The newly revamped New York Knicks struggled in their first game against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.
After making big offseason moves to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, the Knicks fell behind early and lost to the Celtics 132-109 on the night Boston raised its championship banner.
Hoping to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000, the Knicks found it difficult to keep up with Boston’s many 3-pointers as the Celtics tied an NBA record by making 29 shots from beyond the arc.
It started badly and didn’t improve for New York.
“Defensively, obviously, we’ve got to be a lot better than we were,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “They put a lot of pressure on you. … Sometimes we managed to contest the initial shot, but then the rebound went long over our heads.”
Towns scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in his debut with the Knicks. Bridges, brought in to help defend against Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, contributed 16 points.
New York was down by 19 points after the first quarter, and the gap grew to 26 points after three quarters, leading to a long stretch of meaningless play.
“They tied an NBA record in 3s,” New York guard Josh Hart said. “You have like three to four games a year where the team shoots the ball at an absurd clip, and sometimes there’s not much you can do about it.”
The Celtics made 29 out of 61 3-pointers, while New York was just 11 for 30. “You’ve got to give them credit,” Hart said. “Ring night and they came out.”
Hart even joked that Boston’s performance was unbelievable. “The NBA needs to drug test all of them,” he said with a smile. “I’ve never ever seen anything like that before.”
New York’s defense allowed Boston’s shooters to be open many times. The Celtics quickly moved the ball around the perimeter, and the Knicks often seemed out of position.
“Personally, I’ve got to be better,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said. “We can analyze everything, or whatever, but they made a lot of 3s. We have to be better on both sides of the ball. I have to be better on both sides of the ball.”
