The new-look New York Knicks were no match for the reigning NBA champions Boston Celtics on Tuesday night. The Knicks, who traded for big man Karl-Anthony Towns in the offseason, got absolutely crushed by Jayson Tatum and the hot-shooting Celtics at TD Garden.
Boston came away with an easy 132-109 victory to open its title defense, as the Celtics leaned on their incredible performance from the field to put New York away.
So good was the Celtics’ shooting that Knicks guard Josh Hart joked after the game that Boston players should get drug tested.
“The NBA needs to drug test them dudes,” Hart said, per The Athletic senior writer James L. Edwards III. “I ain’t ever seen anything like that,” Hart added.
Boston Celtics’ offense was too much to handle for the New York Knicks
The Celtics shot the ball like they were from a video game. Tatum led the charge for Boston with a 37-point explosion on the strength of a spectacular 14-for-18 shooting from the floor, including eight 3-pointers on 11 attempts from behind the arc.
As a team, the Celtics lit up the Knicks with a 50.5 field goal percentage while going 29-for-61 from deep. The Celtics fell just a 3-pointer short of breaking the NBA record for most threes in a game.
As for the Knicks, they were not too shabby with a 55.1 field goal percentage but their defense just had so many holes which the Celtics clearly capitalized on.
Jalen Brunson and Miles McBride each scored 22 points for the Knicks, while Towns only had 12 points in his Knicks regular-season debut.
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