put up their signature win of the 2022-23 season on the road against the reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics Thursday night.
New York was on the verge of blowing another fourth-quarter lead. Tom Thibodeau’s squad found itself up 106-94 with under five minutes left.
All-Star starter Jayson Tatum started taking over for Boston, scoring 11 points from the 4:48 mark on. His final score of regulation came on a lay-up with just 48.1 seconds remaining to tie the game at 110-110, bringing down the house inside TD Garden in the process.
Tatum absolutely torched Julius Randle off the dribble to tie this one up with his 32nd and 33rd points of the evening, the very same night he was named a starter in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game.
To say that things were sluggish between these two Eastern Conference rivals in the extra stanza would be an understatement. New York was shutout in the first 2:05 of overtime with Boston taking a five-point lead. Derrick White’s three-pointer opened the scoring.
With the New York Knicks down 115-113 and less than 30 seconds left, Randle made up for his struggles defending Tatum late in the fourth quarter. The former NBA Most Improved Player dialed up from distance right in front of Boston’s bench, nailing a ice-cold three-pointer to give New York a one-point lead.
If you think that’s insane, just wait until you find out what happened next. Jaylen Brown put Boston back on top with under 25 seconds remaining as he drove the left baseline for the score.
After an offensive foul on Celtics big man Robert Williams, Randle hit two free throws to give New York the lead. That’s when all heck broke loose. Jalen Brunson fouled Brown with 7.1 seconds remaining in the final stanza with Boston down just one point.
Brown had hit on nearly 80% of his free-throw attempts on the season heading into Thursday night’s action. Boston was the second-best free-throw shooting team in the Association. He missed both short, pretty much ending this one with Randle trolling Brown in the process.
You would think this one was over, right? Wrong!
R.J. Barrett hit two free throws to give the Knicks a three-point lead. Instead of fouling, Thibodeau and Co. let this one play out. A Jayson Tatum missed three-pointer was rebounded by Al Horford who got the ball back out to Malcolm Brogdon for a potential game-tying three to send this into overtime. As we said before, things got crazy.
What an absolutely brilliant road win for the Knicks. As for Boston, it has now lost three consecutive games.
Randle paced New York with 37 points while Tatum scored a Celtics high 35 points. But it was the former who got the last laugh (almost literally).