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Dirty Dozen

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Boston Celtics 113, New York Knicks 104

When: 3:30 PM ET, Sunday, December 1, 2019
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
Attendance: 18,005
Special to Digital Sports Desk by Field Level Media

NEW YORK – The Boston Celtics scored 12 unanswered points late in the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon to overtake the host New York Knicks and earn a 113-104 win. The Celtics have won three of four. The Knicks have lost a season-high six straight.

Celtics at Knicks (House of Highlights/Youtube)

Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 30 points for the Celtics, including the run-capping 3-pointer that gave them a 104-95 lead. Jaylen Brown scored 28 points, including six straight for Boston in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

Enes Kanter, who played 115 games the previous two seasons for the Knicks, had 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Kemba Walker (16 points) and Brad Wanamaker (11 points) also scored in double figures.

Julius Randle scored 26 points for the Knicks, who received 17 points from Dennis Smith Jr., 16 points from RJ Barrett, 11 points from Kevin Knox II and 10 points from Damyean Dotson.

The teams were tied 58-58 after a first half in which they combined for 10 ties and 17 lead changes. Barrett and Randle combined to open the third quarter on a 6-0 run for the Knicks, who scored 15 of the half’s first 21 points to extend their lead to nine with 6:38 remaining in the period.

The Celtics didn’t tie the game again until Semi Ojeleye hit a 3-pointer to even the score at 95-95 with 6:33 left in the game. Randle missed a 3-pointer on the Knicks’ next possession, after which coach David Fizdale called timeout. But Brown stole the ball from Dotson out of the timeout and converted the layup to give Boston the lead for good with 5:52 remaining.

Randle’s miss marked the first of four straight misfires by the Knicks, a span in which Tatum hit 1-of-2 free throws and Walker and Tatum sank 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to extend the Celtics’ lead to 104-95. New York never got closer than six the rest of the way.

–Field Level Media

Same Old Knicks

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Boston Celtics 118, New York Knicks 95

When: 7:30 PM ET, Saturday, October 26, 2019
Where: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Attendance: 19,812
Special to Digital Sports Desk by Field Level Media

NEW YORK – Marcus Smart scored 12 points off the bench, including a 3-pointer during an 8-0 Boston run to start the fourth quarter, and the Celtics pulled away for a 118-95 victory over the host New York Knicks on Saturday night.

Celtics at Knicks (House of Highlights/Youtube)

Kemba Walker had a game-high 32 points, a majority of them on seven made 3-pointers, as the Celtics overcame a horrible start to sweep a back-to-back sequence that began with a home win over Toronto on Friday.

RJ Barrett went for 26 points for the Knicks, who lost their home opener after tipping off the season with a pair of defeats on the road.

Barrett and Julius Randle combined for 12 points when the Knicks, coming off a 113-109 loss at Brooklyn on Friday night, blitzed the Celtics early with a 16-4 run to open the game.

But Boston dominated most of the rest of the action, building an 82-76 lead by the end of the third quarter and then pulling away quickly in the final period.

Grant Williams converted a Jaylen Brown pass into an alley-oop dunk, Carsen Edwards hit a jumper and Jayson Tatum converted a free throw when ex-Celtic Marcus Morris was assessed a technical foul as they combined with Smart for the fourth-quarter-opening run that ballooned Boston’s lead to 90-76.

The Knicks got no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Smart’s key 3-pointer was one of three he hit in the game. Brown (19 points), Tatum (15) and Edwards (10) also scored in double figures for Boston, which outscored New York 45-21 on 3s.

Randle had the game’s only double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks. Mitchell Robinson had 17 points and Morris 12 for New York.

Bobby Portis led all rebounders with 11 off the bench for the Knicks, who outrebounded Boston 55-45.

Tatum was the Celtics’ top rebounder with nine.

–Field Level Media

NBA Fines NYK $50,000

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NEW YORK – The NBA fined the New York Knicks $50,000 for failing to allow a New York Daily News reporter to attend a news conference introducing draft picks R.J. Barrett and Ignas Brazdeikis.

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All other credentialed media members covering the team were invited to attend the news conference, held Friday.

The league said Monday that the team has agreed to comply with NBA rules regarding media access in the future.

The team issued a statement shortly after the league’s announcement.

“The Knicks acknowledge that we did not comply with the NBA’s media policy, and made an error in interpreting Friday’s announcement as an invite only event,” the statement read. “As we do throughout the year, we have and will continue to provide access to credentialed media as per the League’s policy.”

Team officials have been at odds with the Daily News in the past.

In December, the Knicks banned Daily News reporters from a news conference featuring president Steve Mills because of a headline reading “Do It” that accompanied a story about the possibility owner James Dolan would sell the team.

Editor’s Note: We had to double check two times on this story, as the $50,000 fine was such a measly amount.  At first, we thought there was a typo and the proper fine might’ve been $500,000.  That was not the case.

–Field Level Media

Ambushed

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NEW YORK – New York Knicks owner James Dolan on Tuesday addressed his Saturday confrontation with a fan, calling it an “ambush,” and revealing that the heckling spectator has been banned from Madison Square Garden.

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Dolan, who was told by the fan to “sell the team,” discussed the incident on “The Michael Kay Show” on 98.7 ESPN New York.

Regarding the confrontation, he said, “It’s pretty easy. It appears that this gentleman and his friends planned to do this. That just before the game they cleared their profiles out. We have video which shows them moving from one side of the arena to the other and pointing to me to set this ambush up and they did. Then as soon as they were done with it, it was immediately sold to TMZ. But look, not for nothing, but I shouldn’t have taken the bait.”

The heckling began in the waning minutes of the Knicks’ 102-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday as Dolan was walking toward the tunnel.

A TMZ video shows Dolan hearing the fan and stopping to call him closer.

“You think I should sell the team?” Dolan begins. “You wanna not come to any more games?” then adding that the comment was rude.

Dolan eventually signaled to hold the man for security. According to TMZ, security and police questioned the man before asking him to leave the arena.

On Tuesday, Dolan said he had originally planned to invite the fan back and let him meet the players while trying to show him that his team was moving in the right direction. He said that changed when it “became clear that the whole thing was planned.”

“The ban is only coming from the fact that we now have learned that he planned it,” Dolan said. “They were stalking me. You can’t do that in Madison Square Garden. You are not allowed to stalk the owner and then confront him like that.”

Dolan also said, despite the fact that the Knicks have a league-worst 13-54 record this season, “For the record, I am not selling the team and I am not quitting.”

–Field Level Media

$4M and a Bag of Potatoes

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NEW YORK – The New York Knicks have the NBA’s worst record, but Forbes says the franchise remains the league’s most valuable for the fourth consecutive year at $4 billion.

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The Los Angeles Lakers ($3.7 billion), Golden State Warriors ($3.5 billion), Chicago Bulls ($2.9 billion) and Boston Celtics ($2.8 billion) round out the top five in the annual rankings released Wednesday.

According to Forbes, the average NBA team is worth $1.9 billion, a 13 percent increase from last year.

The Knicks boosted their value by 11 percent since 2018, despite spiraling toward their sixth consecutive season without a playoff berth. Forbes said the franchise is still reaping the rewards of a $1 billion renovation to Madison Square Garden that was completed in 2013.

The Knicks are tied with the New York Yankees as the second-most-valuable U.S. sports franchise behind the Dallas Cowboys, worth an estimated $5 billion.

The Philadelphia 76ers had the NBA’s biggest increase in value for the second straight year, up 40 percent to $1.65 billion.

The Memphis Grizzlies were the least-valuable franchise at $1.2 billion.

–Field Level Media

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