NEW YORK — After Game 3’s pitiful performance in which the New York Knicks failed to capitalize on stealing the first two games in the Eastern Conference semifinals on the road, the task on Monday night was to get back to basics.
Jalen Brunson earned his Clutch Player of the Year award, scoring 23 of his 39 points in the second half, and the Knicks again came back from a double-digit deficit to beat the Boston Celtics, 121-113, in Game 4, putting the defending champions one game away from a stunning elimination. After a sublime performance, the Knicks are now one win away from their first conference finals appearance in 25 years.
Game 5 is Wednesday night at TD Garden in Boston in the best-of-seven series.
Mikal Bridges scored 12 points in the fourth quarter as part of a 23-point effort for New York.
‘They hit us early, but I love the way we fought back,’ Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. ‘Showed a lot of toughness and more discipline in the second half.’
But it was Brunson, who also had 12 assists and five rebounds, who stole the show in the third, scoring 18 points as he single-handedly brought New York back from a halftime deficit. The Knicks took only their fourth lead in the last two games at 86-85 on a 3-pointer by OG Anunoby with 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter to cap a 12-4 run. Anunoby hit another 3-pointer with 5:52 left to break a 102-102 tie to give the Knicks the lead for good, as New York ran off 11 straight points to send the crowd into a frenzy.
Jayson Tatum, who left late in the fourth quarter with a non-contact lower leg injury, hit seven 3-pointers, scoring a playoff-high 42 points with eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals, and White had 23 as the Celtics went 17-44 from behind the arc. Jaylen Brown had 20 points and seven rebounds.
“He’s the type of guy that gets right up. So, he didn’t, and we’ll know tomorrow exactly what it is. It’s tough watching a guy like him get carried off like that,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said about Tatum.
If Tatum is unable to play the rest of the series, it will be a tall task for Boston, which will try to become the first team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit since the Denver Nuggets accomplished the feat twice in 2020 in the bubble.
‘They’ll be ready,’ Mazzulla said about Game 5. ‘I mean, that’s just who they are. It’s been that way. It’s the locker room that they have, and they’ll be ready. So, you trust the character of the guys in moments like this, and you take it one game at a time.’
New York, which ranked fifth in offensive efficiency during the regular season, again had trouble containing Boston around the perimeter and creating opportunities for itself to get out in transition, but used the Madison Square Garden energy in the second half to take control of the series. The Knicks used a blistering second half to shoot 54.3% for the game.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Anunoby also had 23 for the Knicks, after scoring only seven points in the previous two games.