Madison Square Garden was the stage for a primetime battle between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks on Saturday night, with both teams right beside each other in the Eastern Conference standings. Boston (37-16) held a 1.5-game advantage over New York (34-17) for the two-seed entering the night, and the Celtics built on that conference edge, jumping out to a big lead early, holding off multiple Knicks runs and dominating the second half for a 131-104 win.
In the score column, the Celtics were led by a masterful performance from Jayson Tatum, who finished with 40 points (13/26 FG).