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Kristaps Porzingis: Mystery illness during Celtics playoffs ‘as frustrating as you can imagine’

NEW YORK — When the Celtics’ season ended Friday night, Kristaps Porzingis still had not shaken the viral illness that depleted his energy and his talents throughout the Eastern Conference semifinals.

And worse yet, he still didn’t even know exactly what the illness was.

“Even right now, I played 11 minutes, but I’m gassed right now,” the Boston big man said after his team’s 119-81 elimination loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. “I could just lay down over here and take a little nap, easy. It was just extremely weird, and many symptoms that were super weird. I think nobody has a clear answer. I’ll see how I go from here.”

Porzingis was able to play in all 11 of the Celtics’ playoff games, but his minutes were severely restricted, and he looked like a shell of his usual highly impactful self when he was on the court. He averaged just 15.5 minutes per game in the second-round series against the Knicks, coming off the bench in four of the six contests.

His limitations hurt the Celtics at both ends of the court as Boston blew leads of 20, 20 and 14 points in three of its losses to New York. Porzingis did not see the floor after halftime in Games 1, 5 and 6.

“Super, super frustrating,” he said. “As frustrating as you can imagine. Just to not be able to help this team more, especially with (Jayson Tatum) going out. Not being too much of a help just hurts deep inside of here. It really sucks. It really, really sucks in these moments. But what can we do? I tried to give what I had, and we just fell short.”

Porzingis finished his postseason ranked last among all NBA players with at least 50 field-goal attempts in field-goal percentage, effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage. His 15.4% 3-point percentage was the worst of anyone who took at least 15 threes.

Despite Porzingis’ struggles and fatigue, including what he described as energy “crashes,” head coach Joe Mazzulla continued to play him as part of a frontcourt rotation with Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Porzingis said sitting out was not a consideration because his doctors, though unclear on his exact diagnosis, didn’t believe playing would make his condition worse.

“No, when I got the approval from the doctors, they don’t believe anything serious can happen,” he said. “They tested my heart, everything. Then it was just a matter of me, how much I can give. And yeah, I tried to give what I had. It wasn’t much, as you could see. But yeah, there was no bigger risk, so I was able to play.”

Porzingis hopes to gain more clarity about his illness this offseason, though he does not believe it is a long-term concern. After taking time to rest, he intends to play for his native Latvia in the EuroBasket 2025 tournament, which begins in late August, and hopes to use that as a springboard for a stronger start to the 2025-26 season. (He had to spend last offseason rehabbing following lower leg surgery and didn’t debut until late November.)

“I always try to downplay it in my own mind that ‘I’m good, I’m good,’ but I don’t know,” Porzingis said. “My system just is not perfect right now. It’s not working the way it should be. Many, many weird things. And it might be the best thing I need right now is just to rest, just get somewhere in the sun and just let my system kind of even itself up. But it definitely was a very, very frustrating time for me, and nothing much else to add, really. It’s going to be now for me at least some time to recover from this.”

Whether Porzingis still will be with Boston next season remains to be seen, as significant Celtics roster changes could be coming this summer. He has one year and $30.7 million remaining on his contract.

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Celtics shake up starting lineup for must-win Game 6 vs. Knicks

NEW YORK — Luke Kornet’s stellar Game 5 earned the Celtics big man a promotion.

Boston moved Kornet into the starting lineup for Friday night’s must-win Game 6 against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. He replaced Kristaps Porzingis, who’s been limited by symptoms from a lingering viral illness since the start of the series.

Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford rounded out the Celtics’ starting five, which lost Jayson Tatum to a season-ending ruptured Achilles in Game 4.

Kornet blocked a career-high seven shots in Wednesday’s victory at TD Garden, including five in the third quarter to help the Celtics turn a tie game at halftime into a 25-point romp. The 7-foot-2 center also had 10 points, nine rebounds, one assist and one steal and was a plus-20 in 26 minutes.

Teammates used words like “huge,” “stellar” and “unbelievable” to describe Kornet’s Game 5 performance.

“He came in and just seemed to always be in the right position,” White said after that game. “Seven blocks is crazy. He was unbelievable tonight and really stepped up when we needed him. He’s had a great season and was big-time for us tonight.”

Friday’s game was the first postseason start of Kornet’s eight-year career. The 29-year-old started 16 games this season (73 total appearances) and posted some of the best advanced metrics of any NBA player, including top-10 rankings in net rating, effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage. Among Celtics players, only Payton Pritchard has posted a higher net rating than Kornet this postseason.

Porzingis sat out the second half of Game 5, with head coach Joe Mazzulla saying he “couldn’t breathe” and only would have reentered if the Celtics “absolutely needed him.” He was a minus-12 in his 12 first-half minutes, totaling one point, one rebound and two turnovers.

Mazzulla said before Game 6 that Porzingis “is playing” Friday night.

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Derrick White filled Jayson Tatum’s scoring void in stellar Game 5 showing

Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama, Derrick White.

Those are the only NBA players ever to record a stat line like the one White posted in Wednesday night’s win-or-go-home matchup against the New York Knicks at TD Garden.

With Jayson Tatum lost for the rest of the playoffs and beyond after rupturing his Achilles tendon two nights earlier, White carried the scoring load for the Celtics, racking up 34 points on 9-of-16 shooting to help power Boston to a 129-102 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

White went 7-for-13 from 3-point range and, in an unusually aggressive showing by his standards, 9-for-11 from the foul line in the win. He also blocked three shots on the defensive end.

The veteran guard became the first player ever to notch at least 34 points, three blocks, seven made threes and 11 free-throw attempts in an NBA playoff game. Only Doncic (in Dec. 2023) and Wembanyama (in Dec. 2024) have reached those marks in any contest, with the latter requiring overtime.

“It felt good,” said White, who made his first four 3-point shots for the second consecutive game. “I got really good looks, especially to start the game. It’s always nice to get those good looks and just shoot it with confidence, so shoutout to my teammates for finding me, and I’ve just got to rise up there and knock them down.”

It was one of the best all-around postseason performances of White’s eight-year career. His point total was his third-highest in a playoff game. His blocks and 3-pointers were tied for second. His 11 free-throw attempts and nine makes were personal postseason bests, both nearly doubling his season highs of six and five, respectively.

White has only attempted double-digit free throws seven times in his career and just three times since he joined the Celtics midway through the 2022 season.

“It’s not like someone can step and do what JT does at the level he does it,” Boston’s single-season record holder for made threes said. “So we kind of have to play a little differently and just find ways to create offense, to rebound, just everything he does on the court. Everybody’s got to step up. We did that tonight, and we’ve got to try to find a way to win Game 6.”

The Celtics needed White’s scoring, plus similarly impressive performances from Jaylen Brown and Luke Kornet, to overcome the loss of Tatum, who underwent season-ending surgery on Tuesday and is not expected to return until sometime in 2026.

“Obviously, it’s tough to see,” said White, a close friend of Tatum’s. “I texted him. And that was kind of all I could do, really, was to text him. Just tell him that we believe in him and he’s going to have a great comeback from this setback. There’s really not much I can do, especially at this moment, but I’m going to support him throughout his whole journey, and I know he’s going to do whatever he needs to do to get back out there with us.”

Tatum also sent a pregame message to his teammates, which Kornet described as him “encouraging us to go out and keep doing the job, keep trying to accomplish the goal.” The Celtics will look to continue that journey Friday night when they return to Madison Square Garden for Game 6. Another win would set up a Game 7 at TD Garden on Monday.

“Our back’s against the wall,” White said. “It’s win or go home at this moment, and none of us want to go home. We understand that it’s only going to be tougher. We haven’t won anything yet. We’ve got to find a way to go to New York and win again.”

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How surprise hero rescued Celtics in ‘unbelievable’ Game 5 performance

Two minutes into the second half of Wednesday night’s must-win game at TD Garden, things looked dire for the Celtics’ frontcourt.

Al Horford had just picked up his fourth foul with 20 minutes still to play. Kristaps Porzingis had tried to play through his persistent illness but couldn’t do so effectively, posting a minus-12 with one point and one rebound over 12 brutal first-half minutes.

Porzingis “couldn’t breathe” at halftime, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla, so it was decided he would not reenter the game unless Boston “absolutely needed him.”

How did the Celtics solve this personnel problem? With a whole lot of Luke Kornet.

Boston’s third-string center played nearly the entire second half and delivered the most important performance of his winding NBA career. He scored 10 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked a career-high seven shots to help lift the Celtics to a 127-102 win over the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“He was great, both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “Did a great job protecting the rim. Did a great job defending without fouling. Did a great job on both ends of the floor. I just thought his presence was good, especially on the rebounding. He had nine rebounds, two offensive ones. He made some big-time plays for us.”

Five of Kornet’s blocks came during one six-minute stretch in the third quarter, during which Boston broke what had been a tight game — the teams were tied 59-59 at halftime — wide open. He played the entire third quarter, sat the first 2:18 of the fourth, then reentered after Horford was called for his fifth foul. Mazzulla rolled with Kornet the rest of the way, keeping him on the floor until Boston pulled its regulars with 2:34 remaining.

During that final shift, Kornet notched yet another block — this one on a Josh Hart 3-point attempt — and threw down a reverse alley-oop dunk off a lob from Jaylen Brown. His seven blocks were tied for the second-most in any playoff game in the last decade, trailing only ex-Celtic Robert Williams III, who swatted nine in a 2021 first-round loss to Brooklyn.

“Luke was huge tonight, defensively and offensively,” Brown said. “He was stellar. That’s the type of performance we need in the playoffs. Defensively, getting stops, making plays, big finishes. He got the backwards lob. Luke was great tonight.”

Derrick White, who led all scorers with 34 points and added three blocks, called Kornet’s outing “unbelievable.”

“He came in and just seemed to always be in the right position,” White said. “Seven blocks is crazy. He was unbelievable tonight and really stepped up when we needed him. He’s had a great season and was big-time for us tonight.”

With Jayson Tatum’s season-ending ruptured Achilles leaving a permanent hole in Boston’s starting lineup, Mazzulla could look to plug in Kornet for Game 6 on Friday at Madison Square Garden. A loss in Game 6 or a potential Game 7 back in Boston next Monday would end the Celtics’ season.

“Whatever Coach asks me to do, I’m just there to do it,” said Kornet, who began his NBA career with the Knicks in 2017. “Whether I’m starting or coming off the bench, not playing at all, that kind of comes with the responsibility that that is, and you have to do your best job with whatever position that you’re put in. And that’s what we’re always trying to do as a team.”

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Jayson Tatum shares message after season-ending Achilles surgery

Jayson Tatum shared his first public comments since his season-ending injury in a brief Instagram post Wednesday.

The Celtics star, who underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon, posted a photo of himself flashing a thumbs-up in a hospital bed with the caption: “Thankful for all the love and support.”

Boston’s team account shared the post, adding: “The comeback will be greater than the setback.”

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Tatum suffered the injury during Monday’s Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. He will miss the remainder of the playoffs and likely at least part, if not all, of the 2025-26 season, as major Achilles injuries can take upward of a year to fully recover from.

The Celtics did not announce a projected timetable for Tatum’s return but said in a statement that he is “expected to make a full recovery.”

Athletes from around the sports world commented on Tatum’s post to share their support, including U.S. Olympic teammates Stephen Curry and Tyrese Haliburton.

“Get right big fella!” Curry wrote.

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who attended Game 4 at MSG, also backed Tatum, writing: “Prayers up champion!!!”

The shorthanded Celtics will look to avoid elimination Wednesday night when they host the Knicks in Game 5 at TD Garden.

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Jayson Tatum injury: Knicks stars share ‘prayers’ for Celtics standout

NEW YORK — Before answering questions about how he carved up the Celtics’ defense in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Jalen Brunson shared some words of support for Jayson Tatum.

“Prayers out to JT, first and foremost,” the Knicks star said at the start of his postgame news conference after New York’s 121-113 win over Boston at Madison Square Garden.

Tatum suffered what appeared to be a serious lower leg injury late in the fourth quarter. He writhed in pain on the court, had to be carried off by Celtics staffers and was seen on ESPN’s broadcast riding in a wheelchair after exiting down the tunnel.

“I thought he rolled his ankle,” said Brunson, who scored 38 points to lead New York back from a 14-point third-quarter deficit. “Obviously, you want to go out there and compete, but when a player of his caliber goes down and he’s rolling in pain like that, you know something’s wrong. That’s why I just gave my thoughts and prayers. You never want to see something like that, ever.”

Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns also said he was “praying for” Tatum.

“I saw him down on the court. It looked bad,” Towns said. “Prayers to him and his family. Never want to see anybody in the NBA get hurt like that. Hope it’s something minor and not something major.”

He added: “I’ve been in a situation like that with my calf. I just walked up, obviously respectfully of his space. I just put my head down and prayed to my mother, prayed to God, to put protection over him and comfort. Whatever the injury may be, I hope it’s minor like I said. Whatever the process he has to go through, hopefully is a quick, painless process and (we) see him back in the NBA. The NBA needs that kind of superstar talent that he is. I know we’re competing at the highest level in the playoffs, but this is a brotherhood.”

Tatum will undergo an MRI on Tuesday to determine the extent of his injury, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. If the diagnosis is a torn Achilles, he would be looking at a lengthy recovery that could wipe out his entire 2025-26 season.

“I never want to see a player get hurt,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And I know he’s been a great player and he’s a great guy, too, so I hope it’s not a serious injury.”

Tatum turned in a standout performance before his injury, racking up 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks in a losing effort. The 27-year-old six-time All-Star has never missed more than 10 games in any of his eight NBA seasons and has missed just one career playoff game.

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Kristaps Porzingis comes off bench in Game 3 after ominous health report

NEW YORK — For the second straight game Saturday night, Kristaps Porzingis filled the unfamiliar role of bench player for the Celtics.

With the big man still feeling the effects of the viral illness he contracted in late February, head coach Joe Mazzulla opted to start Al Horford and limit Porzingis’ minutes in Game 3 against the New York Knicks, just as he did in Boston’s Game 2 loss three nights earlier.

Though Porzingis was a super-sub for the Celtics during last year’s NBA Finals, when he was dealing with lower leg injuries, he entered this second-round series having started all but four of the games he’d played over his 10-year NBA career.

Porzingis’ shooting struggles persisted Saturday — after an 0-for-3 showing, he’s now shooting 33% from the field and 15.8% from three this postseason — but he was impactful as a rim protector with three blocks and four rebounds. The Celtics outscored the Knicks by 11 points over his 19 minutes, the best mark of any bench player, en route to a 115-93 victory at Madison Square Garden.

“He gave us some good stuff,” Mazzulla said. “Both ends of the floor, rim protection, his screening offensively — everybody got some good stuff out of that. I appreciate him. Keep battling through.”

Mazzulla said before the game that Porzingis “felt better” on Friday and would “give it a go.”

Though the exact nature of Porzingis’ illness has not been reported, ESPN’s Shams Charania shared new details about his condition during the network’s pregame coverage.

“He felt that he had actually turned a corner right as the playoffs started in mid-April, but in his own words, he had a crash right before Game 1 of this series,” Charania said. “He’s tried a lot of different things to try to mitigate the side effects. I’m told he’s been receiving IVs, immune boosters. He’s even changed up his sleep patterns to try to get more rest. He’s essentially waking up every day hoping and praying that he feels better.”

Porzingis said after Game 2 on Wednesday that he’s “just not feeling (his) best” and that it “just kills (him) inside that it’s happening in this moment.” Though he’s appeared in all eight of the Celtics’ playoff games, he has not logged more than 22 minutes since Game 3 of Boston’s first-round series against Orlando and has been sub-20 in all three Knicks matchups.

“Because of the type of talent that he is and who he is as a player, you’d rather have him, and you feel his absence because of his versatility and what he’s able to do on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said on Thursday. “Our depth is a strength of what we have. At the same time, to have a guy like KP, you want to have him as much as you can. So we’ll look at KP to try to do that, and I know he’s doing what he can to make sure he’s available.”

Horford picked up the slack by playing 35 minutes in Game 3. The 38-year-old went 6-for-9 from the field and 3-for-4 from three, finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds, one assist and two blocks.



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Celtics’ greatest weapon is betraying them in disastrous Knicks series

What caused the Celtics to squander a 20-point second-half lead and lose to the New York Knicks — then suffer the exact same ignominy again two nights later?

There isn’t one all-encompassing answer to that question. Defensive breakdowns played a part. So did questionable late-game coaching decisions, like Joe Mazzulla pushing New York into the bonus with intentional fouls and keeping his final timeout holstered in crunch time. Player availability, too, with Kristaps Porzingis limited by a long-running illness and Sam Hauser sidelined with an ankle sprain.

But the simplest, most pertinent and most alarming explanation is this:

The team that just set the NBA record for made 3-pointers in a season suddenly cannot shoot.

Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at TD Garden featured, without hyperbole, Boston’s two worst shooting performances of the season.

The Celtics did not shoot worse than 36.5% in any of their 82 regular-season games or five first-round playoff games. On Monday night against the Knicks, they shot 35.1% and lost 108-105 in overtime. On Wednesday, it was 36.2% in a 91-90 defeat.

In both games, the Celtics led by 20 points after the halfway mark of the third quarter. From those points forward, they went a combined 14-for-67 from the field (20.9%) and 8-for-42 from 3-point range (19.0%).

Overall, Boston has taken 100 threes in its second-round series and missed a staggering 75 of them. And its top players have been the worst offenders.

Jayson Tatum, after torching Orlando’s vaunted defense in the prior round, was 7-for-23 in Game 1 and 5-for-19 in Game 2. He’s attempted 20 threes and made five.

Jaylen Brown has posted similar stat lines: 7-for-20 in Game 1, 8-for-23 in Game 2, 3-for-17 from deep between the two, with just three points after halftime Wednesday night.

Derrick White, the owner of the Celtics’ single-season 3-point record, made his first two triples in Game 2, then bricked eight of his final nine.

“We just had the ability to make plays tonight, and we didn’t,” Brown said after Wednesday’s loss. “Me, Jayson, Derrick — we got a lot of great looks, as we’ve just got to convert. We’ve got to make plays. We just didn’t make plays tonight, and that was the story of the game. Our defense did enough. We got some great open looks. We’ve got to convert those.”

After a Payton Pritchard 3-pointer put the Celtics ahead 84-68 with 8:40 remaining in Game 2, they proceeded to miss their next 13 shots — four by Brown, three by White, two by Tatum, two by Pritchard and two by Al Horford, who started over Porzingis and went 2-for-11 (0-for-5 from three). Boston went more than eight consecutive minutes without a made field goal, during which New York completed its comeback, pulling ahead on an 18-footer by Jalen Brunson with 1:59 remaining.

Tatum finally ended that drought with a go-ahead end-to-end dunk with 18.1 seconds to play, but Brunson free throws on the ensuing possession provided the winning margin for New York. Tatum was unable to get a shot off against Mikal Bridges as time expired, the same fate that befell Brown in the waning moments of Game 1.

(Tatum did not speak with reporters postgame because the arena was evacuated before his news conference could begin. The cause: a minor fire in a TD Garden elevator shaft, a fitting end to a dysfunctional night for the building’s tenants.)

The Knicks boast three talented wing defenders in Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart, but they had minimal success against Tatum, Brown and Co. during the regular season. In four meetings, the Celtics shot 50% from the field and 43.5% from three while averaging 125.0 points per game — marks they haven’t sniffed in this series.

“All throughout the game, we could’ve probably shot the ball better, did this better, then we (could have pulled) away even more,” said Porzingis, whose illness limited him to three fourth-quarter minutes over the two games. “But they hung around, and similar result. It sucks really bad right now. But we got a lot of basketball to be played, and let’s see where this goes.”

Wednesday’s loss pushed the Celtics into a jam they’ve successfully escaped just twice in franchise history. The other 16 times they fell behind 0-2 in a best-of-seven series, they lost, as such teams across the NBA have done 85.7% of the team. The lone exceptions for Boston came in the opening round of the 2017 playoffs, when the Celtics won four straight to knock off the eighth-seeded Chicago Bulls in six, and the 1969 NBA Finals, when Bill Russell won his final title in a seven-game epic against Wilt Chamberlain’s Lakers.

These Celtics can draw optimism from the fact that they were the league’s best road team this season (33-8 away from Boston) and among its most resilient, having not lost three straight games in nearly two full years (since the 2023 East finals against Miami). Also, the results of their two monumentally poor shooting performances were a three-point loss in overtime and a one-point loss, both of which they had a chance to tie or win on the final possession.

But those bafflingly inefficient outings have left the Celtics with little room for error. After becoming the first team in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) to lose multiple games after leading by 20-plus in the same postseason (never mind the same series), they now must win four of their next five to avoid becoming the sixth straight defending NBA champion to bow out before the conference finals.

“Not an ideal situation, being down 0-2,” said Brown, who called the series deficit “inexcusable.” “But what’s done is done. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready to come out … for Game 3. I think we’re due for a lot of makes. I think we had a lot of great shots tonight that, once again, didn’t go in. We’ve just got to relax, take a deep breath, come out and play Celtic basketball. Just like we’re down 0-2, we can tie this thing back up.”

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Joe Mazzulla explains why he didn’t call timeout late in Celtics’ Game 2 collapse

Trailing by one with 24 seconds left in Wednesday’s Game 2 of the Celtics’ second-round playoff series with the Knicks, Joe Mazzulla called a timeout.

Mazzulla designed a play for Jayson Tatum to get a running start with the ball thanks to a screen at mid-court that would create a runway for him going at Knicks center Mitchell Robinson and then the hoop.

It worked.

Tatum dunked the ball, and the Celtics jumped to a 90-89 lead with 18.5 seconds left. But on the next possession, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson drew two foul shots and sank them both, putting Boston again down one, now with just 12.7 ticks on the clock.

This time, Mazzulla didn’t call a timeout. Instead, Tatum took the ball up the floor and eventually tried to get around Robinson again to no avail, turning the ball over in a swarm of Knicks defenders in the left corner and dropping the Celtics into an 0-2 series hole.

So why didn’t Mazzulla call a timeout?

“(We) got a good look on the exact same play 20 seconds earlier, tried to execute the exact same thing. They did a better job of their lower pick-up point,” Mazzulla said post-game. “We weren’t able to get the advantage that we had on the last Tatum dunk. So (a) good full-court setting, they subbed out (Karl-Anthony) Towns, we weren’t able to sub out Brunson, had action there, and just didn’t execute.”

Mazzulla said the remaining time was a consideration in his decision to not call his final timeout. The Celtics could attack the matchups available to them, which included Robinson.

“You don’t know that at the point of (Tatum) was driving left. (I) thought he had a good look at an angle, didn’t shoot it,” Mazzulla said. “Ran out of time.”

Overall, Mazzulla credited New York for making shots and creating stops over the fourth quarter that the Celtics didn’t. Boston led by 16 with 8:40 remaining and as many as 20 late in the third quarter.

“Yeah, they made every play, and I said, even throughout the end of the third (quarter), beginning of the fourth quarter, I thought we generated some good looks, and then I thought we had some live ball turnovers, and they took advantage of it,” Mazzulla said. “They made the necessary plays to win. We put ourselves in position to do that, and we just didn’t make the plays.”

The Celtics and Knicks will return to action Saturday for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m.

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