BOSTON — There are still levels to the NBA, categories of contenders. And the Knicks, despite their encouraging trajectory, are still below the Celtics.
Well below.
Against the odds versus the cream of the Eastern Conference, the Knicks were overrun down the stretch in Beantown on Monday night and lost, 114-98, snapping their three-game winning streak because Jayson Tatum (35 points, 17 in the fourth quarter) is a bona fide MVP candidate.
“I mean, he’s a great player, he’s a great scorer,” Julius Randle conceded.
The game’s pivotal sequence occurred with about eight minutes remaining, when the Knicks cut their deficit to three.
Then Josh Hart jumped into a jump-shooting Tatum on the following possession, giving the Celtics a four-point play.
Tom Thibodeau’s squad (5-5) never recovered.
“Against them a bad minute can be 10 points and it was,” the coach said.
To be fair, the Knicks were playing without RJ Barrett, arguably the team’s best player to start the campaign — and definitely its most consistent.
He had a migraine and never made it to the Knicks’ bench.
It was also the second game of a back-to-back, with the Knicks traveling here after blasting the Hornets on Sunday at MSG.
So it had the trappings of a schedule loss and — despite Julius Randle declaring “we owe them one” a night earlier because of their season-opening defeat — the Knicks obliged by allowing Boston’s high-octane offense to ignite in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks were outscored in the final eight minutes, 23-10, by the Celtics (8-2).
“I think our pace was just a little bit too slow. We have to play a little bit faster,” Randle said. “They’re a team that defensively switches everything, and they try to funnel everything to [Kristaps] Porzingis, let him protect the rim. They’re banking on us playing isolation. We have to play a little bit faster against a team like that, get downhill, drive and kick, spray, get them moving.”
The good news is the five-game road trip, which started in Boston, gets much easier.
The next opponents — the Hawks, Wizards, Hornets and Timberwolves — are a step down.
“In the end, it’ll always balance out and we’ll be fine,” Randle said.
Hart started in Barrett’s spot and alternated guarding Tatum with Quentin Grimes.
Thibodeau resisted adding a new player to the rotation, meaning only eight appeared (until garbage time) and the starters logged heavy minutes.
Hart had 16 points in 43 minutes. Randle finished with 25 points on 7 of 19 shooting in 38 minutes. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 26 points, but only six in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks held an eight-point late in the second quarter but collapsed just before the break.
“First of all you’ve gotta give them a lot of credit,” Brunson said. “We had a one-point lead going into the third quarter but we should have had an eight- or nine-point lead. We didn’t really close out the first half well so they had momentum going into the third. I’m not even gonna say we — I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. I’m not leading like I should be leading. I just need to be better.”
Porzingis (21 points), who buried the Knicks in the season opener at MSG, agreed the end of the first half was an important momentum swing. And as it tends to do, that momentum swung toward the better team.
“That was important,” Porzingis said. “We knew they were that kind of team that could finish the quarters and create momentum for them. But actually we did that. Before the halftime, we created the momentum for ourselves and then we came out in the third or fourth on a different level.”
