It was a strong start to the season for the Boston Celtics as they came out 108-104 victors in a close game against the New York Knicks at Maddison Square Garden. Led by 34 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists from Jayson Tatum and 30 points and 8 rebounds from the Celtics summer acquisition Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics had to overcome a Knicks 3-point shooting barrage in the fourth, led by 5 threes from Immanuel Quickley, as they shot 43.9% from three to overturn a 9-point lead heading into the 4TH quarter.
The Celtics, who started the new NBA season as favourites to win the Eastern Conference, saw debutants Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis open their Celtics accounts in the first quarter, as Porzingis started brightest picking up 15 1st quarter points to give the Celtic’s a 30-18 lead. Jaylen Brown struggled to get going on opening night after signing his 5-year $303 million supermax contact in the summer shooting just 4-11 from the field and 0-4 from 3. The Celtics defence however led by Derrick White and Jrue Holiday continued to force misses from the Knicks offence throughout the first half, as they only managed to put up 46 points. However, Boston’s own offensive struggles prevented them from separating themselves from the Knicks, due to the low offensive production of the Celtics' bench who were outscored by the Knicks bench unit 38-12, meaning the Celtics only took a slim 51-46 lead into the half.
The Celtics, aside from Tatum and Porzingis, continued to struggle from three as they shot just 12-39 from 3-point range, although their interior scoring provided the platform as they were able to outscore the Knicks 42-22 in the paint. New York kept the game close throughout the second half mainly due to sixth man Immanuel Quickley and forward R.J Barrett who both contributed 24 points. Boston also struggled to clean up the defensive glass giving up 17 offensive rebounds to the Knicks resulting in 10 second chance points. Despite this the Celtics took a stellar 9-point lead into the 4th quarter, this was gone after just 3:44 minutes of the fourth quarter as Josh Hart’s 3-pointer gave the Knicks an 86-84 lead after an 0-4 shooting start to the quarter from the Celtics bench unit. The officials then showed off their new technical foul call with two flopping technicals called in quick succession, on both Jalen Brunson and Porzingis, with the later going on to pick up a second technical foul for an alleged elbow the face of Knicks Center Isiah Hartenstein. The Knicks then went on the extend a 6-point lead with 4:10 left in the game as back-to-back poor possessions from Jaylen Brown led to a corner three and a +1 opportunity for Knicks guard Quentin Grimes. Then seemingly spurred on by the boos and jeers from the Maddison Square Garden crowd Kristaps Porzingis hit a dagger 3 pointer with 1:31 on the clock to give the Celtics back the lead. Before Porzingis and Boston guard Payton Pritchard hit consecutive clutch free throws to ice the game for the Celtics as they finished 108-104 winners on opening night. An incredible display from Porzingis as he became the first ever Celtic to score 30 as a debutant, he also had a game high plus-minus of +13 as well as four monster blocks contributing to the win.
After the game Porzingis was asked how important it felt to come up clutch for his new team “it’s important to show what my mindset is in tight games like this and show them (my teammates) that I’ll be there on both ends and I think today was a good step to building that trust”. Head coach Joe Mazzulla had this to say about Porzingis’ offensive capability “he has an innate ability to put two on the ball either if their trying to pop and veer or blitz him so when he gets the space, he’s a magnet so we have to get better at our spacing”. The Celtics will return to the TD Garden on Friday night for a repeat of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat.
by Will C
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