NEW YORK — Jaylen Brown entered Friday night’s matchup at Madison Square Garden with a bit of extra motivation.

He remembered, of course, what happened in that building five months earlier, when his Celtics lost Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles and then, four days later, their bid for back-to-back championships in a 38-point Game 6 loss to the New York Knicks.

“Absolutely,” Brown said hours before tipoff. “Tonight should be a fun one.”

Unfortunately for Boston, that fun was short-lived.

The 2025-26 Celtics hardly resemble the team that was upset in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, and they couldn’t keep pace with a Knicks squad expected to challenge for the No. 1 seed, losing 105-95 to fall to 0-2.

It’s the first time Boston has opened a season with back-to-back losses

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