Bedlam at The Garden. Double overtime. 272 combined points. Jaylen Brown sniffs the record books for best season opening performances in league history. Julius Randle and Evan Fournier shine for the new look Knicks. Madison Square Garden erupts in relieved celebration as the final buzzer finally sounds.
If those words were sufficient enough to convey the insanity that ensued at the World’s Most Famous Arena Wednesday night, I would end the piece here. That wouldn’t be good journalism nor sports writing if I did. So while I am confident that many reading this have seen with their own eyes what unfolded in New York City, allow me to explain what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most entertaining and incredible NBA season opening games in recent history.
In front of a raucous, sell-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, the new look New York Knicks outlasted Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics 138-134 in an absolutely thrilling 2OT performance.
Despite blowing an 11-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation and allowing the Celtics to force overtime after Marcus Smart drained a game-tying three-point shot at the buzzer, the Knicks never lost their composure and went big shot for big shot with the Celtics offensive weapons in the extra periods to come out victorious.
Forward Julius Randle–the NBA’s 2020 Most Improved Player–scored 35 points and tallied 8 rebounds, 9 assists and three blocks, providing evidence to the doubters that his resume last season was no fluke. Evan Fournier was the Celtics kryptonite from behind the arc, shooting 6-of-13 from the three-point line and adding 32 points to ring in his Garden debut for the Knicks.
Their efforts helped lead the Knicks past Boston in what was as close to a record setting opening game performance as it gets for Brown. The Celtics shooting guard played 46 minutes, scoring a career-high 46 points, including a long range 3-point shot from near the Knicks logo in the 4th quarter, and shooting 16-of-30 from the field and 8-of-14 from the arc.
Brown’s 46 points put him just shy of the 50-point outing delivered by Michael Jordan in the 1986 season opener, and ten points less than the NBA record of 56 points held by the great Wilt Chamberlain. All this after spending the previous 10 days in quarantine trying to overcome a bout with COVID-19.
My breathing felt irregular but fine for the most part,” Brown said. “Toward the end I could feel my heart beating through my chest.
“It would have been better if we got a win,” he added.
For most of the first half, it felt as if the Celtics were going to steal another game from the passionate hearts of the Knicks faithful in a jam-packed Madison Square Garden. The Knicks started the game on an 8-0 run powered by two 3-point shots by Julius Randle that had the Garden buzzing with energy. Jaylen Brown brought things back to bay and then turned the tide towards Boston, scoring 20 points in the first eight and a half minutes to put his team up 35-29 after one quarter.
Then in the second quarter, Brown found some help from Jayson Tatum (20 points, 11 rebounds, 7-of-30 shooting), Marcus Smart (15 points, 8 rebounds), and Grant Williams (15 points, 5 rebounds, one block, 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range), and the Celtics took a 58-54 lead into the halftime break.
Tatum has earned himself a reputation as the second member of the Celtics’ dynamic duo with Brown, but on his first visit to the Garden court this season he couldn’t find the same groove and dagger three-point shot that used to kill the Knicks in recent meetings.
Tatum went 2-of-15 from the 3-point line, and even missed badly on a fairly easy baby jumper in the finals seconds of the first overtime period that would have put things on ice for the Celtics. Instead, it put his team into a second overtime where they eventually ran out of gas and lost.
“[Jaylen] carried us tonight,” Tatum said. “Plays he was making, shots he was hitting, he was unbelievable and I wish I could have did my part.”
Returning from the locker room for the second half, Randle, Fournier, and a group of six Knicks that scored in double figures took matters into their own hands and dominated the Celtics off the court.
As a unit, the Knicks shot almost 50% from the field and 37.8% percent from the perimeter, adding a dominance within the paint, partly due to the return of center Mitchell Robinson, with 55 rebounds and 60 points under the basket compared to Boston’s 42.
Mitchell Robinson made his first start since breaking his foot last season, requiring a surgery that made him watch from the sidelines the rest of the Knicks 41-31 season in 2020. He finished with 11 points and 17 rebounds in 34 minutes of play, earning most of the minutes in the absences of Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson, the latter who became a father on Tuesday.
RJ Barrett couldn’t buy a bucket in the first half, scoring all of his 19 points in the second half. Barrett hit a huge three from 25 feet away from the basket off an assist by Fournier in the first overtime period to give the Knicks a 128-125 advantage.
Obi Toppin was an instant fan favorite once again in his second season in blue and orange. The Dayton product and New York native scored a career high 14 points off the bench and provided the Knicks with a boost on the fastbreak and transition offense.
While he was not as impressive in his Knicks debut at the Garden, Kemba Walker—also a born and bred native—contributed 10 points of 3-of-8 shooting and 3-of-4 from deep in 36 minutes. He did cause two turnovers of the Knicks 19, but his clutch early baskets made up for that.
The fruits of the Knicks front office’s offseason labor came through at the end, but not without some instant classic dramatics on the world’s greatest stage.
In the final three minutes of regulation, Ime Udoka’s Celtics made a push that ultimately tied the game with an uncovered Marcus Smart cashing a three from the right arc. Seconds before, Tatum tripped wirh the ball after inbounding it, but the Knicks didn’t foul as head coach Tom Thibodeau admitted was the plan.
The first overtime period brought an chaotic exchange of three-point baskets by the two teams. Fournier nailed the first three for the Knicks, but with each cane a response by the Celtics. Neither team could break the tie in five minutes, forcing five more.
“It was crazy,” remarked Fournier after the game.
In 2 OT, Boston game close a second time to stealing the game when Tatum hit a rare 3-point shot to give Boston a 134-133 advantage. Then, Fournier responded back with his fourth three pointer of extra time and Derrick Rose (9 pts, 3-of-11 shooting, 22 minutes) followed with a floater off the glass to give the Knicks the ultimate 138-134 win.
Bodies ready to fall over themselves on the Garden court, the Knicks used their last bit of juice, secured the defying rebound, and exhaled with thousands of their loyal, celebrating a 1-0 start to the season.
Exhausted but not defeated, Randle credited his team’s ability to withstand the prolonged outing to their conditioning and work in the preseason, in which the Knicks went 4-0.
“We found a way to win,” he said. “Everytime before we take the court, Coach [Thinodeau] always puts on the board ‘Find a way to win’. You talk about taking preseason serious, which is why we took it serious so that early in the season we can win games like this.”
The Knicks and Thibodeau truly gave their city a thriller for the opening game of the second season of the 30-year NBA coaching veteran’s tenure. The expectations are already set high, and Thibodeau’s go beyond this first game and first win.
“I’m never happy,” he joked with a reporter in talking about Fournier’s debut performance, the response applicable to the entire team mindset.
What matters right now is the Knicks are truly back, the Knicks-Celtics rivalry is back, and we experienced both last night.
For more NBA coverage, click here.
