BOSTON — The Celtics climbed back to the .500 mark with ease on Tuesday night, cruising to a 110-89 win over the Knicks on the backs of their young stars. Jaylen Brown scored a game-high 23 points for the hosts, while Jayson Tatum added a career-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. The duo helped Boston build a 25-point first half lead that was not seriously threatened for the final 36 minutes. Together, Brown and Tatum also became the youngest pair of Celtics to score 20-plus points in the same game.
Enes Kanter had a team-high 16 points and 19 rebounds for the Knicks. The Celtics improved to 2-2 with the victory and will head to Milwaukee to face the Bucks in a rematch on a nationally televised TNT broadcast Thursday.
GAME: No. 4 of 82:
WHO: Celtics (1-2) vs. Knicks (0-2)
WHEN: 7:30 EST
WHERE: TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 the Sports Hub
TV: NBC SPORTS BOSTON
BOX SCORE: NBA.COM
Projected starters
Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes
Inactive: Marcus Morris (knee) is out for the week but is shooting to make a return on Oct. 30 vs. San Antonio. Marcus Smart (ankles) is out. He will travel with the Celtics for their upcoming road trip to Milwaukee and Miami and remains day-to-day. Gordon Hayward (ankle) is out indefinitely.
Knicks
PG: Ramon Sessions
SG: Courtney Lee
F: Tim Hardaway Jr.
F: Kristaps Porzingis
C: Enes Kanter
Inactives: Frank Ntilikina (ankle) is out. Joakim Noah is out due to suspension.
THIRD QUARTER THOUGHTS
- Knicks got the lead down to 16 a couple times but this quarter was mostly just both teams treading water, which is perfectly fine with the Celtics holding a 21-point lead at half.
- Enes Kanter on pace to put up the most meaningless 20-20 night in Garden history. He's got 16 points and 19 rebounds after three quarters, but is getting no help from his teammates as Courtney Lee is the only other Knick in double digits
- Knicks 0-of-8 from 3-point range after three quarters.
- Al Horford staring to shake off a slow start to the year with a phenomenal all-around offensive night. 10 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists in just 26 minutes.
- Aron Baynes headed to the locker room after coming out of the game but Abby Chin of NBC Sports Boston indicated it was just to stretch out his leg.
- Nice minutes for Daniel Theis in the second half of the quarter, including a corner 3 off of a dish from Kyrie Irving.
- Jayson Tatum picked up in the second quarter right where Jaylen Brown left off in the first quarter. Captaining a bench unit with Rozier/Larkin/Ojeleye/Theis, Tatum exploded for 10 points in the first 4:25 of the second quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers. It was a savvy play by Stevens to force Tatum to be aggressive as the unit's top scorer options and he delivered.
- Not a great half for Rozier from a shooting standpoint (1-of-5) but really liked how he set the offense and pushed the piece. Didn't even attempt a shot before piling up three assists at the start of the frame.
- Only six combined points for the bench but didn't matter with Tatum scoring. More importantly, they pushed the lead up with Irving/Brown/Horford resting, which is a reflection of how bad the Knicks are more than anything else.
- Kanter with eight points and 16 rebounds in the first half but the rest of the Knicks aren't doing much of anything. Porzingis continues to be shutdown (1-of-8 shooting) and Tim Hardaway Jr. didn't score in 16 minutes. It's going to be a long season in the Big Apple since these guys just don't do anything particularly well on either end besides offensive rebound.
- Best ball movement of the season for the Celtics offense this half. 15 assists on 20 field goals made.
- What a start for Jaylen Brown. The 21-year-old wing caught fire in the first quarter on his birthday despite a botched alley-oop to start the game. A pair of 3-pointers and a couple nice moves in the post helped pave the way to a 13-point quarter, putting him well on his way to topping his career-high of 26 points.
- Kyrie Irving really found his groove in the second half of the quarter against a bad Knicks defense. He abused Jarrett Jack and other Knicks in switched and posted an efficient 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting
- Enes Kanter piled up nine rebounds in nine minutes, mostly on offensive rebounds after C's blocks. The defensive rebounding hasn't been great against the true bigs the Knicks play.
- Terrific defensive work by Horford so far on Porzingis, who started the game 1-of-6.
- Rozier brought nice energy off the bench yet again by pushing the ball in transition
- Lots of great shot chances from opening tips but they weren't going down for first half of quarter until Brown/Irving got hot. Encouraging progress nonetheless.
- Per Celtics PR, Kristaps Porzingis has opened his 2017-18 season by scoring at least 30 points in back-to-back games for the first time in his NBA career. Porzingis entered the year with three games of 30+ points throughout his first 138 career NBA games.
- Jabari Bird will be active with the Celtics for this game, which begins the count on his 45-day limit with the team for a two-way contract. G-League training camp opens this week.
- Terry Rozier has posted 14 points and seven rebounds in two of his first three games despite only playing an average of 25 minutes per game in those contests. He leads the Celtics in PER and win shares through three games. Stevens on Rozier: "I just like the way Terry is playing. Terry has been as consistent as anyone we’ve had all the way through the preseason. I’m really looking forward to his continued growth. He can play with Kyrie, he can play with Shane, he can play by himself as the primary point guard. We’ll need him to continue to score and defend."
- Smart will sit to give the ankles some additional rest. Boston can afford to be cautious against an opponent like the Knicks who are ranked in the bottom five of the league in both offensive and defensive rating to start the season.
- Stevens on Smart's progress: "So he did a greater progression of running then started to go through some of the lateral movements and felt some soreness going through it. He’ll be unavailable tonight and stay on this day-to-day thing and hopefully progresses well enough to give it a go on our trip. But the plan is to travel him, regardless."