Three Studs, Three Duds As Short-Handed Celtics Down Knicks

The Boston Celtics visited the New York Knicks in a potential playoff preview at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Boston improved to 37-16 with a 131-104 win while New York fell to 34-18.

Boston responded swiftly after Thursday’s NBA Finals rematch loss to the Dallas Mavericks, as the NBA world settled down from the shocking Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics missed Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis against the Knicks, though that didn’t seem to matter as the first-quarter lead jumped close to 20 points.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s win:

STUDS
Jayson Tatum
Tatum met the moments under the bright lights of the world’s most famous arena.

The Celtics star started fast with double-digit points in the first quarter. Tatum led the group that quickly got hot from the perimeter with a pair of early triples. He stayed efficient from the field with ridiculous accuracy, headlined by a step-back three-pointer outside the right wing to force a New York timeout in the third quarter. The Celtics got an elite scoring performance in primetime from their $314 million superstar.

Tatum became the third player in Celtics franchise history to have back-to-back games with at least 35 points against the Knicks, per the ESPN broadcast. He finished the night with 40 points on 13-of-26 from the field.

Tatum showed his power with this highlight dunk to put an exclamation point on his night for the Celtics.

Payton Pritchard
Pritchard took the memo on a hot three-point night for Boston and ran with it. The Celtics guard cooked from the perimeter Saturday night with 25 points and went 6-for-8 from three-point range.

Jalen Brunson
The Knicks star did his thing Saturday night. He drained all 13 of his free throws and shot over 50% from the floor to tally 36 points.

Unfortunately for Brunson’s sake, he didn’t have much help in the loss.

DUDS
Knicks’ rebounding
The Celtics benefited from a strong start on the glass and earned second-chance opportunities against the Knicks.

Boston won the rebounding battle 48-30.

Karl Anthony-Towns
New York’s star big man didn’t have much help for Brunson Saturday night. The Celtics held him to just nine points. “KAT” finished with a minus-26 rating.

Josh Hart
New York’s starting lineup struggles spread to Hart. The New York guard didn’t recover from an inefficient first half and posted a minus-31 rating.