Steve Popper: Resilient Knicks bounce back with beaning of Boston
New York Knicks forward Josh Hart and forward Karl-Anthony Towns along with Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta, center, chase a rebound on Sunday. Credit: AP/Mark Stockwell
BOSTON — Taking the court at TD Garden with the ominous tones of the Dropkick Murphys’ “Shipping up to Boston” pounding in their ears and a sellout crowd of fans already pregaming for the Super Bowl a few hours later might not have been the best atmosphere for the Knicks to rebound from a humbling performance in Detroit less than 48 hours earlier.
Or maybe it was.
While the 38-point loss in Detroit — even if that came with key players missing — may have raised questions about the Knicks, they took the floor Sunday with something to prove. So facing the Celtics, an overachieving team that had passed them in the standings Friday, the Knicks took the challenge.
And the response was overwhelming, as they took the lead in the first quarter and pulled away for a convincing 111-89 win.
It was enough to embolden the handful of Knicks fans to briefly start a “let’s go Knicks” chant in the fourth quarter as Celtics fans were heading out to relocate for the hometown New England Patriots hopefully faring better in the evening.
“Our group is resilient,” Mike Brown said. “Sometimes things like that happen in Detroit. None of us like it. None of us want to go through it. Give Detroit a lot of credit, but we know it’s not who we are. We’ve played a lot better than that. We will.”
The Knicks still were without OG Anunoby, who was nursing what the team called toe soreness. But Josh Hart, who left Friday’s game with continuing soreness in his right ankle, was back on the floor. And Karl-Anthony Towns, who missed the game in Detroit with a laceration above his eye that required 16 stitches to close, was in the starting lineup with a pair of goggles the training staff found left over from Amar’e Stoudemire’s time with the team.
They got a boost from some perhaps unexpected sources. Rookie Mo Diawara earned his first defensive player of the game honor for his work harassing All-Star Jaylen Brown and newcomer Jose Alvarado delivered exactly what the Knicks were seeking.
The point guard helped run the offense in place of Jalen Brunson at times and beside him at others. He also clamped down defensively and confirmed his reputation as an energetic pest.
Brunson had 31 points and eight assists and shot 12-for-21 after enduring a 4-for-20 night in Detroit. Hart contributed 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.
“You’ve got to give Detroit credit for how they played,” Brunson said. “We needed to get back at what we do. And we felt we did that today. We just need to move forward knowing what we need to do regardless of who we play. And this is a good step for us.”
“Obviously, it was a great win,” Hart said. “We played extremely bad in Detroit, so we know we had to make sure we came back and responded. They’re playing very well right now, so it was a good one.”
What the Knicks showed besides resilience was toughness. Whether it was playing hurt the way Hart did or Towns trying to play through the laceration that had his eye nearly shut like a boxer (he discarded the goggles in the third quarter and finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds) or the infusion of defensive pressure from Alvarado and Diawara or simply Brunson being the best player on the floor, the Knicks got off the mat after the Detroit game and brought the intensity to this one.
“We did a pretty good job making them work on [the offensive] end of the floor,” Brown said. “Fifteen free throw attempts that they had for the game. Defensively that continued, our physicality was there without fouling. Then we didn’t give up transition baskets. They had four points in transition, which is good because they do get out and run.
“On top of that, 36 points in the entire second half. Our starter group did a nice job defensively and I take my hat off to everybody in that locker room.”
The Knicks held Boston to 7-for-41 shooting from three-point range and tied the Celtics for second place in the Eastern Conference at 34-19.
What the victory gave them most of all was a 2-1 record in a three-game span in which they earned a double-overtime home win over Denver before playing on the road against Detroit and Boston. That might be more impressive than the eight-game winning streak they brought into this set of games.
“This is obviously a contending team,” Alvarado said. “So you want to win, and the intensity and pay attention to detail is obviously big here, and that’s what [I] see here.”
With that accomplishment complete, they had silenced the crowd . . . and maybe the critics.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
