Three Studs, Three Duds As Celtics Defeat Knicks To Win Fifth Straight

BOSTON — The Celtics have haunted the Knicks ever since Opening Night and that remained the case for New York’s Sunday afternoon visit to TD Garden.

Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks, winless against the three winningest teams in the league, extended their biggest flaw: matching up with the most elite. Boston’s offensive efficiency drowned New York early, leaving Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns desperately rummaging for a competitive edge their supporting cast couldn’t muster up.

Boston, yet again, delivered New York a rude reminder of the talent gap between both teams and in the form of another double-digit defeat.

The Celtics improved to 41-16 with their fifth consecutive trip to the win column.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s 118-105 victory over New York:

STUDS
Jayson Tatum
There isn’t much Tatum MVP chatter, but the six-time All-Star certainly doesn’t care. With a business-as-usual approach, Tatum toyed with the Knicks and couldn’t be stopped. He scored a team-high 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds and nine assists to flirt with another triple-double. Tatum instead settled for an elite caliber showing that kept the Knicks scratching their heads in the end.

Boston’s first-half defensive intensity
The Knicks endured a painful first two quarters of play, and it was because the Celtics refused to allow them to get comfortable.

New York shot 33.3% from the floor by halftime on 48 shot attempts, 29.4% from 3-point range across 17 attempts and got out-rebounded, 30-18. Boston never lost sight of its defensive charge as the team humbled the Knicks from both ends of the floor, identifying easy-breezy paths to the basket offensively while keeping them at bay defensively. Brunson, Towns and company earned every basket tallied, and it wasn’t pretty.

Karl-Anthony Towns
New York needed some glimmer of hope and that’s where Towns came in.

Although it wasn’t enough, Towns showed up to play. The five-time All-Star finished with a team-leading 24 points and 18 rebounds as Towns did everything to keep the Knicks from falling victim to offensive droughts. Towns might’ve failed at keeping New York in the running beyond a brief second-half run, but it could be a trailer of what the Celtics will encounter once the playoffs commence.

DUDS
Mikal Bridges
New York viewed Bridges as one of its premier difference-makers it added to the roster this past offseason, but the funky-shooting 28-year-old was a ghost.

Bridges scored 14 points and recorded a minus-23 rating. The Knicks couldn’t turn to the 6-foot-6 veteran for any secondary consistency behind KAT due to Boston’s defensive pressure, and the subpar performance played a costly factor.

Payton Pritchard
It took a while for Pritchard to get on the scoreboard.

Boston’s sixth man was held scoreless until the final two minutes of the third quarter, and even after Pritchard drained his first basket, the offensive production remained quiet. Pritchard’s uncharacteristic performance left the 27-year-old with three points in the box score to go along with a minus-12 rating.

Tom Thibodeau
New York’s head coach made minimal adjustments throughout the game, relying on constant give-and-go plays drawn for Brunson — which didn’t work.

Thibodeau’s reliance on overplaying the main cast members of the Knicks has placed the team among the best of the best in the conference, but that’s proved itself misleading. Until New York is capable of competing from start to finish against teams like the Celtics, Thibodeau is going to have to consider some major readjustments before entering the playoffs.