NBA

Knicks ‘D’ forces Celtics’ Green to crumble after red-hot half

For 24 minutes, it looked like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish had walked through the door for the Celtics. The trio apparently came back disguised as Jeff Green who had 20 points by halftime.

Then in the second half, it looked like the Celtics had Eric Montross, Jerome Moiso and Acie Earl as the cavalry.

“They started to be more aggressive,” said Green, who shot 1-of-5 and scored six points in the second half to finish with 26. “When I caught the ball there were double teams. I didn’t run in transition as I did in the first half. I have to be more aggressive.”

Well, it’s harder to be aggressive when the other team puts a bull’s-eye the size of Montana on your back. In the fourth quarter especially, the Knicks swarmed Green and forced him into four turnovers, three of them in the last 5:30. That’s what Celtics fans will remember of Green in Boston’s 85-78 Game 1 defeat, not his 7-of-10 first half shooting, including 3-of-3 on 3-pointers.

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“Their double teams were strong, they forced turnovers, we weren’t in our sets correctly,” said Green, who played all 81 games this season after missing all of last year following heart surgery. “We were back on our heels, which is something we can’t do.”

The Knicks had a say in it, of course. They switched coverages and used anybody and virtually everybody on Green.

“We just made it tough. He’s going to make shots. We got very fortunate that he missed shots in the second half. We didn’t shut anybody down. We know Pierce and Garnett and Green can put the ball in the basket, so we’ve just got to make it as tough as possible,” explained Jason Kidd.

Coach Mike Woodson thought his Knicks were impossibly tough.

“We changed up coverages,” said Woodson, noting Carmelo Anthony “covered him most of the second half, he did an excellent job on him. And J.R. [Smith]. He’s a young talent. He’s got all the tools. I thought our defense did a great job on him in the second half.”