The Knicks erased back-to-back 20-point deficits to stun the Boston Celtics in Games 1 and 2. Game 3 was something else entirely.
The Celtics didn’t just protect a 20-point lead — they expanded it, pushing their advantage to as many as 31 points en route to their first win of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Saturday. For the Knicks, it was a reality check. The same team that hadn’t beaten Boston all season pulled off two upsets to take a 2-0 lead, only to be humbled on their home floor as the reigning champs struck back at Madison Square Garden.
Boston will now look to build on that momentum in Game 4 on Monday night. The Knicks, meanwhile, are trying to keep the loss in perspective.
“[The mood] was good,” said starting forward Josh Hart after practice at the team’s Tarrytown facility on Sunday. “We knew it was gonna be a tough series. When we win, we’re not too high and when we’re low, we’re not too low. We always try to stay even. Make adjustments, but the mentality, the character of the team doesn’t change.”
If the Knicks are going to close the door on this series, they’ll need to confront the same habits that haunted them during the regular season and first round. Inconsistency. Flat starts. Defensive lapses. The same bad habits that reappeared in a lopsided Game 3 loss.
They’ve struggled to string together complete, 48-minute performances. They’ve fallen behind early, particularly in first and third quarters. And while they’ve often rallied late — relying on grit and shot-making to claw back — that formula may work against the Pistons. It won’t against the defending champs.
“You have to earn your wins. You have to put the work into winning,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said Sunday. “We knew coming in [that] they were going to be coming in with force, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready for that. And you know — we’ve got to play a strong 48 minutes of basketball.”
The Knicks got away with poor three-point defense in Games 1 and 2 because Boston shot just 25-of-100 from downtown. Saturday was a full regression to the mean — a 20-of-40 performance from deep, with the Celtics hitting six of their first seven from three in the opening quarter alone.
“That probably gave them confidence early,” said Thibodeau. “The one thing that you can’t be is you can’t be indecisive against them because of the five-out [offense with five shooters on the floor].”
In Games 1 and 2, the Knicks scrambled hard to contest. They were physical, desperate, connected. That urgency vanished in Game 3. Up 2-0, at home, the three-point defense collapsed — and the team that led the league in threes during the regular season walked into open looks all game.
“We didn’t make them miss. Last game they had — especially to start the game — easy catch-and-shoots, easy walk-in 3s,” said Hart. “So we’ve gotta be more aggressive at the point of contact and we gotta force them into tougher shots.
“They’re good shooters. We knew they weren’t gonna shoot whatever they were shooting before. We knew they were gonna have a good shooting game at some point. The biggest thing is we let them start the game in such a rhythm. Especially with any NBA team in general, but when you have a team with that many shooters, when you let them get confident, it’s tough to stop.”
Boston’s offensive rebounding didn’t help. Thibodeau pointed to multiple loose balls that turned into second-chance threes.
“When [a three] is shot, you have to get to bodies and make sure you’re not giving them a second or third crack at it,” he said. “And then, there were four or five loose balls they were able to get that turned into threes for them. We have to understand how important that is.”
The problem is both effort and identity. The Knicks ranked dead last in opponent three-point percentage during the regular season — and it’s caught up to them again. They’ve now been outscored by a combined 29 points in the first quarters of all three games. The 36–20 opening deficit in Game 3 snowballed into a blowout before halftime.
“We have to come out at the start of the game with a sense of urgency. That’s something that we didn’t do,” said Hart. “We gotta give them credit – they’re the defending champions. We knew they weren’t just gonna lay down and let us win four in a row and go on our merry way. We knew that wasn’t gonna happen. Now it’s time to watch film, go through our adjustments and come out tomorrow with energy and physicality.”
It’s not just about defense. The Knicks shot 8-of-23 in the first quarter. Missed shots became transition fuel for the Celtics — and a missed open three is often the first domino in a 6-0 run.
“We missed some shots early and we got back on our heels, and that hurt us some,” said Thibodeau. “Then, we missed some wide open shots, and you gotta make shots.”
The Knicks still lead the series. But the edge is slipping.
If Boston takes Game 4, the series becomes a best-of-three with two games back at TD Garden. The Knicks won twice in Boston already — but they can’t count on another 20-point comeback, and they can’t count on the basketball gods bailing them out.
Because if the Celtics return home having stolen back the two games they gave away, the series resets — and the pressure shifts entirely.
“The playoffs are going to challenge you in a lot of different ways. You can get knocked down. You got to get back up. Got to keep fighting,” said Thibodeau. “Emotionally the playoffs are roller coaster. There are gonna be highs. There are gonna be lows. You stick together no matter what, and you keep fighting. That’s what it comes down to.”
