Important Moment

The Boston Celtics played all of their best players against the Knicks on Tuesday night.

New York, on the other hand, let most of theirs rest.

That was the day’s first Key Moment, which made it seem like the second Key Moment was almost certain to happen.

The top eight players for Boston were locked in from the start of the game. They made the first half a joke while scoring 41 points. In the last few seconds of the quarter, the C’s went on an 8-0 run, which gave them a 41-29 lead.

It was clear that the Celtics were the better team, and their new trio of dynamic scorers led their exciting attack. In the first quarter, Kristaps Porzingis scored 10 points, Jaylen Brown scored 8, and Jayson Tatum scored 8. The Celtics made 55.6 percent of their shots from the field and 56.2 percent of their long-range shots during the frame.

They then scored nine of the first 12 points of the second quarter to go ahead 50–33. During that time, the lead quickly grew to as many as 27, which pretty much ended the game.

During the third quarter, New York got within eight points, but the Celtics scored nine straight points to put an end to the Knicks’ chances. Boston won the game by a score of 123–110.

Key player Jayson Tatum scored a preseason-high 28 points against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. He was in good shape in the middle of the season.

Tatum made a lot of good shots. He made 9 out of 15 from the field, 5 out of 8 from long range and all 5 of his free throws. Tatum almost made every shot on his shot chart; all but one of them were from beyond the arc or at the rim.

As he does every game during the regular season, Tatum did a lot more than just score tonight. He also had eight boards, four assists, three steals, and one blocked shot, which tied for the team lead. He was busy for less than 30 minutes and did all of this.

As we already said, Tatum was in great shape tonight.

Score Nuggets in the Box

In the first half, Boston made 16 shots from long range and scored 78 points.

Twenty free shots were made by each team.

With 28 points, Jayson Tatum scored the most in the game.

Quentin Grimes scored 22 points to lead New York.

Boston had a 27-point lead at one point.

Jaylen Brown scored 17 points and had six assists, which was tied for the game-high.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

There were 26 assists for the Celtics and 25 for the Knicks.

From the substitutes, Sam Hauser had the most points with 15.

The Night’s Quote

“I see a lot of good in our guys’ minds.”

— Joe Mazzulla on how the Boston Celtics think as a team