BOSTON — The Boston Celtics appear to be the same team we saw the first game of the season as they doubled back to beat the Knicks Monday night 114-98.

It was the second half that made the Celtics pull away with the game as they outscored New York 62-45 in the last two quarters. More specifically, it was Jayson Tatum (35 points), Jaylen Brown (22 points), and Kristaps Porzingis (21 points) who have kept up their offensive dominance. They’ve been proving that the ball can be equally distributed each night without the other slowing down.

Boston went into halftime down one point after a Brown buzzer beater brought them closes. The bench also decided to jump in and put in some effort to. Sam Hauser put in 12 points in 21 points, he hit big 3’s in the first half. However, Derrick White did struggle only hitting one three-pointer as his only bucket of the night.

It’s also worth noting that the C’s held the Knicks under 100 points, which is only their second straight game of doing so. It’ll be interesting to see if this sparks a higher defensive effort from the group instead of hoping their hot shooting carries them.

Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle combined for 51 points. The Knicks are knocked to 5-5 on the season as the C’s advance to 8-2.