New York seized control at the start and never relinquished it, dampening the mood and keeping the focus on the Celtics’ 111-89 loss that snapped Boston’s five-game winning streak.
The only visible Super Bowl acknowledgment took place before the game, when guard Derrick White, a lifelong Broncos fan, walked into the locker room wearing a Patriots jersey and helmet, paying off a bet from New England’s AFC Championship win over Denver.
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By the final minutes of the fourth quarter Sunday, with the Knicks strutting around with a 20-point lead, many Celtics fans had left, making the sizable New York contingent more noticeable. They briefly took over the arena with ‘Let’s go, Knicks’ chants, and after Knicks guard Jalen Brunson completed his postgame television interview, he was serenaded with “MVP” calls.
“We take it on the chin,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said, “and we move on to the next one.”
Before the game, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was asked about how well New York had been playing before getting pummeled by the Pistons on Friday. Mazzulla quickly pushed back against the notion that the Knicks were no longer playing well, pointing out that they were missing three key players in that game and playing for the second night in a row. He believed that loss, which snapped an eight-game winning streak, was an outlier rather than the start of a trend.
Then this game began, and it became clear what he was talking about.
One game after starting 1 for 21 from the 3-point line before rallying for a comeback win against the Heat, the Celtics fell into a slump they could never emerge from. They made just 7 of 41 from long range. The Knicks, meanwhile, bothered the Celtics with timely, precise cuts and ensured that Boston was never able to build a sustainable run.
“I thought we got some great looks, but they put a ton of pressure just kind of on your defense throughout,” Mazzulla said, “and you have to be able to answer the call there.”
Brown missed all four of his 3-pointers but had more success inside the arc, finishing with 26 points. Sam Hauser sat out because of back soreness and was replaced in the starting lineup by Baylor Scheierman, who had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
The Celtics once again started centers Neemias Queta and Luka Garza together, with Payton Pritchard coming off the bench along with new acquisition Nikola Vucevic. The sample size is miniscule, but there is a sense that the team is having to recalibrate its chemistry.
“Kind of tough on the fly, but we’re two, three games in,” White said. “It’s not too [much] to really be worried about.”
Brunson poured in 31 points to lead the Knicks, 15 of which came in the opening quarter and staked his team to a 35-24 lead.
New York stretched its lead to 17, but at the 7:08 mark Josh Hart went to the bench with his third foul, and the Celtics went on a 7-0 run, with Scheierman providing a lift with his rebounding and playmaking.
The Celtics went to the break trailing 60-53 despite hitting just 5 of 22 3-pointers and allowing the Knicks to shoot 60 percent from the field, likely igniting optimism that mirrored their outlook during Friday night’s sordid start.
Brown attacked the rim aggressively to start the third and pulled Boston within 65-61 with a fadeaway jumper with 8:48 left.
Soon after, though, the Celtics committed three fouls on one trip up court, putting the Knicks in the penalty for the rest of the period and exacerbating Boston’s foul trouble. A runner by Jose Alvarado with 47 seconds left helped send New York to the fourth with an 85-68 lead. Boston missed all 10 of its 3-pointers in the third quarter and never mounted a comeback in the fourth.
“We can execute a little bit better,” Mazzulla said, “But I thought our defense worked to hold the fort down as long as we could.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
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