By Tennie Sumague
EBC New York Bureau
NEW YORK (Eagle News) — No unicorn, not a problem for the New York Knicks.
The Knicks’ bench led by Michael Beasley’s 32 points and 12 rebounds overshadowed Kyrie Irving’s dominant performance to lift the Knicks past the Celtics 102-93 Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Entering the fourth tied at 68, Knicks Head Coach Jeff Hornacek made a gutsy move and went with the bench – Beasley, Kyle O’Quinn, Frank Ntilikina, Doug McDermott and Ron Baker over his starters.
“About every 10 seconds, I thought: ‘Should I bring the starters back?’ But the bench was playing well,” Hornacek said. “I think the guys that didn’t go back in – Kristaps, Courtney Lee and Enes Kanter – they were all for it. It’s about the team and they’ve been talking about it. It’s either a team win or a team loss. It [didn’t] really matter at that point.”
Tied at 75, Beasley powered through scoring 11 straight points to give the Knicks an 86-79 lead with 5:40 remaining as the fans loudly chanted “M-V-P.” After Irving hit a three-point jump shot, Ntilikina and McDermott hit back-to-back three pointers to extend their lead to 10 and the Knicks hung on to close out the game with the win.
“I think it shows the courage of this team and the perseverance of this team, It shows that we have to fight,” said Beasley on the team’s performance. “We weathered the storm and put our best foot forward.”
Kristaps Porzingis returned to the lineup and had his worst performance of the season, missing all 11 shots, finishing the night with one point in 23 minutes.
“Thanks to me the game was close, I kept it close,” Porzingis said on his horrific performance. “Otherwise, I thought we should have won by a bigger difference, if I had a better game and would have made some shots in the first half. Second half I came out and tried to make the right play, couple of turnovers, missed shots and couldn’t find my rhythm. Michael had my back tonight.”
Irving had an impressive night, leading his team with 32 points as the Celtics lost their second straight game.
“[The Knicks] outscored us, 34-25 and the final score was, 102-93,” Irving said about the fourth quarter. “That’s the difference. Beasley goes for 32, but he made the difference. No need to get frustrated. It’s part of the game. Just learning every single day, learning how to manage the game better, collectively as a group and we will be alright.”
Beasley’s performance even impressed Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens.
“He made a bunch of tough shots. Credit to him,” said Stevens. “He got up and raised up over guys whether it was Semi [Ojeleye], Al [Horford], Marcus [Smart], whoever was on him, he just got that rhythm and he’s a tremendous individual scorer when he gets going like that. I thought our ball pressure made it tougher to get into him, which is one of the things we had to do a little early, but he deserves credit for that. That’s what he does. He’s a great individual scorer.”
Both teams will play at home on Monday. The Knicks battle the Philadelphia 76ers and the Celtics play against the Washington Wizards.
(Eagle News Service)