Karl-Anthony Towns authored his second straight double-double Friday night for the host New York Knicks, who rode a dominant second quarter to a 105-95 win over the Boston Celtics.
Towns finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who are 2-0 for the first time since 2021-22. The 29-year-old had seven points in the second, when New York outscored the Celtics 42-14.
Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 31 points while fellow starters Mikal Bridges (12 points), OG Anunoby (10 points) and Miles McBride (10 points) all got into double figures. Anunoby scored all his points in the second quarter.
Josh Hart, who made his season debut after missing Wednesday’s game with back spasms, had 14 rebounds in 18:58 off the bench
Jaylen Brown scored 23 points while Sam Hauser had 18 points for the Celtics, who are 0-2 for the first time since 2021-22. Derrick White finished with 15 points while Anfernee Simons added 10 points off the bench.
The Celtics led almost wire-to-wire in the first, when they scored the opening six points and took their biggest lead when Simons ended the quarter with a 3-pointer to put the visitors up 30-22.
But the Knicks mounted three lengthy runs in the second. Anunoby had five points in a quarter-opening 11-0 surge before Hauser and White drained back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Celtics ahead 36-33.
The Knicks responded with a balanced 17-0 run in which seven different players scored. Tyler Kolek’s layup — his only basket of the game — gave New York the lead for good at 37-36 with 6:47 left.
Down 50-36, the Celtics scored eight of the next 10 points before the Knicks collected the final 12 points of the quarter to extend their lead to 64-44. New York opened a pair of 24-point leads in the third and led 82-65 at the end of the period.
Boston outscored the Knicks 30-23 in the fourth but never got any closer than nine points.
