Immanuel Quickley was a bundle of enthusiasm while everyone else was sluggish, tugging at their shorts and ready to call it a night. Tossing long jumpers into the net was easy for him.
Big shots were being followed by wild dancing on the TD Garden floor as if it were the opening tip and not the second overtime. “That was all adrenaline,” the third-year guard later said with a smile after his draining 55-minute night. “I was exhausted.”
With Jalen Brunson out with an injured left foot, Quickley got the nod in the starting lineup and finished the final 44 minutes and 34 seconds of the game. To help the red-hot Knicks beat the dominant Celtics 131-129 in double overtime, he scored seven of his game-high 38 points in the extra period.
By beating the Cavs, the Knicks closed the gap to within one game of a fourth place in the NBA and tied Boston for the league lead in road victories (20).
Quickley, The Sixth Man of the Year candidate who also had eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals, two blocks and just one turnover said:
It was a great, Sunday in TD Garden, it doesn’t get better than that, I was telling [Julius Randle] that before the second overtime. I was like, It doesn’t get better than this. We’re on national TV in the Garden. Other than Madison [Square Garden], this is probably my favorite place to play, so I had a lot of fun.
After their last victory, the rest of the tenacious Knicks team likely felt just as exhausted as they did (39-27). Mitchell Robinson scored 13 points and grabbed 14 rebounds while RJ Barrett contributed 29 points and 11 boards and Julius Randle finished with 31 points, nine boards and four assists.
Even though he shot just 12-for-30 from the floor, Celtics’ (45-20) Jayson Tatum scored 40 points. Brown scored 29 points for the team. The Knicks beat the strongly fancied Celtics despite playing without their top point guard, J.R. Brunson and trailing by 14 points in the third quarter.
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What did Robinson say to Quickely during the game?
Quickley was crucial to the comeback, sparking a 30-7 run that spanned the conclusion of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth to force extra time with a runner in the lane with 12.9 seconds remaining. He sank a long-range three-pointer to open the second overtime period and he went on to score twice more.
After Al Horford’s last-second 3-point attempt was unsuccessful, the team erupted in jubilation. Robinson said of Quickley:
He got them little dance moves, He did his thing, He was having fun, We were giving him the ball and he was getting busy.
Quickley added:
It says a lot [about us] because they are a great team. Well-coached and skilled, but we don’t back down from anybody.
That has become abundantly clear as of late when the Knicks have won 14 of their previous 18 games while also defeating the Celtics three times, the Heat twice, the Nets once and the 76ers and Cavs once. Also impressive is the fact that this was not a flawless display.
Randle blamed his seven turnovers on himself and the Knicks’ defensive lapses gave the Celtics a second chance to score 29 points. They threw away an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and nearly squandered a 6-point advantage in the second OT.
Quickley, the outstanding sub-turned-starter who would not let his side leave Boston with a loss was the best example of this.
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