The Celtics say they harried and harassed the Knicks out of any semblance of team basketball Sunday. It took just a few minutes of Boston defense to get the Knicks to give up passing and start chucking, the result a humiliating 114-73 rout in front of a bitter, booing sellout crowd at the Garden.
“We did a great job of taking them out of their rhythm. We stopped their tendencies and we threw a lot of different things at them. I thought that helped,’’ said Boston center Jared Sullinger, who held Andrea Bargnani to two points on 1-of-7 shooting. “I think in the first quarter we just played hard, and that’s when they went individual. They stopped running team plays and started turning to [isolation].’’
Team play had helped the Knicks rout Brooklyn and Orlando, Carmelo Anthony taking a total of 22 shots but handing out 10 of their 49 assists in the two wins. But Sunday, as soon as Boston turned up the defensive intensity, the ball stopped moving, and the Knicks settled for one-on-one play and contested shots. Oh, and an 18-1 first-quarter deficit.
“We took them out of what they wanted to do, forced them to take tough, contested 2s and limited the 3-point shot, and were able to keep them from getting any kind of rhythm going,’’ said forward Gerald Wallace, whose Celtics held the Knicks to 13 assists and 34.2 percent shooting.
“We played the way we wanted to play. Stick to our game plan, continued to force them into talking contested 2s, don’t let them get going from the 3-point line. They were able to get to the free-throw line, but I think we did a great job and as the lead began to grow, we continued to feel ourselves defensively and say, ‘Hey, let’s turn it up more.’ We started aggressive defensively and were able to do it.’’
The Knicks became only the second team in NBA history to win back-to-back games by 30-plus points and then lose their next by 30 or more, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens had said before the game Anthony forces teams to double-team him, but said the flow of Sunday’s game let the Celtics guard him straight up.
“Yeah, and he’s a hard guy to guard one-on-one,’’ Stevens said. “He’s going to make difficult shots. He missed a couple that he normally makes when we got switched up with our [center] on him a couple times early. You don’t want to do that unless you have to do it, and it never really presented itself.’’