How the Celtics Adjusted to New York's Spacing

First of all, please accept my apolgies for the delay in getting today's newsletter sent out. I have some family stuff going on today and tomorrow. So, there may be a delay in the Magic coverage too.

Knicks 117, Celtics 119 OT

• A big first half from Karl-Anthony Towns, where he fell one rebound shy of a double-double, helped give the New York Knicks a six-point lead heading into half-time.
• Jaylen Brown is clearly banged up. The Celtics need to sit him for the final few games of the season.
  • No Al Horford in this one, either. As he sat the first night of the back-to-back, I would expect Kristaps B to miss the Orlando Magic game.
• Defensive rebounding was a problem for the Celtics, giving up 17 offensive boards and allowing 23 second-chance points.
  • The Celtics were out-rebounded by the Knicks 29-15 in the first half. That can't happen if Joe Mazzulla wants his team to control the tempo of the game.
• Porzingis was a flamethrower from deep.
  • He went 8-of-13 from the perimeter. According to the venerable Dick Lipe, Porzingis is now the "first seven-footer in NBA history with four career games with at least 8 three-pointers, as well as the first to do it twice in a season"

• This absolute DAGGER midway through the third quarter was a 'jump out of your chair' moment. I hope you cleaned up all that popcorn!

• “The ball rolled to me, and I said, ‘This is destiny.’ So I just picked it up and let it fly.” – Porzingis during his postgame news conference. What a guy.
• New York's biggest run of the game was +10 points, and it came during the opening three or so minutes of the game.
  • Boston's biggest run was +9, and it happened on two occasions. The first was late in the second quarter. And the second was the opening four or so minutes of the third.
• Sloppy passing night from both teams. The Celtics had 15 turnovers, six of them classified as bad passes. The Knicks had 11 turnovers, seven of them being bad decisions.
• Jayson Tatum had his way with Mikal Bridges. In the 3:24, Bridges was tasked with guarding the All-NBA forward. Tatum went 5-of-6 from the field, most of those shots coming from the mid-range, too.

• I mean...How are you supposed to guard that? And Bridges is a high-level defender, too.
• The Celtics are now one win away from making it two consecutive 60-win seasons. The last time that happened was during the Kevin Garnett era - 2007-2008 and 2008-2009

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I'm going to try something different today.

Here's one key thing I noticed...

☘️ The Knicks spacing was a problem for Boston.