In Game 2, the New York Knicks found themselves rarely letting the team out of the season on a hole in the Boston Celtics.

The Knicks found a way again - in fact almost the same way to take off the impossible. Now, they are two wins away from the playoffs beating the defending champion.

Mikal Bridges made another 20-point comeback with the second straight steal for a row, while the Knicks shocked the Celtics again Wednesday night, leading 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“Just find a way to win,” Bridges said.

Jalen Brunson scored 17 points for New York and led 91-90 with a free throw of 12.7 seconds. Then Jayson Tatum was unable to reach the rim and the bridge was moved in to hit the ball and recovered the ball.

Bridges also scored his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart scored 23 points and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Nicks, who will host Game 3 on Saturday.

"We realized our opportunity when we got home. We just had to stay locked up," Brunson said.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White scored 20 points for the Celtics, each hitting 40 points from a 3-point shooting rate in Game 1 with 60.

Tatum, who limited 13 points on the Celtics' 19 shots, scored more than eight minutes without a shot in the fourth quarter. They missed 13 shots in stretching.

The team that won the first two games of seven games won 85.7% of the games on the road. The Knicks took the opener with Bridges the second second left in overtime.

"There is a chance to show what we made," Brown said of a Boston team that beat New York 4-0 in the regular season. "We have to respond."

Kristaps Porzingis did not start after falling ill in the second half of Game 1. He played on the bench for the fifth time in his NBA career, scoring eight points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.

After everyone missed 45 3-pointers in the NBA playoffs in the first game, everyone's eyes were attacked by the Celtics. They scored 24 in 54 runs in the 2-point range on Wednesday.

Despite their shooting struggles, the Celtics found some traction at the end of the third quarter, using a 16-6 run (based on defensive efforts) to turn a 10-point lead into a 73-53 advantage later in the period.

Payton Pritchard played 84-68 with 8:40, but the Celtics won't make another basket until Tatum has 18.5 seconds of driving dunk until the Celtics will.

New York cut it to 86-82 on Hart's buoy, and then Town's three-pointer cut it to 86-85. Tatum missed the jump shot, and a 18-foot player in Brunson put New York in front.

Brown's jump shot rolled the rims from Boston's next trip on the floor. Brunson then found a lane on the rim and scored 89-86 on layups.

Tatum connected on two free throws and then retrieved it after the New York Miss had 24.2 seconds left.

Tatum trailed 89-88 and pushed the ball into the frontcourt, easily passing Mitchell Robinson to pull the Celtics back with a dunk.

Brunson was fouled and connected to two free throws.

Hart said they were going home to know they could still play better.

"I don't even think we know what we can," he said.