Jalen Brunson on Monday scored 39 points as the New York Knicks pushed the Boston Celtics to the brink of elimination from the playoffs while the Golden State Warriors were also left facing an early exit after a damaging defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In New York, Brunson spearheaded a sensational second-half rally as the Knicks overturned a 14-point third-quarter deficit before surging to a 121-113 win that gives the third seeds a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final series.
In the Western Conference, the Timberwolves took a similar 3-1 stranglehold in their series against Golden State with a commanding 117-110 road victory in San Francisco. Boston’s hopes of hauling themselves back into their series suffered a devastating blow in the shape of a serious injury to Jayson Tatum, who looked distraught as he was carried off the hardwood in the fourth quarter.
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Tatum, who had been magnificent to that point with a 42-point display, was later seen being ferried to the Madison Square Garden locker room in a wheelchair.
As the Celtics digested defeat and the brutal Tatum injury blow, the Knicks were left celebrating and eyeing a place in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000.
“Just found a way to make plays and get us going,” Brunson said of the second-half revival that set up the Knicks win.
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“I was just in a flow and doing whatever. I wasn’t really trying to take over. It was just ‘whatever we’ve gotta do,’” he told ESPN.
“We didn’t quit, kept fighting, and that’s what’s most important. Whenever you get in a hole you can’t quit,” he said.
Boston started the game where they had left off in a convincing game three victory on Saturday, with Tatum and Payton Pritchard swiftly finding their range from outside the arc.
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A Derrick White three-pointer gave Boston their biggest lead of the night early in the third quarter, the point guard putting the Celtics 14 points up at 72-58.
However, just when it looked as if Boston were threatening to pull away, the Knicks flicked the switch at both ends of the court to launch a dramatic rally.
Brunson poured in 18 points as the Knicks outscored Boston 37-23 in the third quarter and take an 88-85 lead into the final frame.
Brunson kept the points flowing in the fourth quarter, and when O.G. Anunoby grabbed a steal off Tatum in the incident that left the Celtics star writhing in pain before making a dunk, the Knicks were home and dry at 118-106 with less than two minutes remaining.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum would undergo a scan to determine the extent and nature of what he described as a “lower body injury.”
“He’ll get the MRI tomorrow and we’ll see what it is,” said Mazzulla, whose team would host game five in Boston today.
In San Francisco, Anthony Edwards took over in the third quarter to leave Minnesota needing just one more win over Golden State to book their place in the Western Conference finals.
Edwards finished with 30 points, with an electrifying burst of scoring in the third quarter that saw Minnesota rattle in 17 unanswered points to open up a decisive 85-68 lead.
Minnesota led by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter and never looked like surrendering that advantage as they closed out a win that means they can seal passage to the Western Conference finals with victory in game five in Minneapolis today.
The Warriors’ offense continued to struggle in the absence of the long-range shooting threat offered by the injured Stephen Curry, once again a frustrated spectator on the sidelines.
The Timberwolves rattled in 16-of-34 three-pointers compared with the Warriors, who ended with just eight threes.
Edwards said a halftime dressing down by Minnesota coach Chris Finch had sparked the second half onslaught.
“We came out like we had won the series already, and when we went in at half-time coach said we were playing like losers,” Edwards said. “He told me I wasn’t defending at a high level and needed to do better offensively, so in the second half I tried to do that.”
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