Boston Celtics Lose to the New York Knicks, 117-109, Drop to .500 on Season
By Mujeeb Ahmed
The Boston Celtics put on deflating performance against the New York Knicks at home falling to 9-9 after a 117-109 loss.
The Boston Celtics returned home to TD Garden after one of their better performances, albeit a loss, against Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Hornets, looking to get back in the winning column against the 4-14 New York Knicks.
Surely they won’t lose to the Knicks, most Celtics fans probably thought to themselves before the game. A twenty-point deficit in the first half, not for the Celtics most Celtics fans would have thought.
The Celtics starting five being outscored by the Knicks bench in the first half? Kyrie Irving being thoroughly outplayed by Trey Burke the entire night? A wire-to-wire win for losers of their past six games, New York Knicks?! There isn’t anyone in the Andromeda Galaxy that would have believed any of that would actually happen.
Yet that is exactly what happened, as the New York Knicks defeated the Boston Celtics, 1171-09, at the TD Garden Wednesday night.
The Celtics played the Knicks close in the first quarter, but once the second quarter began the Celtics fell apart and the Knicks took full advantage. Falling behind as much as twenty in the first half, the TD Garden faithful boo’d the Celtics in efforts to get their beloved team to get back on track.
The Celtics would make multiple runs to get the lead back to a reasonable number and the energy was definitely in the building after the Celtics reduced the deficit to single digits with this fast break, starring Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown.
The Knicks got contributions from their entire roster tonight, especially from guys like Trey Burke, Noah Vonleh and Mitchell Robinson, en route to their victory tonight. Vonleh and Robinson provided the Knicks with variety on the offensive end with Vonleh doing his work from the perimeter and Robinson punishing the Celtics inside the painted area.
But the performance of the night is undoubtedly Trey Burke, who came into Wednesday’s game on a bit of a hot streak. Burke scored 29 points, off of the bench, with 11-of-20 from the field. He put a full stop to the Celtics hopes for a comeback victory with this cold-blooded three pointer to put the Celtics away for good.
While the season is STILL young, this is not the start the Celtics fans nor anyone in the Celtics organization envisioned.