Easy Beating Green: How Meaningful Was New York Knicks' Blowout Over Boston Celtics?

It's easy to breeze past the New York Knicks' Thursday night bust of the Boston Celtics, but the immediate aftermath hints at something deeper.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

Green blood and Arnold Schwarzenegger's notice of it gave the overmatched men in the 1987 classic "Predator" a quantum of hope in defeating the titular beast. In the end, Schwarzenegger's Maj. Alan "Dutch" Schaefer was the only survivor, but the monster was taken down, at least until the sequels arrived.

Green carnage didn't play out as literally at TD Garden on Thursday night ... that'd certainly be unsanitary ... but the New York Knicks built a stable playoff foundation with a 118-109 victory over the hosting Boston Celtics. The final score was hardly indicative of Thursday's one-sidedness: buoyed by 39 points from Jalen Brunson (21 in the third quarter alone), the Knicks led by as much as 31 and only relented when Brunson and Josh Hart (16 points/rebounds) were safely stored on the bench for the final period, denying a former a third-straight showing of 40.

New York (48-32) is now either a win or Orlando Magic loss away from hosting duties for an opening round playoff series and busted Boston for the first time in five tries this season.

Apr 11, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) controls the

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Beyond inclusion in the "Best Of (Year)" series MSG Network often runs in the offseason, it's difficult to label the legacy of Thursday's game. Has Boston, long-established as the East's top seed, earned the right to throw away a game against a relatively desperate division rival? Is a Knicks group missing three-time All-Star Julius Randle simply peaking early?

Definitive answers loom with the NBA Playoffs' arrival. But any doubts that Thursday's game was meaningless were perhaps eliminated with Celtics' head coach Joe Mazzulla's comments.

"I actually don't mind the result of the last two games because I think it's important," Mazzulla said, per Bobby Kirvitsky of Inside the Celtics. "Going in with a bunch of wins and feeling good about yourself isn't any better than having a little bit of a bloody lip because of a game. They've done the best they could over the course of this stretch."

"I think it's just a tough spot to be in. I think our guys have handled that as best as they could. We ran into our last two games against two teams that are highly, highly desperate, and as much as we want to be able to simulate that, that's just not the position that we're in."

Anyone who has had an older sibling tell them "I let you win!" after besting them in their favorite game can surely sympathize with Manhattan's finest, who faced a fully stocked Boston contingent to the tune of its top eight men taking the floor.

For the Knicks, it wasn't just the numerical method of slicing the Celtics, but also its execution, as New York resorted to both gritty and stylish tactics in Beantown on Thursday: the Celtics could've leaped away in the early going after the Knicks missed all but three of their first 13 attempts from deep, but nine offensive boards, seven alone from the Isaiah Hartenstein/Mitchell Robinson tandem in its potential final hours, yielded a narrow lead over the first 18 minutes. New York created 11 points off turnovers in that span and the stage seemed set for a nationally-televised thriller.

Apr 11, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) tries to steal the

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But the Knicks killed any and all drama when mecenaries from abroad did the job they were paid for: a run of 17 consecutive points, and a 22-3 tally to end the second period, was created exclusively by presumed cornerstone Brunson and in-season acquisitions OG Anunoby and Bojan Bogdanovic, who introduced themselves to the Knicks-Celtics rivalry in style.

Anunoby's defensive prowess is well documented, as is his impact on metropolitan fortunes, as New York is now 18-3 when he's in the lineup. But his offensive contributions have been equally valuable, as the Knicks are 12-2 when he nets at least a dozen points, as he did on Thursday night.

Time will tell if Anunoby and Bogdanovic, respectively hampered by injuries and inconsistency since their publicized arrivals via trades, are due for lasting stays in New York. But, for the time being, they're doing the job they're hired to do.

Of course, no contender is complete without its star and Brunson is more than willing and able to fulfill that role. Thursday's game should officially render denial of a Brunson MVP case foolish, as, like Taylor Swift's hypothetical beau in "You Belong With Me" before them, what they've been looking for ... a bona fide NBA superstar ... might've been here the whole time.

In true new century Knicks fashion, this latest win could indeed prove to be a mirage, mere comfort food amidst a championship famine. But there's no denying that the metropolitan group that Boston bludgeoned on four prior occasions wasn't present on Thursday.