Jayson Tatum scores 24 for Celtics in first game at Madison Square Garden since Achilles injury, but Knicks win

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 quarter. The Celtics went ahead 89-83 on consecutive 3-pointers by Baylor Scheierman and Tatum before the Knicks tied the score at 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 a missed 3 by Peyton Pritchard, Hart followed with the dagger from long-range for the final margin.

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.

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.

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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.

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.