I didn’t either, but as far as I know, they have a whole movie world going with Chicago: PD, Chicago: Fire, and Chicago: Med. Every once in a while, there would be a big three-hour crossover event where all the shows came together for a public safety worker disaster, and I was supposed to care about that.

But after each super-special joint event, everyone on NBC’s Wednesday night schedule had to go back to their normal times. That’s pretty much what the Celtics did against the Knicks on Friday night.

And it had been four days since the last game. The Celtics had been knocked out of the In-Season Tournament. You can go back to your normal programs now, and there are no injuries to report on either side.

That meant Kristaps Porzingis was back and ready to make a difference. He started by making a dunk and two threes. Late in the quarter, he got together with Jaylen Brown, his best friend and roommate, for an off-the-glass-jelly-totally-intentional-lob. It was clear they didn’t mean to do that, but it was cool anyway.

At the beginning of the game, both teams were pretty even. The Celtics were ahead 25–24 at the first break. Immanuel Quickley made a three-pointer from the left side, and I’m sure Joe Mazzulla was thinking the same thing I was:

“Please don’t make an Immanuel Quickley legacy game.” Please don’t make a memory game for Immanuel Quickley. “Please don’t… “

Quickly has gone crazy the last few times he’s played the C’s. He will likely speed things up more than the Celtics can handle if he can get the snowball moving. Stay tuned for news.

Other interesting things from the first quarter: Sam Hauser tried to dunk on Isaiah Hartenstein near the end of the quarter but realized in the air that he couldn’t. It led to an odd adjustment that was called a foul, but it was funny at the time.

At the start of the second quarter, Jrue Holiday put on a show with three quick moves that led to three quick baskets. He was rude to Quickley in the first one because he had just moved out of the way for a layup. On a broken spin, the second was a nice mid-range bucket, and the third was a smart and-one to start the quarter off right.

And until the end of the second, I had forgotten how much I dislike the way Jalen Brunson plays basketball. I like the player, but the “I’m going to get fouled now” move always annoys me. Brunson made five straight free throws off of that move to keep the Knicks in the game.

I will give Brunson credit for not pump-faking on drives, but he does it on way too many of his mid-range and three-point shots, and he’s very good at spotting when a player is out of position enough to jump, which earns him a foul. He knows where to play well, but that just makes him more like James Harden. James Harden isn’t my favorite player.

This meant that the Celtics only made 10 free throws in the first half, while the Knicks made 17. This is a good sign since the Celtics had a nine-point lead at the break. The story kept going with Porzingis, who used the same screen-and-roll move with Tatum to get switched onto R.J. Barrett twice in three plays and score easy baskets through or over him.

Of the 19 points he scored in the first half, Porzingis made all seven of his shots. The Celtics scored 74 points in the first half thanks to Porzingis, but their defense gave up 65 points, which wasn’t good. With Porzingis back, it’s not hard to see that the attack will get better, but the defense needs to get stronger in the third.

Then that… happened, along with a huge amount of anger. The Celtics often lose in the third quarter, but this game was pretty calm. Derrick White hit some great three-point shots, and he and Holiday slammed the defense to make the score 17–0 at the 5:45 mark. White threw two crisp dimes to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who each made a strong slam. It was beautiful.

After that, it kept raining, and the defense did an amazing job of forcing a shot clock violation. Everything depended on how tough DWhite was against Julius Randle, how he messed up the Knicks’ space, and how he hit Quickley on the next trip down the court.

The third quarter was all about DWhite. It seemed like he always made the right play; he found cutters and hit his open loos. With three minutes left in the third, he got his third foul, but by the time he checked out, he had already done a lot of damage.

The Knicks went on a quick 9-0 run to cut the lead to 11 points while he sat down, though. Thank goodness, Al Horford, an amazing shot, made a triple that stopped the scoring as time ran out in the third. To finish strong was all that was left.

In the fourth, the Celtics had to keep a 15-point lead, which is about the same in basketball terms as having a two-goal lead in hockey. The Knicks could come back, but the Celtics were ahead. They had to be careful not to cause trouble.

The Knicks went on another scary 9-2 run, but the real fireworks started when Brown made an and-one and then fouled Immanuel Quickley. Then Judge Jason Goldenberg made a violent choice. Goldenberg found a way to not only give Brown a technical foul but also kick him off the bench with a second technical when he was about FIFTY FEET AWAY. I have no idea what Brown said.

I know that most techs can’t be told apart from TV viewers because we can’t hear what the players are saying. But I also know that, unless there are some crazy cases, no player should ever be kicked off the team while they’re sitting on the bench.

The problems began after that. Right away, the Celtics lost all of their confidence and became angry at the refs, which is never a good thing. There were times when I thought the Celtics were telling themselves that the refs would not let them win. This is a way of thinking that has cost them a lot of playoff games in the past.

The Knicks took advantage of the Celtics’ lack of focus by making a few easy baskets while the Celtics threw up brick after brick in anger. Things were not going well when the Knicks cut the lead to seven.

Finally, DWhite stepped in to save the day. The Celtics had just missed their millionth shot in a row when White sneak-attacked Josh Hart in motion. He got an extra position and put everyone’s head back on. The fight on DWhite was back on, but so was the DWhite game.

They must have told their players to sweep the leg like John Kreese because DWhite was getting thrown around like a bag of potatoes down the stretch. Even though Brown was thrown out for what looked like a 4/10 foul, the refs ruled that DWhite was still fair game. I believe they are only angry.

Yes, I see. The game of basketball. The Celtics did a great job ending that by taking haymakers head-on and not letting one of the toughest teams in the league get to them.

The Knicks kept fouling for some reason even though they were down 10 with 21 seconds left. It’s possible that they only wanted to give DWhite more points, which is what they did. The Knicks were wasting time, and Brunson hurt what looked like his ankle by stepping on Pritchard’s foot, which is something you never want to see.

In any case, the team won in a tough but promising way. We’ll see you next time when the regularly planned programming starts up again.