Knicks stun Celtics in Boston, Nuggets upset Thunder in Oklahoma City

The New York Knicks stunned the defending champions, the Boston Celtics, 108-105 in overtime Monday in the opener of their NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals, and the Denver Nuggets did the same against the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

The game at TD Garden in Boston went into overtime when Knicks star Jalen Brunson missed an attempt with half a second to play with the score tied at 100 points.

Jalen Brunson starred for the Knicks and with 29 points led his team's comeback from 20 points down.

"We had to keep trusting and fighting," Brunson said. "We couldn't hit a 20-point shot, we had to take it little by little, making good defensive plays."

Defense key to Knicks' win

The Knicks' victory was defined by an excellent defensive play by Mikal Bridges, who stole the ball from Jaylen Brown as he was preparing to shoot a 3-pointer with two seconds left in overtime to even the score.

Bridges "always makes big plays defensively for us," said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. "He plays hard physically but he always plays smart."

With a great defensive effort, the Knicks limited the Celtics to 16 points in the fourth quarter and 5 in overtime.

Boston missed 45 of its 60 3-point attempts, setting a playoff record, while New York scored 17 of 37, with OG Anunoby being the most effective with 6 made 3-point shots.

Dominicans Al Horford and Karl-Anthony Towns played a key role for their respective teams.

Horford, 38, started off the bench and became a defensive force for Boston especially against his compatriot Towns, who had foul trouble and played 31 minutes in which he completed a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks.

Jayson Tatum, meanwhile, had 23 points and 16 rebounds on a night in which he climbed to fifth place in the Celtics' all-time playoff scoring leaderboard, surpassing Hall of Famer Paul Pierce.

Game 2 of this series will be played on Wednesday also at TD Garden, the home of the Celtics.

Jokic huge for Denver

Serbian star Nikola Jokic had another dominant performance with a double-double of 42 points and 22 rebounds, leading the Denver Nuggets against the best team in the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost 121-119 at the Paycom Center, and with it the home court advantage.

Jokic "does it so many times that he doesn't get the value he deserves, he takes over games like he did today, he's an unbelievable guy," said teammate Jamal Murray.

The Serbian, a strong candidate for the MVP award, became only the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 40 points, 20 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff game. Wilt Chamberlain did so twice, and Shaquille O'Neal and Giannis Antetokounmpo round out the list.

But it was Aaron Gordon who scored the winning basket for Denver with three seconds on the clock.

"It was a spectacular shot by Aaron, with this mentality we always have opportunities," Murray commented.

After being down by as many as 14 points, Denver closed the game on a 15-4 run over a Thunder team that had Chet Holmgren as the scapegoat of the night after he missed two key free throws down the stretch that would have extended the lead to 3.

"You have to give them credit," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault commented. "We did a lot of good things during the game, we have to find a way to close out the game, but there are positives we can take away."

On Wednesday, again in Oklahoma City, the second meeting of this series will be played. The other semifinal of this conference will start this Tuesday in Minnesota, where the Timberwolves will host Stephen Curry's Golden State Warriors.