Anyone ever watch those Chicago shows on NBC?
Me neither, but to my knowledge, they have a whole cinematic universe going, with Chicago: PD, Chicago: Fire, and Chicago: Med. Every once in a while, there would be a big, three-hour crossover event where all the shows converged for some big public-safety-employee-mega-disaster, and apparently I was supposed to care about that.
But after every super-special-crossover event, everyone had to go back to their regular slots on NBC’s Wednesday night slate. That was basically what the Celtics did Friday night against the Knicks.
The Celtics had been bounced from the In-Season Tournament, and it had been a whole four days since the last game. But it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming, with no injuries to report on either side.
That means Kristaps Porzingis was back and ready to make an impact, notching a dunk and two threes right out of the gate. Later in the quarter, he linked up with his best friend/roommate Jaylen Brown for an off-the-glass-jelly-totally-intentional-lob. You could tell they didn’t mean to do that, but it was pretty cool.
It was a pretty even start to the game, with the Celtics taking their first timeout up 25-24. Immanuel Quickley hit a three on the left wing, and Joe Mazzulla was presumably thinking exactly what I thought:
“Please no Immanuel Quickley legacy game. Please no Immanuel Quickley legacy game. Please no…”
The last few times Quickley has played the C’s, he’s gone completely nuts. If he can get the snowball rolling, he’ll push the pace beyond what the Celtics can usually handle. Stay tuned for updates.
Some other highlights from the first: towards the end of the quarter, Sam Hauser tried to dunk on Isaiah Hartenstein, but realized mid-air that it would not be possible. It resulted in an awkward adjustment that led to a foul, but it was pretty hilarious in real-time.
The second quarter started out as the Jrue Holiday Show, executing three quick moves for three quick buckets. The first was plainly disrespectful to Quickley who he just moved out of the way for a layup. The second was a nice mid-range bucket on a broken rotation, and the third was a crafty and-one to start the quarter off right.
And until late in the 2nd, I had managed to forget how much Jalen Brunson’s brand of basketball bothers me. He’s a likable player, but the I-am-going-to-get-fouled-now move will never fail to annoy me, and Brunson snagged five straight free throws off of that move to keep the game stable for the Knicks.
I will give Brunson credit for not doing it on drives, but he pump-fakes an outrageous number of his mid-range and three-point looks, and he’s extremely good at knowing when a guy is out of position enough to jump, and thus winning a foul. He picks his spots well, but that just makes him James Harden with better PR. I’m not the biggest fan of James Harden.
Because of this, the Celtics shot only 10 free throws to the Knicks’ 17 in the first half, which is actually an encouraging sign considering the nine-point lead they entered the half with. The story continued to be Porzingis, who ran the same screen-and-roll action with Tatum to get switched onto R.J. Barrett twice in three possessions, finishing through or over him for some easy buckets.
Porzingis shot the lights out in the first half, racking up 19 points on 7-8 shooting. Porzingis boosted the Celtics’ offense to a 74-point first half, though the defense letting up 65 was less than idea. It’s not rocket science that the offense would improve with Porzingis back, but the defense needed to tighten up in the 3rd.
And then that… happened, along with a metric-ton of offense. The Celtics have a history of imploding in the 3rd quarter, but this was pretty chill. Derrick White got super hot from three, and both he and Holiday turned on the defense to extend the lead to 17 at the 5:45 mark. White dropped a pair of crisp dimes to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for an emphatic slam each. It was glorious.
And then it continued to rain, along with an absolutely incredible defensive possession to force a shot clock violation. It was all based on DWhite’s tenacity against Julius Randle, blowing up the Knicks’ spacing and swatting Quickley on the very next trip down the court.
The third quarter was a DWhite masterclass. I swear he made the right play every single time, finding cutters and hitting his own open loos. He picked up his third foul with three minutes to go in the 3rd, but he had done plenty of damage by the time he checked out.
It was noticeable when he sat though, as the Knicks ripped off a quick 9-0 run to cut the lead to 11. Thankfully, Al Horford—elite shooter—hit a run-stopping triple as time expired in the third. All that was left was to finish strong.
In the fourth, the Celtics faced the dangerous task of maintaining a 15-point lead, which is basically the NBA equivalent of a two-goal lead in hockey. The Knicks could definitely come back, but the Celtics were definitely in the driver’s seat. They had to be careful not to mess around.
The Knicks put together another dangerous 9-2 run, but the real fireworks came after Brown converted an and-one and then picked up a foul on Immanuel Quickley. And then… umpire Jason Goldenberg chose violence. Now, I don’t know what Brown said, but Goldenberg figured out a way to not only give Brown a technical foul, but then eject him from the bench with a second technical when he was around FIFTY FEET AWAY.
I know that most techs aren’t ascertainable by the TV viewing audience, since we can’t usually hear what the players say. But I also know that no player should ever be ejected while they’re sitting on the bench, save for a few completely insane outliers.
And then the problems really started. Every ounce of swag the Celtics had was immediately replaced by anger at the officials, which is basically never what you want. I began to worry that the Celtics were convincing themselves that the refs would not allow them to win, a mindset that I’ve seen sink several playoff games.
The Knicks capitalized on the Celtics’ attention being elsewhere, converting a couple of easy buckets while the Celtics hoisted up brick after brick in anger. The Knicks cut the lead to seven, and things were not looking good.
But then came DWhite, once again, to the rescue. After the Celtics had just launched their millionth miss in a row, White sneak-attacked Josh Hart in transition, winning an extra position and screwing everyone’s head back on. The DWhite game was back on, but so was the war on DWhite.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau must have gone full John Kreese and instructed his players to sweep the leg, as DWhite was getting tossed like a sack of potatoes down the stretch. And despite ejecting Brown for what looked like a 4/10 infraction, the refs decided that DWhite was fair game. I think they’re just jealous.
Oh, right. The basketball game. The Celtics closed that out nicely by taking haymakers on the chin and not getting bullied by one of the toughest teams in the league.
Despite being down 10 with 21 seconds left, the Knicks kept fouling for… some reason. Maybe they just wanted to boost DWhite’s stats, which got him to 30 points. Unfortunately, the Knicks sweating out meaningless minutes caused Brunson to injure what looked like his ankle by stepping on Pritchard’s foot, which you never like to see.
In any case, it was a physical, encouraging team win. We’ll see you next time as the regularly scheduled programming continues.
