NEW YORK -- When the final buzzer sounded at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, and the New York Knicks began soaking in their 3-1 series lead over the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, captain Jalen Brunson made a point to calm down some of his celebrating teammates.
Yes, the Knicks' 121-113 victory in Game 4 put them one win away from their first conference finals appearance in 25 years. But the job isn't complete yet, the star guard said, and he wanted to drive home that point with Game 5 looming Wednesday night in Boston.
"I was actually telling everyone to get off the court. I was like, it's nothing to celebrate," said Brunson, who finished with a team-best 39 points on 25 shots with 12 assists.
Nonetheless, Brunson was willing to acknowledge the win was "a big game for us" given that it followed a humbling Game 3 defeat in which he'd said New York appeared to be "subconsciously satisfied" with its initial 2-0 series lead.
The Knicks, who never truly responded in Game 3 after completing 20-point comebacks in Games 1 and 2, showed far greater fight in Game 4. Yes, they again fell behind by double digits -- the seventh time in eight matchups this season with the Celtics -- as Boston was hot from distance early. But the Knicks turned up the defensive intensity and quickly sliced into their 14-point third-quarter deficit.
Led by Brunson's 18-point effort in the period, New York stormed back to take an 88-85 edge into the fourth, electrifying the home crowd.
"The way we responded is what I'm most proud of. Sticking together. Most of all, not quitting," said Brunson, who was one of four Knicks to finish with at least 20 points. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges each had 23, and OG Anunoby had 20.
It wasn't a stellar start for the Knicks, who were defending the Celtics' initial actions on offense well but somehow kept consistently leaving Boston wing Derrick White open on the perimeter. He made all four of his tries from deep in the opening period, and Jayson Tatum -- who would finish with a game-high 42 points on 28 shots -- drilled three triples of his own in that span. As a team, the Celtics were a blistering 9-of-14 on 3s in the first quarter for 39 points.
"There was a lot of miscommunication," Bridges said, referring to White's open looks. "Later in the game, we did better, and they were making a lot of tough shots. We can live with that. But early, you can't let that happen on [defense]."
Eventually, by the fourth quarter certainly, those lapses had disappeared.
New York was having limited success on Tatum. But the Knicks forced reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown (20 points) into a number of offensive mistakes. And it was on a play in which Brown mishandled a pass from Tatum that perhaps the most consequential moment of the series happened.
Brown curled just above the 3-point arc on the left wing when he fumbled the pass. Tatum prepared to go after the loose ball, but his right leg appeared to give and he immediately fell to the court, writhing in pain as Anunoby recovered the ball and dunked to give the Knicks a nine-point lead with 3:03 to play.
With Brunson and Bridges delivering a combined 18 points during a dominant fourth-quarter run, New York might have had the game in hand before Tatum was injured. But the state of the series seemed to shift entirely as Tatum was helped off the court and couldn't put any weight on his leg.
Still, Brunson -- who opened his postgame news conference by offering prayers for Tatum -- suggested that the win simply brought the Knicks a step closer to their ultimate goal. And with New York needing one more victory to close the series, he wanted his team to stay focused as opposed to thinking it had accomplished anything yet.
"I think [tonight] was a sense of urgency, desperation. Knowing that we had a great opportunity against a really good team," Brunson said. "I don't even think we're playing our best basketball yet. We have a team that's still fairly new this year, and we have a long way to go be the best team we can be. There's always time to learn for us. We're never satisfied, and that's the mentality."