The Boston Celtics lost their second straight game last week, ending their hot start to the season. However, two tough losses haven’t kept the team down for long. After winning both games in a back-to-back set this past weekend, they went into their game against the New York Knicks on Monday night hoping to start a new streak. They did just that, beating the Knicks for the second time this season thanks to Jayson Tatum’s strong fourth quarter and a 62-point second half.

As usual, the Celtics’ three best scorers carried the team tonight. Tatum (35 points), Jaylen Brown (22 points), and Kristaps Porzingis (21 points) all scored more than 20 points on the night, making up for Derrick White’s lackluster performance, who did not score. For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson scored 26 points and Julius Randle, who is having one of the worst starts to a season in NBA history, scored 25 points but only made 7 of 19 shots from the floor.

From the first kickoff, both teams scored goals quickly and often. The Knicks got off to a fast start thanks to star player Brunson, who scored 11 points in the first quarter. The Celtics’ offense was spread as usual, with early points from all five starters and Al Horford. As two good teams get to know each other better, the quality of their play tends to go up, and this was clear early tonight. The Celtics were only ahead 25–24 going into the second quarter.

Tonight, Sam Hauser’s rise to fame continues. Hauser has been on a tear for the last six games after a pretty small slump in the team’s first three games. He was making more than 45% of his three-point shots going into tonight’s game. In the first half, he made even more, making three of his first four shots. Hauser scored 12 points in the end, making 4 of 6 shots.

The Knicks started to take control in the second quarter. They started the frame with a 13–4 run, which was helped by the fact that Boston’s attack stopped working and lost a lot of balls. Their defense did break down, though, which let them stop the damage and keep the Knicks close. Brown made a crazy three-pointer at the buzzer that helped the Celtics close the halfway deficit to just one point, 53-52.

A knee-to-knee contact after a Randle drive to the basket gave the Celtics a small scare early in the third quarter. Porzingis came up limping. He stayed in the game and seemed to be fine before Randle’s free throws, but it was still worth noticing because the team doesn’t have many options in the frontcourt (Neemias Queta is still out with a foot injury). Porzingis didn’t go back to the locker room, and he didn’t seem to change how he was used as the game went on.

In the third quarter, the game slowed down almost to a crawl. It turned into a rough-and-tumble battle between two teams with tough and flexible defenses. In the first few minutes of the second half, Porzingis’s dunk gave the Celtics the lead back. For the next nine minutes, the lead stayed within one possession. As the clock ran out, though, the Knicks seemed to lose their cool. In the last four minutes of the third, they gave up seven free throws to the Celtics, two of which were technical. They also let Porzingis, Hauser, and Holiday make threes, which gave the Celtics a small lead. Boston had an eight-point lead going into the last quarter, 84–76.

They got back together when the game started again in the fourth quarter, and they stayed in the game the whole time. In the beginning, the lead stayed around six points as New York fought back against Boston’s efforts to go ahead by ten points. With just over nine minutes left, Payton Pritchard made the first three of the game, putting the Celtics ahead by nine points. But Josh Hart and Brandon Brunson scored back-to-back threes for the Knicks, pulling them back into the game.

With just under eight minutes left in the game, Tatum made the play that turned the tide fully in favor of Boston. He scored four points off of a Hart shooting foul. Holiday then hit on a jumper right away. After Joe Mazzulla, the coach, challenged the call, the shot was changed from a two-pointer to a three-pointer. This gave Boston a 10-point lead with just over six minutes to play.

Tatum’s four-point shot might have come a little too early to really be called a “dagger,” but in a practical sense, it was. When the Celtics’ lead reached ten points, it looked like the Knicks were done for the game. After Holiday’s three-pointer, Boston scored 10 points and New York scored 4. Tatum made two straight threes to give Boston a 16-point lead with three minutes left in regulation, which forced Tom Thibodeau to call a timeout.