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#3 Julius Randle is a beast
The Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier effect only happened for the New York Knicks against the Boston Celtics because of Julius Randle’s spectacular array of skills.
Randle is out to prove that last year’s impressive showing that resulted in an All-Star selection was no fluke. If an impressive preseason was not proof enough, the first game out of 82 for the New York Knicks is a stamp on his growing caliber as a franchise player.
Except for Marcus Smart, who had minimal success against Randle, the Boston Celtics were clueless about how to stop the lefty big man from dominating. Randle isn’t just the usual bully in the post. He just does not bump and grind opponents into submission; he also mixes his attacks extremely well.
Ime Udoka was very wary of sending consistent double teams because of Randle’s excellent passing ability out of double teams. Randle had a team-high nine assists in this game to complete his dominance over the Boston Celtics.
He torched the Celtics with such variety in this match-up. Randle tallied 35 points, eight rebounds and nine dishes for the New York Knicks to underline a tremendous display.
#4 Tom Thibodeau's defense bares its teeth
Jayson Tatum has developed a reputation as an elite scoring machine for good reason. His scoring outburst at the tail end of the regular season and in the series against the Brooklyn Nets was as good as it gets for an NBA player. Tatum's 50-point games against the Washington Wizards in the play-in and against the Nets in the first round of the playoffs showed how clutch he is.
The game against the New York Knicks, though, was such a struggle for him. Tom Thibodeau, no doubt, planned specific schemes for Tatum. Knowing how usually tough Thibodeau’s teams are on defense, Tatum was bound to have some rough spots for the Boston Celtics on the night.
The New York Knicks crowded out Tatum whenever he had the ball. They gave him different looks and sent him help on different occasions. The ploy seemed to have worked as the ultra-talented Boston Celtics All-Star forward finished with a horrific 7-30 from the field, including a head-shaking 2-15 from rainbow country.
Although many of his shots were hurried, Tatum also had instances where he simply missed. The New York Knicks’ defense was excellent, but the Celtics talisman also happened to have an off-day. It happens to the best players from time to time.
How he bounces back after his exploits last season with the Boston Celtics and at the Olympics will be worth keeping an eye on.
#5 Jaylen Brown is for real
Before Jaylen Brown was sidelined because of a bout with COVID-19, he overwhelmed the Orlando Magic in his only preseason game with 16 points in the first quarter for the Boston Celtics. Brown topped it with a 20 in the opening salvo in front of a hostile New York Knicks crowd.
What was even more impressive in this contest was the fact that the All-Star shooting guard was only cleared to play yesterday. Boston Celtics fans can clearly recall that Jayson Tatum struggled for months to get back into form after being ruled out for testing positive for the virus.
But Brown seemed to shrug it off and played like he was not prohibited from physical work for ten days. The Celtics front office should be jumping for joy with this development.
A day after being cleared to play, Jaylen Brown put up a career-high 46 points with nine rebounds and six assists. The game also showed that he can carry the Boston Celtics if Tatum struggles. If this is the version of Brown that the Cs will consistently see this season, the team could make a deeper run in the postseason.
Guess the Lakers players!
