SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
It was a full house, capacity crowd of 18,812 Monday night at the Meca of venues Madison Square Garden, which continues to send a message that these New York Knicks are for real.
And these fans that have waited a long time for this, watched the soaring Knickerbockers turn in an impressive 109-84 National Basketball Association win over the outplayed Eastern Division leading Boston Celtics.
How much have they turned it on? Well, this brought their record to 36-27, sent them a half-game ahead of the fading Brooklyn Nets, 8 1/2 behind the Celts, four in back of the second place Philadelphia 76ers, ahead of the Southeast leading Miami Heat and closing in the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Okay, they are sixth in the conference, but you can be assured they are right up there with a talented balanced lineup of which they had six players in double figures on this night, and that included the team high of 23 points from Immanuel Quickly off the bench.
They have assembled a quality crew featuring new pick-up crafty guard Josh Hart to go with All-Star Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, the return of 7-foot Mitchell Robinson off the injury list, the veteran reserve Derrick Rose, the talented 6-9 top draft pick big man in Obi Toppin, plus 7-foot newcomer in Isaiah Hartenstein of Germany.
Joining into the scoring parade as they led from the outset on this night was Randle with 23 points, Brunson with 17, Hart with a dozen, and Barrett and Robinson with 10 each.
They were all even with Boston in field goals with 37 each, but took advantage of the charity stripe to convert 23-of-24 to the Celtics’ 11-for-14.
They outrebounded the men in green, 44-35, with Robinson taking down 13. They turned in 12-of-31 3s led by Quickly’s 4-for-7, and that left Boston with but 9-for-42. Plus, they picked up only 11 fouls against the Celt’s 22.
New York was quickly in front 27-15 after one quarter even before Quickly the player left the bench. They led 60-46 at the half, 88-77 after three, and still outscored Boston over the final quarter to win going away before their joyous fans.
