Celtics beat New York, 104-102, on late Tatum jumper

Marcus Morris doesn’t want you to forget him, regardless of what he may say.

The Knicks forward scored 13 points in the last 3:55 Friday night, tying the score at 102-102 with 4.7 seconds left. But he saw it all go for naught when Jayson Tatum hit a corner jumper with 1.3 seconds left for a 104-102 Celtics win – their fourth straight and second over the Knicks in six days.

Tatum’s big shot, which polished off a 24-point night by the Celtics forward, made another great night by his own new teammate stand up.

Kemba Walker broke the 32-point mark for his third straight time, this time with 33. He also once again reminded the crowd of what it’s like to have a player with a presence at the foul line, where Walker was 14-for-14.

The Celtics hit five 3-pointers in the third quarter, including two each from Hayward and Walker, and needed every bit of it to take a thin 75-74 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Knicks wiped that out with a Kevin Knox transition drive for the first basket of the fourth, triggering a furious chain of the lead changing hands six times, until Mitchell Robinson tied the score at 82-82 off a three-point play with 8:18 left.

Walker broke the tie with two free throws, only for Barrett to finish off the break down the other end for an 84-84 knot, with Frank Ntilikina good for an 86-84 lead. A fresh exchange was engaged, with the lead changing hands another four times, this time with a Walker three-point play and Hayward 3-pointer producing leads.

Tatum followed up Hayward’s bomb with two free throws, good for a 92-88 lead that Morris cut to a point with a corner bomb.

Brad Stevens challenged a Walker turnover call with 3:36 left, won the video review, and the Celtics guard rewarded the challenge with an up-top three for a 95-91 lead with 3:31 left.

Morris came right back with his second trey of the quarter, only to get called for a hard foul on Walker, who hit twice with 2:14 left for a 97-94 lead. The next time down, following a Barrett miss, Tatum scored off the baseline for a 99-94 lead.

Julius Randle and Marcus Smart swapped free throws, and Morris, fouled with 57.6 seconds left by Tatum in 3-point range, missed the last of his three attempts, but came back to hit two 30 seconds later. Walker hit twice from the line, and Morris struck from downtown again,. This time with 4.7 seconds left frfor a 102-102 tie.

Tatum, though, got the ball in the right corner and hit from 20-feet over Barrett for the game-winner.

The Celtics were out-rebounded by a 30-23 margin in the first half, with the Knicks crashing got 11 offensive rebounds and taking a 10-5 edge in second chance points.

Everything considered, the Celtics could consider themselves fortunate to only trail by a point (50-49) at halftime, with Tatum leading the offense with a 13-point, 5-for-9, three-trey first half.

But Hayward hit a pair of 3-pointers over the first 2:31 of the third quarter, the second triggering a 13-3 Celtics run that also included a Tatum three and five points from Walker – all of it good for a 65-59 lead.

And when the Knicks began scoring again, Walker kept the Celtics a step ahead with two 3-pointers in a one-minute span, the latter for a 73-69 lead.

New York threes from Wayne Ellington, Morris and Kevin Knox kept the margin tight, though, with the Celtics taking a thin 75-74 lead into the fourth quarter.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2PEZ8m4