BOSTON — Nobody gave the Knicks a shot in this Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Certainly, nobody thought they would steal Game 1 when they trailed by 20 points in the third quarter.
The odds were long, but so far in this postseason, the Knicks are at their best in those circumstances, rallying three times against the Pistons in the fourth quarter of their first-round series.
Monday night was their latest magic act, a hard-to-believe 108-105 upset of the defending champion Celtics in overtime.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks to the extra session, and his teammates did the rest. Mikal Bridges hit a key 3-pointer and stole the ball from Jaylen Brown in the final seconds, stunning the TD Garden crowd.
The Knicks stole home-court advantage, after coming from 20 points down. OG Anunoby’s dunk gave them the lead in the extra session and Bridges pushed the lead to six on the following possession. Karl-Anthony Towns added a big tip-in and Tom Thibodeau’s team held on for arguably the biggest win of his Knicks tenure.
Brunson and Anunoby each had 29 points, and Towns and Josh Hart added 14. The Celtics set an NBA playoff record with 45 missed 3-pointers. Brown and Jayson Tatum each had 23 points in defeat.
The Knicks held a six-point lead with 3:28 left in regulation after back-to-back Brunson 3-pointers, but the Celtics answered with seven straight points, going ahead on Derrick White’s trey with 2:15 to go. Brunson had a chance to win it in the final seconds of regulation, but his floater in the lane went in and out.
The Celtics couldn’t even throw the ball in the ocean from 3-point land in the first half, and it didn’t matter. They still were comfortably in control.
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It was a 16-point game at halftime and it didn’t even feel that close. The Celtics’ shaky 3-point shooting — they made only 5-of-23 attempts — was the only reason it wasn’t a complete shellacking after 24 minutes. Boston was crushing the Knicks on the glass (plus-10), was outscoring them in the paint by eight and limiting Brunson to 3-of-9 shooting.
Towns was the best Knick in the first half, but he was only on the floor for nine minutes due to foul trouble. The Celtics took advantage of his replacement, Mitchell Robinson. They intentionally sent him to the line, and the 7-footer missed 6-of-8 attempts in the opening half, dropping him to 6-of-23 in the postseason. Thibodeau went to Precious Achiuwa midway through the second quarter in place of Robinson.
Simply put, the Knicks couldn’t defend the Celtics, who went to the free-throw line 20 times, making 16 of them, in the opening half. A 21-7 run over the final 6:47 of the second quarter turned a close game into a rout.
The intermission didn’t slow down the Celtics. They started the third quarter by building the lead to 20. The Knicks finally responded. Hart hit a 3. Anunoby knocked down a pair of them. When Brunson hit his first 3-pointer of the night, it was only an eight-point deficit, and the Celtics’ lead was nine entering the final period.
