New York Knicks Dominate Boston Celtics Behind Jalen Brunson’s Masterpiece

If you walked into TD Garden on Sunday afternoon expecting a celebration, you walked into the wrong building. The vibe was supposed to be electric. A high-stakes appetizer before the New England Patriots took the field for the Super Bowl later that evening. Instead, the New York Knicks served up a cold dish of reality, dismantling the Boston Celtics 111-89 in a game that felt over long before the final buzzer.

Let’s be honest: this was ugly. It was the kind of performance that makes you want to check the rim to see if someone put a lid on it.

Brunson Cooks While Boston Bricks

Jalen Brunson didn’t care about the festivities or the upcoming football game. He came to work. The Knicks’ star guard was an absolute surgeon, carving up Boston’s defense for 31 points and dishing out 8 assists. He set the tone immediately, dropping 15 in the first quarter alone while the Celtics looked like they were running in mud.

While Brunson was putting on a clinic, the Celtics were busy building a new arena with all the bricks they were laying. Shooting 7-for-41 from downtown is almost impressive in how bad it is. That’s a 17.1% clip. You’re not beating a G-League team shooting like that, let alone a contender like New York.

The Knicks defense deserves a ton of credit here. They were physical, they were disciplined, and without OG Anunoby, they still managed to make life miserable for Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. Brown got his 26 points, sure, but it took him 25 shots to get there. Nothing came easy.

The Vucevic Experiment Hits a Snag

We need to talk about the new guy. Nikola Vucevic, fresh off a trade and a solid debut, looked completely lost on Sunday. He finished with 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting and was a minus-24 in just 23 minutes.

Chemistry takes time. You can’t just drop a big man into Joe Mazzulla’s system and expect seamless integration overnight. But watching Vucevic try to navigate the spacing while the Knicks swarmed him was painful. He picked up three fouls in his first eight minutes, which pretty much killed any rhythm he hoped to establish. With Jayson Tatum still rehabbing that Achilles, Boston needs Vucevic to be a reliable release valve, not a liability.

Bright Spots In a Sea of Green Misery

If you’re a Celtics fan looking for a silver lining so you don’t go into the Super Bowl angry, look no further than Baylor Scheierman. He was the only person in green who seemed to understand the assignment.

Starting in place of the injured Sam Hauser, Scheierman was everywhere. He pulled down 13 rebounds, dished 5 assists, and scored 10 points. He was the only Celtic with a positive plus/minus. He battled for boards, moved the ball, and played with the kind of heart that was missing from the rest of the roster. If there’s a moral victory here, it’s that Scheierman looks ready for bigger minutes.

Mazzulla’s Bag Of Tricks

You have to appreciate Mazzulla’s willingness to get weird. We saw the return of the “Hack-A-Mitch” strategy in the second quarter, targeting Knicks Center Mitchell Robinson and his shaky free-throw stroke.

And you know what? It worked perfectly—at first. Robinson bricked four straight free throws, and Boston went on a run to cut the lead to seven by halftime. It was a classic Belichickian move on a day meant for football. But the gimmick couldn’t save them in the second half. When the Knicks adjusted and the Celtics kept missing open threes, the strategy fell apart. You can’t hack your way to a win when you can’t put the ball in the hoop yourself.

Standings Shakeup In the East

This loss stings for more than just pride. With the win, the Knicks moved into a tie with Boston for the No. 2 seed in the East (34-19), and they currently hold the tiebreaker. We are deep into the season now. These games matter. If Boston wants home-court advantage in a potential playoff series against this gritty New York squad, they can’t afford no-shows like this.

By the fourth quarter, the Garden crowd had seen enough. The “Let’s Go Knicks” chants from the traveling New York fans were drowning out the home crowd, until the Boston faithful switched gears and started chanting “Let’s Go Pats.” It was a fitting end. The Celtics clearly didn’t have it. Boston fans can only hope the Patriots have better aim than the Celtics’ shooters did today.