The Knicks won’t fully be able to measure themselves against the Celtics until they stand across from them — and at full strength — in the playoffs.
Even then, it might not be enough.
The Knicks hung with the team with the best record in the NBA until early in the second half in a nationally televised showcase matchup Saturday night, but the Celtics outclassed Tom Thibodeau’s team in the third and fourth quarters for a disappointing 116-102 loss at the Garden.
“It’s definitely difficult, but we gotta step up to the challenge,” All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson said after the Knicks fell for the sixth time in eight games. “I gotta be better, plain and simple, from a vocal leader standpoint to not turning the ball over, to being a better decision-maker.
“They got on runs, turnovers, getting in transition and getting 3s and timely offensive rebounds. They’re good for a reason, and we just gotta be better.”
Brunson led the Knicks (34-23) with 34 points and nine assists with three turnovers, while Josh Hart contributed 16 with eight rebounds. But Donte DiVincenzo, Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks combined to miss 21 of 30 shots for the Knicks, who had halted a four-game losing streak Thursday night with a road win over the Sixers.
Jaylen Brown netted a team-high 30 points, former Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis had 22 and Jayson Tatum added 19 for the Celtics.
“It doesn’t matter what I did; we didn’t bring it tonight fully,” Brunson added.
As Thibodeau noted earlier Saturday, the Knicks have been playing for several weeks without “our starting front line” of center Mitchell Robinson and forwards Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, all of whom are attempting to make it back to the lineup before the regular season ends.
The Knicks also had lost to Boston three times in their first 21 games this season, albeit before adding Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa in a late-December trade with the Raptors and then Bogdanovic and Burks in a separate deadline deal earlier this month with the Pistons.
With their eighth straight victory, the Celtics’ 45-12 record is easily tops in the NBA, and they have moved eight games clear of the second-place Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.
“Obviously, when you study it, their record tells you how good they are,” Thibodeau said. “It’s a team that doesn’t have many holes.”
Brown sank two early buckets from long range, and he finished with 10 in the first quarter as the Celtics built a 30-26 advantage.
Miles McBride managed nine points in the second, but Brown fed Porzingis inside, and the former Knick converted a traditional three-point play to boost the Boston cushion to 10.
The MSG crowd delighted in Porzingis drawing a technical foul for arguing a non-call moments later, however, and Brunson scored the next six for 19 through two quarters to help the Knicks shave the deficit to 62-58 by intermission.
Hart buried a 3-pointer on the Knicks’ opening possession of the second half, before Brunson’s three-point play evened the score at 64 barely one minute into the second half.
Still, triples by Derrick White, Porzingis, Tatum and Brown over barely two minutes of elapsed game time replenished the Celtics’ double-digit lead at 76-66. Jrue Holiday then extended it to 13 with Boston’s 12th make out of their first 21 attempts (57.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
Yet another trey from Tatum capped a 33-13 extended run that widened the Knicks’ hole to 20 points with under two minutes remaining in the period.
Two late free throws by Brunson closed the gap to 13 entering the fourth, however, and a mid-range jumper by Bogdanovic drew the Knicks within nine with nine minutes remaining. But three straight offensive rebounds by Al Horford ignited a game-sealing 8-0 surge by the Celtics for a 107-90 game with under seven minutes to play.
“The first half, I thought, was pretty good in terms of covering the line. … But in the third quarter, I thought we got hit with a barrage of 3s. And some of those were us. The communication wasn’t what it needed to be,” Thibodeau said. “We have to shore that up, and you just can’t afford to have it where you give up three 3s in a game that tight.
“Against a team like that, you have to play 48 minutes of really good basketball and we didn’t do that tonight.”
