MSG continues to be house of horrors for Knicks during playoffs
The World's Most Famous Arena has proven again to be a tougher place for the Knicks to post victories than road venues in Detroit and Boston have been so far in the playoffs.
Tom Thibodeau's team is a sparkling 5-0 in the postseason this spring away from New York — including two 20-point comeback wins at TD Garden to open this series — but they fell to 1-3 at Madison Square Garden with Saturday's 115-93 spanking by the Celtics.
Advertisement
'I don't know [why]. I can't pinpoint one thing,' Josh Hart said after the game. 'The fans are coming out and supporting and showing love, and we've got to make sure that's not wasted.'We've just got to watch the film, we've got to get better, and we know that they'll come out again Monday.'
Indeed, the normal passel of celebrities and rabid fans were into the game from the outset, especially welcoming the Knicks back to MSG after the two thrilling come-from-behind wins swiped against the defending champs in Beantown.
3 Dejected Knicks fans exit the Garden during the Knicks' 115-93 Game 3 blowout loss to the Celtics on May 10, 2025.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Advertisement
But with the Celtics racing out to a 36-20 lead in the first quarter and outscoring the Knicks 48-6 from beyond the 3-point arc through three — and by 60-15 overall — the home crowd was taken out of the game early and barely was a factor.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST NBA STANDINGS AND KNICKS STATS
'I mean, it's disappointing to lose, in general. Doesn't matter if it's home or away,' Karl-Anthony Towns said. 'Obviously you want to win in front of your fans, but regardless, wherever we could get a win, we'll take those W's. We just didn't do enough tonight to come out with a win.'
The Knicks will try to be better on their home court Monday night in Game 4. They were 27-14 at MSG during the regular season and 24-17 on the road, tied for the fourth-best away record in the NBA.
Advertisement
3 Dejected Knicks watch their team get blown out during a watch party outside Madison Square Garden.
J.C. Rice
Follow The Post's coverage of the Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs
Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.
'I think you look at each game by itself. You say, 'OK, we didn't lose the game because we were at home. We lost the game because we didn't do enough things to win the game,' ' coach Tom Thibodeau said. 'So look at those things. What do you need to do to win that particular game — whether it's home or road? And really, that shouldn't matter. Understand what you have to put into winning.'
3 Knicks fans wear grim expression during their team's Game 3 blowout loss to the Celtics.
J.C. Rice
Advertisement
While Mikal Bridges noted that 'the fans deserve better' from their team and 'it should be easier for us at home,' Brunson pointed out that this marked their first true clunker at the Garden in the playoffs after losing two close games against the Pistons.
'I want to say this is our first loss that wasn't a one-possession game,' Brunson said. 'I don't think it's us not playing well here. This is obviously our home, the best place to play. Tonight, it just wasn't there. Simple as that.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
Tyrese Haliburton NBA postseason heroics renew debate. Does 'clutch' play exist?
Tyrese Haliburton NBA postseason heroics renew debate. Does 'clutch' play exist? Show Caption Hide Caption Thunder's panic meter after Game 1 The Thunder's Game 1 collapse was wild. How concerned should Oklahoma City be going into Game 2? The For The Hoops crew gives a panic meter rating on a scale of 1 to 10. Tyrese Haliburton has triggered discussion and renewed a debate. The discussion: Does the Indiana Pacers star deserve to be ranked among the most clutch shooters in NBA playoffs history? The debate: Does 'clutch'' play even exist? Well, one problem, according to a 2019 research paper entitled, "Clutch performance in sport and exercise: a systematic review,'' is the following: "Multiple, conflicting definitions of clutch performance were identified in the literature, which consequently led to the adoption of two distinct approaches to examining clutch performance ...'' So, for the purposes of this story, let's stick with the conventional definition: making big shots with the game on the line. 'When we looked at the data, we couldn't find real evidence of clutch players,'' Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke who disclosed his findings in 2010, told USA TODAY Sports. 'But we found lots of evidence that people believed that clutch exists.'' That evidence is mounting thanks to Haliburton. 'One of the most clutch players we've seen in the postseason ever,'' declared ESPN's Steven A. Smith after Haliburton made the game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds in Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the fourth time Haliburton has made the game-winning shot or the game-tying shot with less than 1.3 seconds left in regulation or overtime in this year's playoffs. While Duke's Ariely is no more convinced of the existence of clutch play, his position is hardly unanimous. 'Earlier studies, particularly those focusing on statistical consistency, often concluded that players do not significantly improve during high-pressure moments …'' Vangelis Sarlis of International Hellenic University in Greece told USA TODAY Sports. 'Our work suggests that while not all players elevate their performance in clutch situations, a distinct subset consistently exhibits traits — like high true shooting percentage, low turnovers, and impactful defensive plays — that do materially influence game outcomes. 'Haliburton appears to exemplify many of these traits.'' Coach K's role in clutch play research Fifty-five years ago, Jerry West made a 60-foot shot after the buzzer to force overtime in Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. Mr. Clutch, they called him. In 2023, the NBA began giving out the Jerry West Trophy to the league's top clutch player as measured by the league's statistical formula - possessions in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points - and voted on by 100 media members. None of which Ariely would find persuasive. More than a decade ago at Duke, Ariely has said, he set out to study clutch play and enlisted the help of the school's legendary and now retired basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski helped assemble a group of pro coaches to identify clutch NBA players, according to Ariely, who worked with Rachel Barkan, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. The study involved comparing clutch players and non-clutch players in low-stress moments and high-stress moments. (Ariely has written that "high stress is when the outcome of a game is hanging by a thread.'') 'We found that the non-clutch players scored more or less the same in the low-stress and high-stress moments, whereas there was actually a substantial improvement for clutch players during the last five minutes of the games,'' Ariely wrote in an essay for the Huffington Post. '… As it turned out, the clutch players did not improve their skill; they just tried many more times. 'Their field goal percentage did not increase in the last five minutes (meaning that their shots were no more accurate); neither was it the case that non-clutch players got worse.'' In discussing the findings, Ariely cites research of the 'hot hand,'' the streaky shooting performance fueled by consecutive baskets. 'Research basically showed that people's belief in hot hand is very strong, but the data for it is very weak,'' he said. 'And the same is true for clutch play.'' 'Contributions under pressure' Lorena Martin, an assistant professor of clinical data sciences and operations at Southern California's Marshall School of Business, worked for the Lakers during the 2016-2017 season. Her role: director of sports performance analytics. That season, Martin said, they researched the games' final two minutes to determine the player best equipped to take the final shot. A believer in clutch play, Martin said of debunkers, 'A lot of individuals who are very good in the math and statistics have not played sports. If you look at it mathematically, then you think, 'Oh, it's just random.' But if you play sports, you know that there is an inertia, there is momentum.'' As an example of compelling research, Martin cites "A Data Science and Sports Analytics Approach to Decode Clutch Dynamics in the Last Minutes of NBA Games,'' the study co-authored by Sarlis at International Hellenic University. In that study, Sarlis said, he and his research team focused exclusively on the absolute impact players have during clutch scenarios instead of comparing performance in clutch vs. non-clutch moments. By analyzing 20 seasons of NBA data and applying advanced machine learning techniques, according to Sarlis, they developed the Estimation of Clutch Competency (EoCC) metric. 'A novel formula that captures both offensive and defensive contributions under pressure,'' Sarlis said. 'In terms of application to Tyrese Haliburton, while our dataset formally ends before his breakout years, his current performances — especially his composure, shot selection, and assist-to-turnover ratios in final minutes — align with several key indicators we found to be strongly correlated with winning outcomes in clutch moments,'' Sarlis added, 'If evaluated using our EoCC framework, Haliburton would likely score highly, given his ability to create efficient scoring opportunities and minimize costly errors under pressure.'' Expanding the measure of clutch play Measuring clutch performances strictly by game-winning shots is flawed, according to researcher Franklin Mixon Jr., a professor of economics at Columbus State University in Georgia. 'This approach is subject to confirmation bias as fans will remember these game-winning baskets but tend to forget late-game turnovers and missed shots (free throws) by who they consider to be clutch players,'' Mixon wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports. Mixon is co-author of a 2013 study – 'Homo certus in professional basketball? Empirical evidence from the 2011 NBA Playoffs'' – he says supports the notion that 'clutch performance" is generally a myth. The study compared players' average productivity per quarter for the first three quarters of their playoffs games to their fourth-quarter performances in those games. 'We found that productivity during the first three quarters generally exceeded that during the fourth quarter of these games,'' Mixon said. With the same variables from the study, Mixon ran Haliburton's numbers from Game 1 of the NBA Finals. That included field-goal attempts per minute, field goals made per minute, field-goal percentage and points scored per minute. He also factored in defensive rebounds and assists. 'Haliburton's late-game productivity was slightly lower during Game 1 compared to what he did during the first 3 quarters,'' Mixon wrote. 'Again, however, the differences aren't significant. Based on our approach, his performance was typical of NBA players.'
USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
Jalen Williams: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has similarities to Kobe
Jalen Williams: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has similarities to Kobe Even though the Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals in stunning fashion to the Indiana Pacers, 111-110, they are still very much in the series. Many still expect them to win the championship, even though Indiana has proven to be an extremely dangerous team, especially in crunch time and especially on the road. The biggest thing Oklahoma City has going for it, other than perhaps its withering defense, is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this year's league MVP. He scored 38 points in Game 1, and he will likely have a few big outbursts before this series ends. With Game 2 approaching, he said that Kobe Bryant is probably his favorite player ever and that he hopes to approach the heights the late Los Angeles Lakers legend attained. Teammate Jalen Williams, who is a budding star in his own right, said there are similarities between the games of Gilgeous-Alexander and Bryant. "There are a lot of similarities there… If you are really paying attention to basketball & watch the way he plays… He can pick certain aspects of his game… [And] add his own touch to it." The most striking similarity between the two is the mid-range game. Gilgeous-Alexander seems to have mastered the ability to attack off the dribble, pull up from the mid-range area and nail jumpers, which was something Bryant made a living off of throughout his 20 seasons in the NBA. Gilgeous-Alexander is also what some may call a free-throw magnet. He attempted 8.8 free throws a game during the regular season and made 89.8% of those attempts, which is even more remarkable when one considers that he's 6-foot-6 and just 195 pounds. Bryant was very adept at tricking defenders into fouling him, and he was also an excellent free throw shooter who had a lifetime mark of 83.7% from the charity stripe. Of course, the best way Gilgeous-Alexander can become more similar to Bryant is to win an NBA championship. It was something Bryant did five times with the Lakers.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sixers draft history: Richaun Holmes selected No. 37 overall in 2015
With the NBA draft right around the corner, now is the time to look at some past drafts and see what the Philadelphia 76ers have done in their history. The Sixers have selected some big-time players in the past who have become an important part of the fabric of the franchise's history. This next edition stays in 2015 as the Sixers continued to build a roster and find pieces in the midst of their rebuild. After selecting Jahlil Okafor with the No. 3 pick in this draft, they selected another big in Round 2 with the pick of Richaun Holmes with the No. 37 overall pick. Advertisement Holmes spent three years in Philadelphia averaging 7.4 points and 4.2 rebounds serving as the backup big man to Okafor and Joel Embiid during his time. The Sixers then sent him to the Phoenix Suns in the 2018 offseason. Overall, Holmes is still in the league as he just finished up his 10th season while playing for the Washington Wizards. Along with the Sixers, Suns, and Wizards, Holmes has also played for the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks with career averages of 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds. This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers draft history: Richaun Holmes selected No. 37 overall in 2015
