BOSTON — After missing two free throws with 7.6 seconds to go in overtime that would’ve given the Boston Celtics the lead, star guard Jaylen Brown took the blame for Boston’s 120-117 overtime loss to the New York Knicks here at TD Garden Thursday night.
“I’ve just got to be better, to be honest,” Brown said after finishing with 22 points on 8-for-22 shooting and nine rebounds in 42 minutes. “Tonight was a rough game, and I’m a better basketball player than I played today.
“Those two missed free throws kind of embodied the whole game. I didn’t get it going, didn’t give my teammates enough energy to get the win, and that’s what happens when you don’t come out and give your best. I’ll be better.”
Boston (35-15), which has lost three straight after ripping off nine wins in a row before that, needed a furious fourth quarter comeback to even have a chance to win the game in the extra session. The Celtics trailed 102-89 with exactly eight minutes remaining after a pair of free throws by Knicks guard Miles McBride, but closed the game with a 21-8 run to tie things up.
The Celtics even had a chance to win the game in regulation. But a clean look at a jumper from Jayson Tatum — who had 35 points, 14 rebounds and four assists on the day he was voted in as an All-Star starter for the first time in his career — went wanting, sending the game into overtime.
“I felt like if I would have called a screen, they were going to double,” Tatum said. “So I kind of just waved everybody down
