Jayson Tatum’s 40-point night powers Celtics to road beatdown of Knicks
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) reacts after making a 3-point shot against the New York Knicks during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
The New York Knicks entered Saturday night’s showdown at Madison Square Garden just a game and a half behind the Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings. They were, it seemed, a different team than the one that lost to Boston by 23 points back on opening night.
Apparently not.
Despite playing without two starters, the Celtics dealt their Atlantic Division rivals an even more emphatic beatdown, cruising to a 131-104 victory on the Knicks’ famed home floor.
Headlining the blowout win was one of Jayson Tatum’s finest performances of the season: 40 points on 13-of-26 shooting (7-of-14 from 3-point range), plus six assists and four rebounds.
Nineteen of Tatum’s points came in the third quarter as he moved past Jo Jo White and Dave Cowens and into ninth place on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list. He dominated his matchup against the Knicks’ top wing defender, Mikal Bridges, whom they traded five first-round picks to acquire, and consistently exploited mismatches against Karl-Anthony Towns, New York’s other big offseason addition.
“That was a special performance,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame.
Payton Pritchard hit six of his eight 3-point attempts off the bench to finish with 25 pounds. Derrick White scored 17 and helped snuff out a third-quarter Knicks rally, and Luke Kornet, thrust into the starting lineup minutes before tipoff, turned in a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double with three blocks and one steal.
As a team, Boston outscored New York by 30 points on 3-point shots (19 makes to nine) while also owning a 48-30 edge in rebounding. The Knicks’ lone reliable scorer was All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson, who finished with 36 points on 18 field-goal attempts. Fellow All-Star starter Towns scored a season-low nine points against an undermanned Celtics frontcourt.
The win came four days after the Celtics handled the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers in another road victory, winning 112-105 in a game that was not as competitive as the final score suggested. Mazzulla’s squad, frustratingly inconsistent for a six-week stretch that began before Christmas and persisted through January, is 5-1 in its last six games and 8-3 in its last 11.
Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s result as Boston heads into its final two games before the All-Star break (at Miami on Monday; home vs. San Antonio on Wednesday):
1. Late lineup change
The Celtics expected to be without starting guard Jrue Holiday and newly signed reserve wing Torrey Craig against the Knicks. Holiday was ruled out for the second straight game due to a nagging shoulder injury, and Craig’s Boston debut was delayed as he continued to recover from an ankle sprain that’s sidelined him since Dec. 30.
Boston then learned after pregame warmups that it also would be without starting center Kristaps Porzingis, who was a late scratch with what the team called a non-COVID illness. It was the second time in three weeks that a starting Celtics big had been downgraded minutes before tipoff (Al Horford was the first, in a Jan. 18 loss to Atlanta).
Horford and Kornet started in place of Holiday and Porzingis. The Knicks were missing starting forward OG Anunoby (foot) and big man Mitchell Robinson (ankle), who has yet to play this season.
2. Kornet stays ready
In that aforementioned Hawks game, Kornet stepped into the starting lineup and delivered one of his best outings of the season (17 points, seven rebounds, four steals, two blocks). The 7-footer was similarly impactful Saturday night. Playing against the team that gave him his NBA start in 2017, he blocked two shots in the opening five minutes and grabbed eight rebounds in the first half alone, including three offensive boards.
Even with Porzingis unavailable, Mazzulla utilized double-big lineups for most of the game, with Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman also making appearances behind Kornet and Horford. In the first half, Kornet, Queta and Horford combined for four blocks and seven offensive rebounds and helped hold New York to 8-of-27 shooting inside the paint.
Kornet picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, however, and had to watch from the bench as New York ripped off a 12-2 run to cut a 13-point Celtics lead down to three. But the Knicks never closed the gap, and the Horford/Queta pairing eventually stabilized. By the time Kornet returned to the floor with 2:29 remaining in the third, Boston was back up by 17.
Kornet then scored eight points in the fourth — his most in any single quarter since Dec. 12 — to help the Celtics put the game away.
Though he struggles against certain matchups and doesn’t offer Porzingis’ and Horford’s perimeter shooting ability, Kornet quietly has put together a very good season as a core reserve and spot starter. The 29-year-old entered Saturday ranked in the top 10 among NBA qualifiers in a slew of advanced metrics, including fifth in net rating and true shooting percentage and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio and offensive rebounding percentage.
Queta finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes.
3. White stems the tide
Tatum’s 19 points were the story of the third quarter, but White’s 14 were just as important, if not more so.
The Celtics were trying to hold off the Knicks’ strongest surge of the night when White elevated for a three at the end of the shot clock and drew a foul on Miles McBride. After making all three free throws, White scored a backdoor layup on the ensuing possession, teamed up with Queta to block a Towns shot under the basket and then hit a three less than a minute later. That flurry erased all of New York’s momentum and sparked a 19-3 Celtics run.
White (4-for-7 from three in the game) also assisted on Tatum’s last two field goals of the quarter, which ended with Boston holding a 96-76 lead. White has shot better than 40% from beyond the arc in six of his last seven games, shaking off the shooting slump that limited his effectiveness for much of January.
4. Pritchard can’t miss
After helping power an ill-fated fourth-quarter comeback against Dallas on Thursday, Pritchard was sensational in the second quarter at MSG. The Sixth Man of the Year favorite scored 14 points in the frame on 5-of-7 shooting — three 3-pointers, a jumper in the lane and a heads-up layup after salvaging what initially appeared to be a Jaylen Brown turnover.
Pritchard added another 11 points in the fourth as the Celtics’ stretched their lead to 35. Boston was able to empty its bench with 4:31 to play.
After scoring 10 or fewer points in 10 of his 15 games in January, Pritchard now has posted back-to-back 20-point showings, looking more like the elite off-the-bench weapon he was for the first two months of the season.
“He means everything,” Tatum said in a postgame interview with ESPN’s Cassidy Hubbarth. “When guys are out — we didn’t have KP — we need everybody to step up, and (Pritchard has) done an unbelievable job since he’s been with the team, and he’s getting better every year. He should be the Sixth Man of the Year.”
5. Bounce-back Boston
The Celtics now are 15-1 in games after losses this season. They’re also 21-6 away from TD Garden, the best road record of any NBA team.
