Jalen Brunson sat at his locker, staring into the void.
For the second time this season, the defending champion Boston Celtics had dismantled his Knicks — this time in a 131-104 rout at Madison Square Garden.
This was supposed to be different.
The season opener had a built-in excuse: a Knicks team with a reconstructed starting lineup still figuring out its chemistry ran into a Celtics squad that rained threes at a historic clip. A one-off. A learning experience.
But 52 games in? This was supposed to be a measuring stick, a test to prove the Knicks belonged in the title conversation.
Instead, the Celtics made their stance clear: New York isn’t remotely close.
“Playing them, it’s always to see where we are — and we see where we are,” Brunson said.
So where, exactly, are the Knicks?
“Not where we wanna be,” he continued.
Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t mince any words.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s as simple as that. There’s no sugarcoating it. There’s no moral wins. It’s something we’ve gotta work on,” he said. “If we expect to be the team that y’all have expectations of us to be, and if we also have those same aspirations in this locker room, which I know we do, we’ve gotta find a way to beat teams like tonight.
“That’s a team that’s in the race. They want to be in the race as much as we do, winning a championship, but for them, it’s another one, back-to-back. So championship teams — great teams — in my experience, test your discipline. And it’s something we’ve gotta work on. Our discipline for 48.”
THE KNICKS ARE PREDICTABLE WITHOUT OG
With OG Anunoby sidelined by a right foot injury, Tom Thibodeau inserted Precious Achiuwa into the starting lineup. The move provided size and defensive versatility — but at a steep cost: floor spacing.
Anunoby’s versatility allows the Knicks to blur the lines between big and small, fast and slow. Without him, there is no gray area.
Start Achiuwa, and the Knicks get bigger but lose perimeter firepower. Start Miles McBride, and they gain shooting, speed, and a point-of-attack defender — but at the expense of size, with a three-guard lineup of Brunson, Josh Hart, and McBride.
Thibodeau went with size. Boston exploited the decision immediately.
With Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday both out, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla countered with veteran Al Horford and 7-foot-2 Luke Kornet in the frontcourt.
The game plan was clear from the opening tip: Ignore Achiuwa and let Kornet camp out at the rim.
Kornet played like he had “Wembanyama” stitched across the back of his jersey, patrolling the paint like San Antonio’s defensive phenom. He finished with 12 rebounds, three blocks, and countless altered shots simply by being in the right spots.
“We didn’t come out great. We were stagnant,” Hart admitted. “They had Kornet and Horford clogging up the paint. We just didn’t execute.”
By the time the Knicks looked up, they were down 12-2. Within minutes, the deficit ballooned to 22-9. The rest of the night? A game of catch-up against the defending champs — a battle that rarely ends well.
“It’s a compilation on both sides of the ball. The rebounding was problematic to start. It was problematic throughout,” Thibodeau said. “And then the [defensive] shell, keeping the ball in front [of the defender]. Sometimes there were some good initial sequences, and then they hurt us with the second shot. They hurt us with some threes.”
Help is on the way.
Anunoby is expected back after the All-Star break. Mitchell Robinson is also nearing his long-awaited return.
But the Celtics were missing two key starters, too — and that didn’t stop them from putting on a clinic at MSG.
“Yeah, well, you learn from every game. The disappointment of a loss, but make sure that we learn from it,” Thibodeau said. “Obviously, we have to take a hard look and get better.”
CELTICS SPAM KNICKS WITH STACK ACTION
Every team targets Jalen Brunson on defense. Few do it as effectively as the Celtics did on Saturday.
It became evident the second Mikal Bridges buried a transition three to cut an early 20-point hole down to a three-point deficit midway through the third quarter.
Boston’s response? Attack Brunson. Immediately.
On the very next possession, Derrick White set an off-ball screen on Karl-Anthony Towns to free backup center Neemias Queta for a second screen on Jayson Tatum at the top of the key. This is stack action, a brutal sequence that left the Knicks scrambling.
- Towns, late to help, was at the mercy of one of the NBA’s best ball-handlers.
- Brunson, whose man set the first screen, had a choice: help on Tatum, who was already past Towns, or recover to White, a knockdown shooter and secondary playmaker.
Brunson got caught in no man’s land. Tatum walked in for an easy dunk to stop New York’s run.
On Boston’s next possession, White drew a three-shot foul on McBride.
- The Possession after that? The Celtics ran stack action again. Tatum used a snake dribble to get past Towns, forcing Brunson to help in the paint — leaving White open baseline for a layup.
The Celtics coughed up a turnover in transition, but on their next half-court trip, they ran it again. This time, instead of rolling to the rim, White popped out to the three-point line. What happened next was predictable:
- Queta screened for Tatum.
- Tatum blew by Towns, who was late to help
- Brunson helped inside and was late to recover to his man
- White splashed an open three.
“We did a good job getting the game close. We were down three at one point,” Hart said. “And then they were running a stack action, and we couldn’t stop it.”
The Knicks finally snuffed out Boston’s offense on the next possession — only for Bridges to foul Tatum on a three-point attempt.
Boston went right back to the mismatch the following trip, this time using Queta to screen Brunson on-ball long enough for White to fire off another open three.
The Knicks put together a strong defensive stand on the next trip. It didn’t matter.
Tatum reset and hit Bridges with a nasty side-step to bury a 29-footer at the buzzer and put Boston back up 19, effectively ending the game.
“He made some tough shots, but in the first half, we made it extremely tough on him,” Hart said. “And then in the second half, we couldn’t get stops, and he hit some tough shots at the end of the shot clock.
“He’s an All-Star for a reason. He’s gonna knock down shots.”