Brunson OG scored 58 points together! Tatum 23+16 Knicks beat the Celtics 1-0!

1. Life and Death Speed: 20 minutes reversed Iron Will

On May 6, 2025, the dome of the TD Garden Arena in Boston was torn apart by cheers. When the final whistle rang, Knicks player Mikal Bridges collapsed on the floor, his legs carrying a 51-minute limit load. In the first match of the Eastern Conference semi-finals, the main players of both sides played the same as the schedule of the farmers - working from sunrise to sunset. Bridges’ 51 minutes are not an isolated case: Tatum 47 minutes, Brown 45 minutes, Brunson 44 minutes... When the concept of modern basketball's "load management" encounters the bayonets of the playoffs, the farmer-style hard-core confrontation quietly staged on the streets of Boston outside the Cruzburg Theater.

2. Dual core burst: Brunson and OG's offensive and defensive concerto

Knicks' victory stems from the perfect cooperation of double guns in the backcourt. Brunson scored 29 points and 5 assists in the game, scoring 11 points in the final quarter, including a key three-pointer to overtake the score. His breakthrough was like a sharp knife being unsheathed, causing a bloody storm in the Celtics penalty area. OG Anunobi transformed into a defensive gate, leading the defense of Tatum throughout the game, limiting the latter's shooting percentage to 30.4%. The 198cm tall forward guard swayed, interfering with his long arms and tangling with his footsteps. The moment he snatched the ball from Tatum in the last 10 seconds of overtime, the cheers from the entire Madison Square Garden penetrated the Atlantic Ocean and spread to the Boston South District where Irish immigrant descendants gathered.

3. Tatum's struggle: The two ice and fire behind the data

Although Tatum scored a quasi-triple double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds, his efficiency was a disaster. He made only 7 of 23 shots, 2 of 9 shots on 3-pointers, and 1 of 9 shots in the final quarter and overtime. When he hit a corner three-pointer in the third quarter, the dome of the North Shore Garden Arena seemed to ring out of Larry Bird's roar; when he blocked Holiday in overtime, Bill Russell's ghost seemed to linger above the basket. This interweaving of inheritance and confrontation climaxes in Tatum’s matchup with Brunson – the former attempting to continue the Celtic glory with a quasi-tripled double-double of 23 points and 16 rebounds, while the latter declares the rise of the Knicks with 29 points and 5 assists.

4. Tactical Game: Thibodeau's "Box-1" and Mazula's stubbornness

Knicks coach Thibodeau uses the "Box-1" tactic, using OG Anunobi to lead Tatum in the whole game, and Towns' strategy of assisting defense at any time to force the Celtics into a singles trap. When Tatum dribbled more than seven times, his shooting percentage plummeted to 18%, a targeted arrangement that was exactly the same as the Raptors' tactic of locking up Antetokounmpo in 2019. In contrast, Celtics coach Mazula insisted on using the five small lineup for 9 minutes after leading by 16 points, with a net loss of 15 points during the period; the three consecutive three-pointer tactics in overtime were predicted in advance, and this "head-iron" on-the-spot adjustment forms a cruel contrast with the opponent's sophistication.

5. Data tug-of-war: the offensive and defensive game behind 51 minutes

Players scored, rebounded, assisted, shots, % penalty area distribution Rensen 294548.3OG Anunobi 294346.2 Tatum 2316630.4%8

The significance of this game far exceeds the winner itself. When Bridges' 51 minutes became a hot search on social media, and when "farmer basketball" became a new term for basketball commentary, people suddenly realized that in this era of data explosion, there are things that will never change - such as the desire for victory, the persistence of honor, the courage to use flesh and blood to fight time.