When the Knicks took a four-point lead with nine seconds to go in Wednesday night's season opener against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden, it appeared the home team was on the verge of a feel-good win to start Kemba Walker's Knicks career.
The historic Knicks-Celtics rivalry provided a thrilling entertainer. It had everything but in the end, the hosts outlasted the visitors after 58 minutes of action.
The trouble started after the other former Celtic starting in the Knicks' backcourt, Evan Fournier, got free for a layup to push New York's lead to 114-110 with nine seconds to go, sending the partisan fans inside MSG into a celebratory frenzy in anticipation of a win.
But then Jaylen Brown, who finished with 46 points, buried a 28-foot 3-pointer to pull the Celtics to within a point.
After Julius Randle hit a pair of free throws to push the Knicks' lead back to 116-113 with 4.9 seconds to go -- and with Boston not having any timeouts -- the plan was for the Knicks to foul.
"We had a play where we wanted to catch Jayson [Tatum] moving on the run," Ime Udoka, coaching his first regular-season game for Boston, said afterward of the Celtics' plan.