Knicks take a 2-0 lead over the Celtics after coming from 20 down again to win 91-90
Jalen Brunson scored 17 points for New York and made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left for a 91-90 lead. Jayson Tatum then couldn’t get to the rim and Bridges moved in to bat the ball away and recover it.
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Mikal Bridges scored all of his 14 points in the fourth quarter before making his second straight game-clinching steal, and the New York Knicks overcame a 20-point deficit again to beat the Boston Celtics 91-90 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Jalen Brunson scored 17 points for New York and made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left for a 91-90 lead. Jayson Tatum then couldn’t get to the rim and Bridges moved in to bat the ball away and recover it.
Josh Hart had 23 points and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks, who will host Game 3 on Saturday.
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White scored 20 points apiece for the Celtics, who were 10 for 40 from 3-point range after going 15 for 60 in Game 1.
Tatum was limited to 13 points on 5-for-19 shooting for the Celtics, who went more than eight minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter.
Teams that win the first two games of a best-of-seven series on the road win the series 85.7% of the time. The Knicks took the opener when Bridges stole the ball away from Brown with a second left in overtime.
Kristaps Porzingis didn’t start after sitting out the second half of Game 1 with an illness. He came off the bench for just the fifth time in his NBA career and finished with eight points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.
All eyes were on the Celtics’ offense after they missed an NBA-record 45 3-pointers in their Game 1 loss. They went 24 for 54 from 2-point range Wednesday.
Despite their shooting struggles, the Celtics found some traction late in the third quarter, using a 16-6 run – keyed by their effort on the defensive end – to turn a 10-point lead into a 73-53 advantage late in the period.
It was 84-68 after Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer with 8:40 to play but the Celtics wouldn’t make another basket until Tatum’s driving dunk with 18.5 seconds remaining.
New York cut it to 86-82 on a floater by Hart before Towns’ three-point play cut it to 86-85. Tatum missed a jumper, and Brunson made an 18-footer to put New York in front.
A jumper by Brown rolled off the rim on Boston’s next trip up the floor. Brunson then found a lane to the basket and dropped in a layup to make it 89-86.
Tatum connected on a pair of free throws and then got it back following a New York miss that rolled out of bounds with 24.2 seconds left.
Trailing 89-88, Tatum pushed the ball in to the front court and drove easily past Mitchell Robinson for a dunk to put the Celtics back in front.
Brunson was fouled and connected on both free throws.
