(Football news) The Boston Celtics lost their third straight game against the New York Knicks 120-117. For the Knicks, Julius Randle had 37 points and nine rebounds, and hit the free throws that gave them the win while Jalen Brunson added 29 points, seven assists as RJ Barrett had 19 points and Immanuel Quickley finished with 17 points and five rebounds. For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum, who was voted an All-Star game starter for the third consecutive season prior to the start as he finished with 35 points and 14 rebounds while Brown added 22 points and nine rebounds. Boston has now lost three straight matches for just the second time this season. With this result the Knicks moved up to joint 6th as their record stands at 27-23.

”We held our own,” Barrett said. ”We played together and we played hard. We got the good result.”

”Just got to be better,” Brown said. ”Tonight was just a rough game and I’m a better basketball player than I played today. Those two free throws embodied the whole game for me.”

”Just poise,” Randle said. ”We’ve been in those type of situations all year. So I feel like we’re getting more and more comfortable in those situations.”

”I didn’t have a good shooting night, but I was ready to take that shot,” Barrett said. ”I feel like we’re getting more comfortable in those situations.”

The Detroit Pistons stunned the Brooklyn Nets as they beat them 130-122. For the Pistons, Saddiq Bey scored 25 points as they won against the Nets for the first time in 5 years as Alec Burks added 20 while Jalen Duren scored 17 points, Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes each had 16 points. For the Nets, Kyrie Irving scored 40 points which tied his career high and the franchise record with five straight games of 30 or more while Nic Claxton added a career high 27 points and Edmond Sumner had 24 points. The Pistons took advantage of a short-handed Nets team which was playing the second night of a back-to-back to win at the Barclays Center for the first time since April 1, 2018, ending a six-game losing streak.

”We just knew we had to start off better than that and just play better throughout the four quarters,” said Bey, who added nine rebounds. ”So I think we were very eager just to nip that one in the bud and just keep going.”

”They have a tendency to come out in the third quarter and try to win that. We came out and we were flat,” Irving said. ”When you do that and you are reacting to everything, every possession, it makes it difficult.”

”We had a big third quarter,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. ”The third quarter was at one time our nemesis coming out of the locker room. I think we’re graduating, we’re growing into being a competitive team out of the locker room.”

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