NEW YORK — Baylor Scheierman heard the chatter before he started answering it. Three former Knicks were sitting on the end of the sideline Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, and as the Celtics swingman stood nearby, Stephon Marbury, Tim Thomas and Raymond Felton took turns chiding him like a player waiting his turn in a pickup run. By the end of the night, Scheierman had turned the noise into five second-half 3-pointers, even if Boston still walked out with a 112-106 loss to the Knicks.
Scheierman said the back-and-forth was the usual kind of corner talk, the sort that comes when a shooter is parked and waiting for the ball. As he started to hit shots, he said, the former Knicks seemed to tip their caps a little more, though he figured they were still wondering who he was. The second-year swingman said his celebrations were simply coming in the moment, driven by emotion and the enjoyment of the game. “I’m not thinking too much about it,” he said. “I’m just having a lot of fun out there actually.”
That edge mattered because Scheierman has been emerging as a bench weapon with the postseason approaching, and Boston needed every bit of scoring it could find on a night when the fourth quarter turned into a problem. Josh Hart, who had averaged just 6.7 points and shot 2 for 10 from 3-point range over his previous four games, delivered 15 points in the fourth quarter on 6-for-7 shooting and made all three of his 3-point tries in the period, including two in the final minute. The Celtics were forced into hard choices defensively, and Hart punished them for it.
The pivotal sequence came with 1:04 left and Boston down 106-104. Jayson Tatum drove into the paint and drew a double team from Hart, leaving Derrick White open on the right wing. White had a clean 27-footer, but the shot clanged off the right side of the rim. Coach Joe Mazzulla did not regret the read. He said White got a great look in a spot where he has hit before in that arena, and he called it a significant play in the game. He also said Tatum made a good decision, but White did not convert.
That left Boston with the kind of loss that feels more detailed than dramatic. Scheierman’s bursts showed another scoring option. Hart’s fourth quarter showed how quickly a game can turn when a cold shooter catches fire. And in the final minute, the Celtics got the shot they wanted and still could not make it. That is the kind of margin that tends to matter most when the games start to shrink.
