Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks will continue their push for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference when they visit the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
The Knicks moved into third place in the Eastern Conference with a 128-117 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. New York (47-32) trailed Milwaukee by one game entering the Bucks' home game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night. Boston (62-17) has already secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference and the best record in the NBA.
Jalen Brunson tossed in 45 points during the victory over Chicago. It was his second straight game with at least 40 points -- he scored 43 during a win at Milwaukee on Sunday -- and the 10th time he has scored at least 40 points in a game this season.
Brunson attended high school in Illinois, and his 45-point performance came in front of a large group of supporters.
"Outside of the city, where I went to high school, it's a special place," Brunson said of Lincolnshire, Ill. "I have a lot of people from there come to the game and support me. That means more to me than scoring 45."
Brunson's 10 40-point games in a season is good for third place in team history. Bernard King scored 40 points or more 13 times during the 1984-85 season, and Patrick Ewing had 11 games with at least 40 points in 1989-90.
Brunson is averaging 28.4 points, 6.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game. He's shooting 47.8 percent from the field.
"More importantly, they're not empty stats," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It's impacting winning in a great way. And so to be a leading scorer in the league, to do it with the amount of pressure that he's had on him in terms of double teaming -- we've had a lot of guys out, got a number of guys with minute restrictions and everything else, and this guy has delivered night after night."
The Celtics are coming off Tuesday's 104-91 loss to Milwaukee, which ended the team's five-game winning streak. Boston was held to 43 points in the first half and trailed by 20 points at halftime.
"For the most part, I thought we had too many empty possessions on the offensive end (in the first half)," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. "Waiting too long to get into our spacing. Too many shots at the end of the shot clock. Just gotta get into it quicker.
"I think it's good for us to be in a bunch of different situations. This was the first time that a game wasn't going our way since -- I don't remember when. So to me, it was a good opportunity to just play through that (and) find different ways to create runs, find different ways to just build stuff on either end of the floor."
The Celtics became the first NBA team not to shoot a free throw during Tuesday's loss.
Boston has won 13 straight home games. After Thursday's matchup, the Celtics will wrap up the regular season with home games against Charlotte and Washington. New York will conclude the regular season with home games against Brooklyn and Chicago.
The Knicks are winless in four games against the Celtics this season.
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