New York 118, Boston 110

[recap] [box score]

Look at New York's three-point shooting on Tuesday -- 19 for 32 -- and you'd think that the Knicks were simply too hot to be beat. And while it's true that they were on fire from behind the arc, the fact is that Boston's defense was as bad as it has been all season. The rotations were off all night, and even when they made an adjustment to better guard the three-point line, they left the paint wide open, ceding a number of easy baskets to Tyson Chandler.

And yet the Celtics gave themselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter, mostly thanks to Paul Pierce, who had a season-high 43 points, largely on the back of a 17-for-18 performance at the free throw line. Battling foot injuries, though, he was almost as ineffective on defense as he was effective on offense, and Carmelo Anthony got plenty of his 35 points against Pierce. (Melo added 12 boards and ten assists for his second career triple-double.)

Other than Pierce's offense, Avery Bradley was a bright spot for the Cs, draining 5-of-6 three-pointers, most from the corners. It's beginning to look like his outside shot, which was atrocious at the beginning of the season, has improved permanently to something respectable. Rajon R-ndo had 13 points and 13 assists -- remarkably, something of a pedestrian performance for him lately -- but sat for some of the second half after falling awkwardly on his back after colliding with Chandler on a rebound. R-ndo refused to go back to the locker room for treatment, however, and gamely finished out the game

Really, though, the big story in this one was the difference in bench production. In about 50 minutes of court time, the Boston reserves scored a total of two points. The Knicks got 25 each from Steve Novak and J.R. Smith, who combined to go 15-for-20 from beyond the arc.

To be fair to Boston's second unit, two of Boston's top reserves (Bradley and Brandon Bass) have moved permanently to the starting lineup, and the next two missed the game -- Ray Allen was a late scratch with his lingering ankle injury after participating in shootaround, and Mickael Pietrus went back to Boston to have fluid from his knee drained. But I can't help but contrast the Celtics with, say, the Spurs, who I watched dismantle the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers in the nightcap. San Antonio has like 11 guys who play and contribute, while there are nights, like tonight, where you wonder how Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels and Sasha Pavlovic even have NBA jobs.

Anyway, back at it Wednesday night, 8 Eastern, in Boston against Orlando. I think our magic number is two; we just need some combination of two wins and Knicks losses and we've got the division, unless we lose our last four and Philly wins its last five. With a road game in Atlanta and then a home date with the revenge-minded Heat looming before the season finale against Milwaukee, it'd be nice to get this one against the Magic to take some of the pressure off.