There was one moment to hold on to, if nothing else. Quentin Grimes had drilled a 3 from the corner, had gotten fouled, had put the Knicks up by six with 4 minutes and 10 seconds to go. The Celtics called time out. And for the first time in the young season, an October crowd tried on for size what it might sound like in April or May.
It is good to remember that moment — Knicks 99, Celtics 93 — every bit as much as it important to remember the 250 seconds that followed, the Celtics roaring back, taking a 108-104 decision, and sending an opening night uppercut to the Knicks.
Nobody is going to give the Knicks a cookie for taking the presumptive favorites in the Eastern Conference all the way to the 48th minute. The Knicks expect to be able to look the Celtics in the eye, even if nobody else does. They demand to be held accountable. And there will be plenty of accountability to go around the next few days, before they gather in Atlanta Friday night for the second chapter of this 82-game novel.
“We have to find a way to get it done in the end,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Jalen Brunson probably had a couple of games like this last year, although off the top of the head it’s hard to remember them. In memory, all of the off-balance shots Brunson missed Wednesday night settled in the hoop last year. Certainly the critical free throw he missed late in the fourth would have gone down.
On this night, there wasn’t much of anything that went well for Brunson. He missed 15 out of 21 shots. He was minus-9 for the game, and could never quite break free from Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown, who took turns checking him much of the night. The Knicks aren’t going to win many games when he shoots 6-for-21. They certainly aren’t going to win many games when Julius Randle is just as frosty from the field, 5-for-22.
And there’s little question that they’d better not make a habit out of shooting as deplorably as they did from the free-throw line. Fourteen-for-26 isn’t going to get you into the quarterfinals of the Knights of Columbus foul-shooting tournament, let alone to the final buzzer against Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and friends.
And yet: there was that six-point lead with 250 seconds to go. There was some terrific play out of Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett (48 between them). There were 24 assists on their 36 made baskets, which was significantly higher than the pace they played at a year ago. Lots of encouraging things sprinkled amid the discouragement of a smarting loss.
The Knicks aren’t likely to often get such substandard performances from Randle and Brunson, their two essential players. They aren’t likely to often face a two-man wrecking crew like Tatum and Porzingis, who combined for 64 points and 19 rebounds, with Porzingis adding four blocks, much to the chagrin of 19,812 Garden denizens who serenaded him with scatological hymns down the stretch.
“The basket had a lid on it,” Randle said.
(Though the lid seemed to disappear whenever KP was aiming at it.)
“Those are shots we’ll take and we’ll make.”
Still: they had that six-point lead with 250 seconds to go, and the Celtics beat them 15-5 from there. That’s the only thing that matters. And Thibodeau, front of the line, wasn’t interested in conciliatory hosannas.
“I don’t want that mindset,” he said. “I want the mindset that we have to make necessary steps to move forward and get ready for the next opponent. We need to build a habit of winning.”
They’ll need to do that away from the Garden for their next three games, a tour through Atlanta, New Orleans and Cleveland. Two hallmarks for the Knicks once they started to find their footing last winter were playing well on the road, and immediately correcting single-game lapses like the one they experienced Wednesday. They’ll need to summon both of those qualities.
“We have ourselves a chance to win,” Randle said.
At their best a year ago, they always did. At their best Wednesday night, they stood toe-to-toe with the beasts of the East, stood eye-to-eye with them, had a real chance to send an early message. They didn’t do that. It’s a long season. It comes at you fast. Thibodeau says they’ll learn from this. Friday night we’ll see if they did.
