Jayson Tatum scores 24 for Celtics in 1st game at Madison Square Garden since Achilles injury but Knicks win, 112-106

In his first game at Madison Square Garden since suffering a torn Achilles in last year’s NBA playoffs, Jayson Tatum scored 24 points in the Boston Celtics’ 112-106 loss to the New York Knicks on Thursday.

The Knicks held a 72-59 lead at the 6:56 mark of the third quarter before Boston surged ahead with a 24-9 run to take a two-point lead into the fourth. The Celtics went ahead 89-83 on consecutive 3-pointers by Baylor Scheierman and Tatum before the Knicks tied the score at 92-92 after scoring seven unanswered points.

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From there, Boston took the lead three times and the Knicks tied the score before finally going ahead 99-98 on a Karl-Anthony Towns 3-pointer. The lead changed four more times before New York went up 109-104 on a free throw from Jalen Brunson and 3-pointer by Josh Hart. After Nikola Vučević rebounded in a missed 3 by Peyton Pritchard, Hart followed up with the dagger from long-range for the final margin.

Hart finished with a game-high 26 points, followed by 25 and 10 assists from Brunson. Towns added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks, who improved their record to 52-28 to keep hold on the third seed in the Eastern Conference.

Tatum nearly finished with a triple-double, adding 13 rebounds and eight assists to his 24 points. Most of the Celtics’ other scoring came from their bench. Pritchard tallied 23 points and Scheierman added 20, shooting 6-for-7 from 3-point range. Boston dropped to 54-26 with the defeat and gave the Knicks an opportunity to tie them for the second-best record in the East.

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New York would win a tiebreaker, finishing with a 3-1 head-to-head record versus Boston. The Celtics’ remaining two games are against the New Orleans Pelicans (26-54) and Orlando Magic (44-36). The Knicks face the Toronto Raptors (45-35) and Charlotte Hornets (43-37). They also hold a tiebreaker over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the No. 3 seed, winning two of their three regular-season matchups.

The Celtics played without leading scorer Jaylen Brown, who sat out with tendinitis in his left Achilles tendon with the team playing the first of back-to-back games. Boston hosts the Pelicans at TD Garden on Friday.