Riding the hot shooting hands of Jeff Green and Jason Terry, the Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks 109-98 on Saturday night in NBA preseason action. It's worth noting that the Knicks were without essentially their entire usual roster, including Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith.
Without Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass, the Celtics needed other players to shoulder the scoring load, and the veterans came through. Green knocked down 10-of-16 from the field to lead the Celtics with 25 points, plus Terry shot 7-of-13 from the field (4-of-6 from long range) to add 22 points.
Rajon Rondo played 31 minutes against New York, recording 13 points, 11 assists and six rebounds against the depleted Knicks roster. Chris Copeland played the starring role for the Knicks all night, leading all scorers with 34 points on 11-of-18 shooting in addition to grabbing six rebounds.
With the win, the Celtics improve to 3-4 during the 2012 preseason, while the Knicks drop to 2-2.