Brilliant Brunson and Knicks leave Celtics on brink

AFP | New York

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Jalen Brunson scored 39 points as the New York Knicks defeated the Boston Celtics 121-113 to leave the reigning NBA champions on the brink of elimination from the playoffs on Monday.

Brunson spearheaded a sensational second-half rally that saw New York overturn a 14-point third-quarter deficit before surging to a win that gives New York a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

A potentially fatal defeat for Boston was exacerbated by a serious injury to forward Jayson Tatum, who looked distraught as he was carried off the Madison Square Garden hardwood in the fourth quarter.

Tatum, who had been magnificent to that point with a 42-point display, was later seen being ferried to the 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 the 1998- 1999 season.

“Just found a way to make plays and get us going,” Brunson said afterwards of the second-half revival that set up the Knicks win.

“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’,” Brunson told ESPN.