Brad Stevens opted not to play his starters Wednesday night against the New York Knicks. Boston's reserves didn't put up much resistance in the starters' absence.
New York's offense ran rampant throughout Wednesday's preseason finale, eventually tallying a 122-96 victory over Boston. The Knicks scored 59 of those points during the first half, but believe it or not, they hadn't even begun to heat up.
The start of the third quarter was the turning point of the night. New York caught fire and turned a comfortable lead into a blowout lead in a matter of minutes.
The Knicks made their first seven shots of the second half, including 3-pointers from Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Courtney Lee, and at one point pushed their lead to 76-53.
Interestingly, New York's offense then went ice cold for the remainder of the quarter, as it missed eight of its next nine shots. Boston, however, was unable to capitalize at the other end.
In the end, the C's were never able to recover from New York's hot start to the second half and they never cut their deficit to fewer than 15 points.
Jordan Mickey left a lasting image to consider Wednesday night if he happened to be competing for one of Boston's final roster spots. He was outstanding against the Knicks.
Mickey played 20 minutes against New York and produced in a big way in almost every facet of the game.
At the offensive end of the court, the big man scored 10 points while making half of his shots from the field. He also made both of his free throws. Mickey's greatest offensive contribution, however, may have been on the glass, as he worked for and grabbed five offensive rebounds on the night. That total was more than double the amount of the next-best total by any of Boston's players, which was two by two different players.
Defensively, Mickey upped his rebound total to seven by grabbing two more boards off of New York's misses. More importantly, though, he showed off his innate ability to block shots; he swatted two shots away and affected even more.
This wasn't Mickey's best performance of the preseason (he totaled 16 points and six rebounds Oct. 8 against Charlotte), but it was one heck of a final audition if he was, indeed, competing for a roster spot.
Brad Stevens on Terry Rozier's improved play.
