Jaylen Brown scored a career high 46 points and the Boston Celtics would rally late in regulation to force overtime, but would end up falling 138-134 in double overtime to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in the season opener for both teams and the head coaching debut of Ime Udoka on Wednesday night.
New York scored the first eight points of the game, before Boston took their first lead 14-13 on a Brown three-pointer. The Celtics didn’t trail the rest of the first half leading by as many as 12 and led by 25 points from Brown. The Knicks tied it late in the second quarter, but Boston still took a 58-54 advantage to the break. The hosts took their first lead since the first quarter with 1:04 left in the third, ending the period on a 17-6 run to enter the fourth up 86-82. It looked as if they’d be on cruise control in the final quarter as a fast break dunk by Julius Randle made it 109-98 with just 4:28 to play. The Celts would keep chipping into that deficit though helped by three shots from three-point land by Grant Williams. After Evan Fournier made a driving layup to restore a 114-110 lead with nine seconds left, Brown nailed a three-pointer from well behind the line just three seconds later to cut it to one. Randle hit two from the foul line with 4.8 seconds showing on the clock, but Boston got the ball up the court and found an open Marcus Smart who sent it to overtime with a three-pointer at the buzzer.
A crazy back and forth first overtime saw both teams hot from the three-point arc, as Boston hit three of them and New York hit four including three from Fournier. Jayson Tatum had a chance to win at the end of the period but came up short on a 15 foot jumper in the closing seconds. Fournier had the game winner with a three with 56.1 seconds left in the second overtime, and Derrick Rose wrapped up the win with a floating bank shot in the lane with 22 seconds to go.
Brown also added nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals to his game high and career high point total in the loss (8-14 three-pointers). The 46 points by Brown was also the most in a season opener in franchise history. Tatum had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists but only shot 7-30 from the floor. Robert Williams III had a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while G. Williams and Smart had 15 a piece, Dennis Schroder had 12, and Romeo Langford had 10. Randle led six Knicks in double figures with 35 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists. Fournier had 32 points that included 6-13 from three-point range. Another former Celtic Kemba Walker had 10 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in 35 minutes in his first game in New York with his new team. Boston has their home opener on Friday when they welcome in the Toronto Raptors to TD Garden.
