Jaylen Brown Drops 42 As Celtics Beat Knicks
Boston's stock is rising...
If “statement wins” can happen this early in the NBA season, the Boston Celtics notched one on Tuesday night with a big victory over the visiting New York Knicks, who entered TD Garden as the second-best team in the Eastern Conference.
Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown overcame a clumsy first quarter to drop a game-high 42 points on New York. Brown’s mid-range game was completely unstoppable once he caught fire. JB finished 16-of-24 from the field on the night to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Brown was also 8-of-9 from the charity stripe.
The Celts used a powerful second quarter to climb out of their first quarter doldrums, beating the Knicks 37-20 in Q2.
Boston survived a late push from New York in the fourth, which featured a barrage of three pointers from Mikal Bridges, who was 8-of-12 from downtown on the night. At one point, the Knicks scored nine points in two possessions (!) when Bridges hit a three, followed by getting fouled on a three by Hugo González on the next possession. The foul was deemed a flagrant, which gave the Knicks the ball back after Bridges’ three made free throws, and Karl-Anthony Towns connected on an and-one.
The very next possession, Bridges hit another three, making it a 12-0 run in three trips up the floor for New York. It was a moment of crisis for the Celtics, and it appeared like things were about to take a turn for the worst.
Clutch offensive rebounding and finishing from Jordan Walsh weathered the storm for Boston after this segment, as did a big three from Derrick White. The Celtics survived losing the fourth quarter by 12 points and ended up with a 123-117 win, avenging their loss to the Knicks on October 24, which was just the second game of the season.
White was Boston’s second-leading scorer with 22 points on 8-of-16 from the field to go along with five dimes. The Celtics got three triples off the bench from Josh Minott, who finished with a meaningful 11 points.
Bridges led New York in scoring with 35, Towns right behind him with 29. Jalen Brunson was rendered mostly useless as a scorer, shooting 6-for-21 from the field, but he did tally 11 assists to his credit.
Brown is now averaging 29.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists this season. He hasn’t missed a game yet.
Next up for the Celtics: at the Washington Wizards on Thursday.
