Knicks Lose on Awful Late-Game Execution Against Celtics

Friday night, the third-best team in the Eastern Conference battled the third-worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Surprisingly the New York Knicks only lost to the frantic, high-paced Boston Celtics only by one-point. New York was actually able to keep up with the third-highest paced team in the league (per ESPN) for most of the night. In fact, the Knicks held a 58-53 lead over the Celtics at halftime.

New York led in large part to superstar Carmelo Anthony, who scored 18 of his total 30 points by the half despite starting the game off slowly on 1-for-6 shooting.

Kristaps Porzingis also played well in the first half, scoring ten points by intermission. Unfortunately Porzingis faded away in the second half; going 1-for-5 from the field… earning only seven total minutes of play in the second half. Which was a very questionable decision by interim head coach Kurt Rambis…

Although one thing that was unsettling… was the fact that the Knicks led by so little despite shooting 52.3% from the field.

The combination of Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas killed the Knicks all night, scoring the first 11 Boston points right from the jump… and the start of the second half was not much different. The duo scored 13 points in a 16-9 Boston run that gave the Celtics their first lead in the game since the opening minutes of tip-off; 69-67.

IT launches from deep! Or at least he wanted the Knicks to think so: https://t.co/XDbIOZcn5D
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 5, 2016

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New York through three quarters of play though, were still able to keep up with the Celtics – putting up 29 points in the third quarter to go up 87-81 heading into the final period. An Arron Afflalo jumper to start the fourth quarter gave the Knicks their largest lead of the quarter. Afflalo was huge in the second half, scoring a dozen of his total 17 points after intermission.

Tyler Zeller though, single-handily kept the Celtics in the game; scoring eight straight points to start the final period.

Tyler Zeller slices through the New York defense for the loud slam! https://t.co/89fIDOapta
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 5, 2016

Late in the fourth the pipe valve finally broke… the Knicks allowed too many Boston leak outs to score. New York allowed the Celtics to score 30 fast break points Friday night! None more damaging than the releases allowed late in the final minutes of the game. Crowder ran out ahead of the field a couple of times…

New York Knicks

With New York holding a one-point margin with 1:10 left in the game, Boston completely locked down the Knicks. New York had a TERRIBLE possession in which Jose Calderon was just protecting the ball, and probing for an entry pass to Anthony for most of the shot clock. When he finally realized that Anthony was too well covered, Calderon passed the ball to Robin Lopez – who was too far out for his comfort… and ended up taking an awful hook-shot with the shot clock dwindling down. WHY PORZINGIS WASN’T IN ON THIS POSSESSION WAS INEXPLICABLE!

Sequentially, Boston grabbed the defensive rebound and pushed the ball up quickly for a Evan Turner jumper. This gave the Celtics a 103-102 lead with 36.4 seconds remaining in the game. Turner finished the game with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists off the bench.

New York called timeout and wisely put Porzingis into the game (he only is your second best offensive player… -_-“). With 21.4 seconds left in the game Anthony did the Dirk Nowitzki one-legged fadeaway, which gave the Knicks a 104-103 lead.

Unfortunately, New York could not get one last stop… allowing a layup on the following possession by Avery Bradley. The Celtics tormented the Knicks in the paint all night long… Boston outscored New York 60-32 in the paint Friday night…