Celtics destroy the Knicks, 110-89
The Knicks never stood a chance against Boston last night.
The Celtics went hard on them from the start and took a 21 point lead at the half that propelled them to a 110-89 win at the end of regulation.
The disastrous performance tone was set by Tim Hardaway Jr who went 0-6 in the first half and by Kristaps Porzingis who went 1-8 during the same time frame. In the end they combined 18 points with almost half of them being made from the free throw line. Hardaway admitted that everything went wrong:
“We couldn’t get anything offensively. We’re all out there just running like we don’t know what’s going on. It can’t happen.”
– Tim Hardaway Jr
If Hardaway is struggling this season start after shooting 50% in preseason, Porzingis is having his first awful night after scoring more than 30 points in hist first two games.
“Once i had the ball i had to make the right play. I had a lot of double-teams coming my way.. it was something that i haven’t experienced yet. I had a bad game offensively, i think i learned a lot.”
– Kristaps Porzingis
The big game (if a 21 point loss can have that) came from the big guys. Enes Kanter finished with 16 points and a season-high 19 rebounds (16 in the first half). Willy Hernangomez finally got some minutes, even though it happened late in the 3rd quarter with the Knicks already trailing by 18. Hernangomez logged 11 minutes and scored 12 points while shooting 5-6 from the field.
Michael Beasley returned to the floor after suffering an ankle injury in the opener and finished with 6 points.
From the other side, Boston had 3 guys with 20 points or more. Jaylen Brown scored 23, Jayson Tatum had 22 while Kyrie Irving dropped 20.
The Celtics (2-2) shot almost 50% from behind the arc while the Knicks (0-3) barely made one from twelve attempts. On this chapter, Boston outscored New York 42-3!
Next game:
On Friday night the Knicks will host their home town rivals, Brooklyn Nets – currently at 2-2.
