Poor-shooting Celtics blown out by Knicks, 111-89

Super Bowl Sunday started on a sour note for Boston fans.

Hours before the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks squared off across the country in Santa Clara, Calif., the Celtics fell to the Knicks 111-89 at TD Garden in a battle of Eastern Conference contenders.

Boston and New York have spent the past several weeks jockeying for the No. 2 spot in the East standings behind first-place Detroit. The Celtics entered Sunday with a one-game lead over their Atlantic Division rivals, but the Knicks dominated this matchup, building a 20-point fourth-quarter lead before C’s head coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters with five minutes remaining.

One bright spot for Boston: Baylor Scheierman, who tallied 10 points, 13 rebounds and five assists and was the only Celtics player to finish with a positive plus/minus. Jaylen Brown led the team with 26 points on 11-of-25 shooting, but the Celtics were outscored by 14 points over his 33 minutes.

It was an especially rough outing for Boston’s bench, which featured trade-deadline pickup Nikola Vucevic and starter-turned-sixth man Payton Pritchard.

Vucevic (11 points, six rebounds) went 5 for 13 and was a minus-24 in 23 minutes in his second game in green. Pritchard, who’d notched three straight 20-point outings since replacing the departed Anfernee Simons as Boston’s second-unit quarterback, had six points on 2-of-9 shooting and was a minus-27. Each shot 1 for 6 from 3-point range during the Celtics’ ugliest shooting performance in years.

Mazzulla’s squad attempted 41 3-pointers and made seven. That 17.1% success rate was Boston’s worst in a game since 2021.

“I think we created a bunch of open looks,” Brown said. “Just got to step in with confidence and knock them down. I think our offense, we did a good job creating advantages. Just got to make some shots we didn’t make today. It happens. They made shots, and I think that was the difference.”

The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the 34-19 Celtics, who will play their final game before the NBA All-Star break Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden.

The Celtics started their Neemias Queta-Luka Garza double-big lineup for the third straight game and plugged Scheierman in for the injured Sam Hauser, who missed the game with low back spasms.

After an evenly matched start, New York built a nine-point lead against a new Boston grouping that featured Vucevic and two-way wing Ron Harper Jr., who saw first-quarter minutes for the second time in three games with Hauser sidelined. (President of basketball operations Brad Stevens called Harper “a stud” on Friday. He’s a candidate to take one of Boston’s three open roster spots, two of which the team must fill within the next 11 days.)

Vucevic picked up three fouls during his first eight-minute shift and then sat until the third quarter.

The Knicks’ lead hit double digits after Jalen Brunson (31 points, eight assists) beat Jordan Walsh — back in the mix after his first healthy DNP since early November — for consecutive baskets. The visitors led 35-24 after one quarter, with Brunson providing 15 of New York’s points.

Much like Friday night, when they had to overcome a 22-point deficit to beat the Miami Heat, the Celtics struggled to find their shot early in the game, going 2 for 13 from 3-point range in the first quarter.

Scheierman misfired on his first four 3-point attempts, but he helped spur a second-quarter rally with his passing and rebounding. The second-year pro assisted on two Derrick White 3s and a reverse layup by Brown as Boston cut a 14-point deficit to eight.

By halftime, Scheierman already had set a single-game career high for assists (five) and was one shy of his personal best in rebounds (nine). He also played competitive defense against New York’s two All-Stars, Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

“I think obviously his offensive rebounding, but his rebounding outside of his area is a big one,” said Mazzulla, who’s started Scheierman in seven games this season. “So whether he’s boxing the guy out or whether he’s on the perimeter, he comes back and crashes defensively and gets those, and so that helps us get out in transition. But I think he’s playing at a great level for us defensively, and really on the rebounding piece on both ends.”

Mazzulla again took unconventional steps to limit playing time for Towns’ backup, elite rebounder Mitchell Robinson. Midway through the second quarter, Mazzulla inserted rookie center Amari Williams, had him intentionally foul Robinson, then called Williams back to the bench. Queta fouled Robinson away from the ball on the next Knicks possession.

The “Hack-A-Mitch” approach, which Boston used at times in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals, worked. Robinson, a career 51.2% free-throw shooter, missed all four foul shots before being pulled by Knicks head coach Mike Brown.

The Celtics closed the quarter on a 10-4 run and trailed 60-53 at halftime. White scored 17 in the half. Brown had 13, then added another 13 in the third quarter.

Starters from both teams got into foul trouble in the third. Scheierman drew the fourth on Josh Hart while battling for a rebound, and Queta picked up his fourth and fifth while trying to box out Robinson.

The whistles against Queta led to more minutes for Vucevic. And though the veteran center forced one turnover by drawing a Towns charge in transition, he couldn’t replicate the impact he had in his encouraging Celtics debut two nights earlier.

Down four when Vucevic checked in at the 7:44 mark of the third, Boston was outscored 21-7 over the remainder of the quarter and trailed 85-68 entering the fourth.

Finding the best ways to integrate the 35-year-old Vucevic, who offers a different set of skills than Queta or Garza, will be a priority for the Celtics as the All-Star layoff looms.

“We’ve got to figure out the chemistry a little bit, the flow a little bit,” Brown said. “We want Vuc to be a little bit more aggressive, looking for him to get going and make him feel confident in taking those shots and where he can catch the ball. I think he’s still learning, but we need him to be aggressive. So we’ll make adjustments, we’ll communicate, we’ll watch film, and we’ll be better for it.”

____