BOSTON — Whereas his teammates struggled round him, Karl-Anthony Cities saved the Knicks afloat.
After which in crunch time, he introduced them inside hanging distance.
He completed with 21 factors on 9-for-16 capturing from the sector and grabbed 17 rebounds within the Knicks’ 91-90 Sport 2 win over the Celtics Wednesday night time at TD Backyard.
“KAT, the way he started off the game was great for us,” Jalen Brunson mentioned. “The way he’s been throughout the entire season, he’s been one of the best teammates we have. The way he gives us energy and the way he goes and gets rebounds and what he does, it doesn’t go unnoticed. It’s just the way he’s been.”
Cities scored 14 of his 21 factors within the first half. Brunson completed the primary half with simply seven factors, whereas OG Anunoby had 5 and Mikal Bridges was scoreless.
The Knicks entered the break down 50-41, however it might have been a lot worse if not for Cities carrying the scoring load.
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With the Knicks trailing 86-82, Cities tipped within the rebound from Josh Hart’s missed layup, and was fouled by Al Horford on the play.
He made the free throw, chopping the Knicks deficit to 86-85 with 2:33 left within the recreation. Brunson took it from there.
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“The ball found me,” Cities mentioned. “I was just trying to be aggressive and scoring and I got some good opportunities. To start the third [quarter], I saw how our energy was, I wanted to kind of bring a spark. I think being able to hit those early shots allows us to understand we’re in the game, and we started the third quarter better than we did last game.”
Cities had been quiet the earlier two video games — Sport 6 in opposition to the Pistons within the first spherical and Sport 1 of this collection — with simply 10 and 14 factors, respectively. Wednesday represented far more of why the Knicks made the blockbuster commerce to amass him.
“Just seeing how the game was playing out, I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to put our team in a position to win,” Cities mentioned. “In the first half, I was trying to do that. In the second half, didn’t want us to come out sluggish. I wanted to be a catalyst for energy.”
