BOSTON — As everyone else was dragging, tugging on their shorts and eager to call it a night, Immanuel Quickley was a ball of energy.
He was sinking long jumpers.
Getting into the lane.
Dancing on the TD Garden floor after big shots like the game had just tipped off and wasn’t deep into a second overtime.
“That was all adrenaline,” the third-year guard later said with a smile after his draining 55-minute night. “I was exhausted.”
It didn’t look like it.
With Jalen Brunson sidelined due to a sore left foot, Quickley started and played the game’s final 44:34.
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He came through in the clutch, scoring seven of his career-high 38 points in the second overtime to lift the white-hot Knicks to their NBA-leading ninth straight victory and past the powerhouse Celtics, 131-129.
With the win, the Knicks equaled Boston for the most road wins in the NBA (20) and moved back within one game of the fourth-place Cavaliers.
“It was great. Sunday, in TD Garden, it doesn’t get better than that,” said Quickley, the Sixth Man of the Year candidate who also had eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals, two blocks and just one turnover. “I was telling [Julius Randle] that before the second overtime. I was like, ‘It doesn’t get better than this.’ We’re on national TV in the Garden. Other than Madison [Square Garden], this is probably my favorite place to play, so I had a lot of fun.”
As tired as they may have been when the latest win was over, so did the rest of the resilient Knicks (39-27).
Randle had 31 points, nine rebounds and four assists, RJ Barrett added 29 points and 11 rebounds and Mitchell Robinson had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Jayson Tatum scored 40 for the Celtics (45-20), but made just 12 of 30 shots from the field.
Jaylen Brown chipped in 29.
It was an unlikely win, considering the Knicks didn’t have Brunson, their star point guard, and trailed the heavily favored Celtics by 14 points in the third quarter.
Quickley keyed the comeback, igniting a 30-7 run that bridged the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, and forced a second overtime with a runner in the lane with 12.9 seconds to go.
He started the second extra session with a deep 3-pointer and added two more baskets.
When Al Horford’s potential game-winning 3-pointer came up short at the buzzer, he led his teammates in celebrating the pulsating victory.
“He got them little dance moves. He did his thing,” Robinson said of Quickley. “He was having fun. We were giving him the ball and he was getting busy.”
Added Quickley: “It says a lot [about us] because they are a great team. Well-coached, skilled, but we don’t back down from nobody.”
That has become obvious in this stretch that has seen the Knicks win 14 of their last 18 while beating the Celtics three times, the Heat and Nets twice apiece and the 76ers and Cavaliers once each.
Even more impressive, this was far from a perfect performance.
Randle was critical of himself, pointing to his seven turnovers, and the Knicks allowed 17 offensive rebounds that turned into 29 second-chance points for the Celtics.
They blew an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and nearly wasted a six-point edge in the second overtime.
But coach Tom Thibodeau’s team still found a way without their star point guard to beat one of the best teams in the league on its home court.
“I think that’s kind of who we are, just that spirit, that fighting spirit,” Barrett said. “That’s what we preach. Everybody that comes into the game has that.”
Nobody exemplified it more than Quickley, the super-sub-turned-starter who refused to let his team leave Boston with a loss.
While ecstatic, he wasn’t content.
“Nine in a row,” he said. “We’ve got to try to make it 10 in two days.”
