New York – – Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks had just taken control of the match with another kick in the fourth quarter when Jayson Tatum fell on the field with a potentially serious right leg injury.
The details of Tatum’s injury are uncertain, but the situation in the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference is clear.
Knicks need one more victory to reach the conference final for the first time in 25 years. The Celtics must match the biggest return in the history of the NBA to extend their title of title.
Brunson collected 39 points and 12 assists, and the Knicks pushed the champions in title to the edge of the elimination with a victory of 121-113 Monday evening in match 4.
Blown out in match 3, the Knicks dominated the second half to become the first home team to win in this series.
“I think it was a feeling of urgency, despair, just knowing that we have an excellent opportunity,” said Brunson.
The Celtics will have to make the 14th return of the NBA of a deficit of 3-1 and may have to do it without Tatum, which was swept away by the ground with a right leg injury with 2:58 on the left.
Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each added 23 points and Og Anunoby rebounded by two bad performances by scoring 20 for the Knicks, who can win the series Wednesday evening in Boston. Otherwise, they would return to Madison Square Garden to try to do it Friday evening.
“We have to turn this page quickly and do our first work, which is winning on Wednesday. This is the mentality,” said the Celtic veteran, Al Horford. “As a group, we just have to come together because we have obviously lost our chef, the guy who makes us move forward.”
Tatum scored 42 points, his summit in these qualifying series, before he was injured when the Celtics returned the ball and his leg gave as he tried to rush towards the loose ball.
No one came from 3-1 since Denver did it twice in 2020 at the Walt Disney World Resort. This did not happen when a team had to win a real road match since Cleveland joined Golden State in the 2016 NBA final.
After leading at least 20 points in the first three games – but blowing the first two in Boston – the Celtics had another two -digit lead by less than five minutes after this match and increased from 62-51 to half -time.
Brunson then scored 18 in a desperate third trimester, when the Knicks played their starters throughout the path and preceded the Celtics 37-23 to set up a final final period.
“Continue to fight,” said Bridges. “We were much worse before.”
The three-point game of Tatum equaled it for the last time at 102-all before Anunoby reached a 3-point pointer and the Knicks later put him for good with a burst of 11-0 which made 116-104.
Derrick White made six points at 3 points and scored 23 points for the Celtics. Jaylen Brown was 20.
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