![\"Boston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26100030898951.jpg\")
Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta, left, and New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns battle for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA game Thursday, April 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/John Munson)<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 Jayson Tatum was not looking forward to his first game back at Madison Square Garden since he ruptured his Achilles there last May.<\/p>\n
He won\u2019t remember it fondly, either.<\/p>\n
Despite a near-triple-double by Tatum and big games off the bench from Payton Pritchard and Baylor Scheierman, Boston fell to the New York Knicks in a 112-106 thriller Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Tatum played a season-high 40 minutes and finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists, but he shot the ball poorly (7-for-22; 2-for-10 from 3-point range), committed six turnovers and was a team-worst minus-16.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked good out there,\u201d head coach Joe Mazzulla said. \u201cObviously a ton of emotions, but once the game started, he kind of got in a game flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pritchard (23 points, 10-for-20) and Scheierman (20 points, 7-for-8) starred in supporting roles for a Celtics team that was playing without top scorer Jaylen Brown. The Celtics got little offensive production, however, from starters Derrick White and Sam Hauser, who scored a combined 14 points on 4-of-17 shooting.<\/p>\n
A win would have clinched the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the Celtics, who are looking to hold off the third-place Knicks as the playoffs approach. They can secure that spot with a win in either of their final two games (home against New Orleans on Friday and Orlando on Sunday), or if New York loses to either Toronto or Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Tatum, who is not yet cleared for back-to-backs, is unlikely to play Friday against the Pelicans at TD Garden.<\/p>\n
The Celtics listed four-fifths of their starting lineup as questionable for Thursday\u2019s game before upgrading White, Hauser and Neemias Queta to available. Brown was ruled out with Achilles tendonitis, the same ailment that sidelined him for wins over Atlanta and Charlotte late last month.<\/p>\n
Jordan Walsh filled Brown\u2019s spot, making his third start in the last seven games. Walsh sat through six consecutive DNP-CDs after Tatum\u2019s return but recently reclaimed a spot in Mazzulla\u2019s rotation. He spent much of the first half guarding Jalen Brunson, New York\u2019s All-Star point guard.<\/p>\n
Knicks wing Mikal Bridges opened the game with a personal 7-0 run, but the Celtics responded by scoring 21 of the next 28 points. Tatum sparked that early rally with a steal and a fast-break layup, followed by a spinning and-one finish over Josh Hart and a drawn foul on another drive. He also lobbed an alley-oop to Queta, who added a putback off a missed Hauser 3-pointer and drew a foul on his second offensive rebound of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta, left, and New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns battle for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA game Thursday, April 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/John Munson)<\/p>\n
Pritchard scored 11 points over the final five minutes of the opening period. Brunson countered with eight points in the final 63 seconds \u2014 free throws after a Walsh foul and two triples \u2014 to cut Boston\u2019s lead to 29-26.<\/p>\n
Mazzulla, clearly unhappy with the officiating late in the quarter, laid into crew chief Marc Davis during the ensuing timeout.<\/p>\n
The Knicks built a five-point lead early in the second by capitalizing on a series of Nikola Vucevic miscues. The Celtics\u2019 backup center allowed two makes at the rim by his counterpart, Mitchell Robinson, fouled Robinson on a lob and committed a turnover that led to a fast-break layup by Jordan Clarkson.<\/p>\n
The Celtics were outscored by nine points during Vucevic\u2019s first shift off the bench, continuing a trend that\u2019s persisted since his return from a fractured finger last weekend. The trade-deadline pickup was a minus-15 in the first half Sunday against Toronto and a minus-11 in the first quarter Tuesday against Charlotte.<\/p>\n
The remainder of the second quarter featured four lead changes and four ties. Boston trailed 54-53 at the half<\/p>\n
Tatum was one rebound shy of a double-double at halftime \u2014 plus four assists and a block on an OG Anunoby 3-pointer \u2014 but hadn\u2019t made a field goal since his pair of early-game layups (2-for-11; 0-for-5 from three). Pritchard was the Celtics\u2019 top scorer and shooter in the first half, scoring 15 points on 7-of-12. The rest of the team shot just 32.4% from the field.<\/p>\n
Walsh picked up his fourth foul two seconds into the second half, then surrendered a Bridges 3-pointer. New York proceeded to hit four of those in quick succession, mounting an 18-6 run to stretch its lead to 72-59.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the Celtics finally found their stroke from beyond the arc. Six 3-pointers from five different players \u2014 including Vucevic\u2019s first two 3-point makes since March 4 \u2014 erased New York\u2019s cushion and put Boston up 78-76.<\/p>\n
Pritchard and Scheierman \u2014 who subbed in for Walsh at the 9:23 mark of the third and played the rest of the way \u2014 each hit two threes in the quarter, and the Celtics took an 83-81 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n
Tatum sat for the first 2:15 of the final quarter before checking back in and burying a 3-pointer moments later. He then converted an and-one fadeaway over Robinson that made it 92-85, only for New York to reply with a 7-0 run. Hart\u2019s transition layup off a Tatum turnover tied it at 92-92 with 6:21 remaining.<\/p>\n
Boston scored on five of its next seven possessions \u2014 including two more 3-pointers by the red-hot Scheierman \u2014 but could not manufacture enough stops at the other end. Consecutive threes by Hart iced the game for New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Jayson Tatum was not looking forward to his first game back at Madison Square Garden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9127,11943,76699,11519,76698,76697,7074,25457,62095,9,11,1104,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-191705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-boston-celtics","9":"tag-celtics","10":"tag-celtics-highlights","11":"tag-celtics-knicks","12":"tag-celtics-recap","13":"tag-celtics-score","14":"tag-jaylen-brown","15":"tag-jayson-tatum","16":"tag-joe-mazzulla","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-headlines","19":"tag-new-york-knicks","20":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}