Tom Thibodeau Responds to Celtics Sweeping Knicks

The New York Knicks have not been so lucky against the Boston Celtics this season.

New York has officially dropped its annual four-game set with its lasting rival from Beantown, as the Celtics escaped with a 119-117 overtime victory on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. With the win, its 33rd on the road this season, Boston (59-20) earned its first season sweep of the Knicks since 2010-11.

"They're the defending champion, so until someone proves they can beat them, they're defending their championship," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant on the Celtics' 2008 championship squad, said in the aftermath in video from SNY. "So we know that there's a lot of work for us to do."

"They're the defending champion. Until someone proves they can beat them, they're defending their championship. We know that there's a lot of work for us to do."

Tom Thibodeau talks about what he takes away from tonight's loss to the Celtics: pic.twitter.com/5xrRjL16Rk
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"We're still working through things. I thought Jalen [Brunson] gave us really good minutes, so that's a big plus. Each game he'll get better and better. But, you know, the playoffs will be here shortly. So there's urgency to this."

Thibodeau's Knicks teams are now 8-12 against his former employers since he took over the top job in 2020-21. Boston has won all but one of the past nine showdowns.

The Knicks (50-29) at least kept pace with Boston this time after losing the first three meetings by a combined 63 points. New York led by as much as 11 in the first half and enjoyed a 34-point, 14-rebound double-double from Karl-Anthony Towns.

As Thibodeau touched upon, Brunson scored 27 in his second game back from an ankle injury that kept him out of the prior 15 showings. New York bullied Boston to the tune of a 60-30 advantage in paint points, a number no doubt assisted by Mitchell Robinson's first appearance against the Celtics this year.

All that and more, however, wasn't enough to cease the Celtics' dominance: Boston added 19 more three-pointers to NBA single-season record tally, the last of which was a dagger at the top of the key from former Knicks franchise face Kristaps Porzingis. Before that, Jayson Tatum forced the aforementioned extra session with a game-tying triple with less than three seconds left in regulation.

The Celtics sank 84 three-pointers against the Knicks this season, the all-time best mark in a four-game season series against New York and tied with last year's Milwaukee Bucks (in five meetings) for the best overall.

Boston is officially off the Knicks' docket for the rest of the regular season but the Knicks' Beantown nightmare may not be over: if the season ended today, the Knicks and Celtics (seeded third and second respectively) would be on a collision course for a second-round playoff series assuming they handled business in the opening round.

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