It was a quarter to forget for the Knicks on Wednesday night.
With the chance to close out their series with the defending champion Celtics in Boston, the Knicks laid an egg in the second half en route to a 127-102 loss. Boston turned defense into offense and forced their way onto the foul line to outscore the Knicks 32-17 after both teams went into halftime tied at 59 apiece.
“We played terrible. From the top down, it was a terrible quarter,” Josh Hart said of his team’s performance after the game.
Jalen Brunson,who scored 22 points but fouled out with seven minutes left in the fourth,was to the point when he saidthe Celtics “came out with such an urgency that we need.”
Mikal Bridges scored seven points in the first quarter but scored just two more the rest of the game, put it on the team’s defense.
“The first half, we just defensively wasn’t there, especially in transition,” he explained. “They were making shots and they brought that to the third as well. We just kept fighting and they just kept going. We can’t keep putting ourselves in that situation, especially when it was close at the half.”
Although the focus was on that lop-sided third quarter, many may forget the Knicks were up by as much as nine points in the second quarter. However, a massive 16-3 run put the Celtics in front briefly before the Knicks came back to go into halftime tied.
Coach Tom Thibodeau was asked what disappointed him the most about Wednesday’s game and he brought it back to what he said in the pregame. The Knicks needed to play a complete game to beat this team, and that’s not what they did in Game 5.
“We didn’t play for 48 minutes,” he said. “The start of the second quarter, we didn’t play well, had a lead, didn’t play tough with the lead. Came out to start the third, didn’t play well there. Can’t afford to do that.”
Although the Celtics shot just 44 percent in the third, they made twice as many threes as the Knicks and forced four New York turnovers. Boston was also able to get to the line 18 times in the third to the Knicks’ eight, but no one blames the officiating for what happened. Every Knick who spoke after the game talked about the lack of communication on defense, especially in transition. The Celtics outscored the Knicks 9-4 in fastbreak points and scored 12 points off turnovers in the game.
Derrick White torched them for 13 points while five other Celtics scored at least three points in the frame.
“You’ve got to sprint back, you’ve got to communicate and we’ve got to be matched up,” Thibodeau said. “If one guy is slow, you’re going to give him an open shot. You can’t do that against this team.”
“We didn’t get back on defense, didn’t communicate at all,” Bridges added.
The always-honest Hart was asked why the Knicks continue to have lapses in communication, and he could not come up with an answer.
“I wish I could tell you. I wish I could pinpoint it because then if it did, we can address it,” he said. “That third quarter, there was a lot of frustration and that seeped into everything we were doing. We have to make sure we can control what we can control and that’s our communication, that’s our effort, that’s our intensity and let everything else fall by the wayside. That’s not what we did today. We have to learn from it, execute and be better Friday.”
The Knicks now set their sights on Game 6 at MSG. New York has not clinched a series at home since 1999, but if they play like they did in Game 5, that streak will continue.
Boston shot 55 percent in the second half while the Knicks shot just 29 percent. They turned the ball over five more times than the Celtics in the second half and were outrebounded 23-19 in the third and fourth quarters.
All a recipe for a disappointing loss, but the Knicks are used to this sort of loss. After getting blown out at home in Game 3, the Knicks had arguably their most complete performance in Game 4.
“It’s obvious we’re disappointed. Wanted to give a better effort than that,” Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 19 points but was hampered by four fouls, said. “Hopefully, the disappointment leads to more motivation, better energy. We’ll regroup tomorrow and get ready for the next one.”
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