It took a gut-wrenching, heart-pounding two extra periods of play, but the Knicks managed to down the Celtics to start the 2021-22 season behind some brilliants performances by their revamped starting five.

As the NBA celebrates its semisesquicentennial season, the New York Knicks celebrated victory in their season opener, a 138-134 double-overtime thriller over the Boston Celtics. The Knicks play in an arena many call the world’s most famous, a pinwheel cathedral. The Garden. Last night’s win was a garden of many paths, all different routes to the same end. 

Halfway through the fourth quarter, hometown hero Kemba Walker gave New York its first lead in a long time. His mother was right there for it. What could be a better storyline?

Not too long after, Julius Randle put the Knicks up 11, and the innocent among us breathed easy, victory assured. 

The rest of us smiled, grimly, but stayed silent. We’ve seen too much Hell to relax, and what can the damned freely have to say to the damned? “Grant f!@#$% Williams?!”, that’s what.

The General started draining from deep, giving the Cs a puncher’s chance. Walker turned the ball over a couple of times. With five seconds left, Jaylen Brown stunned the Knicks from 40 feet out to cut the gap to one.

Smart tied it at the buzzer, aided by Evan Fournier blitzing a fallen Jayson Tatum 70 feet from the basket, and Walker… I have no idea what Walker’s doing. Thibodeau said after the game that he was supposed to foul but that Tatum’s slip threw off the timing? I don’t know.

In overtime, a new storyline; like all good stories, it was a twist on an old one. Walker, half of New York’s new ex-Celtic backcourt, could have been the hero on the night. Why not Fournier, the other half? Fournier arrives with some pressure. He’s replacing a solid two-way wing in Reggie Bullock and doing so for potentially as much as $78 million over four years. I believe the only people the Knicks have ever paid more on a single contract are Allan Houston, Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, and Randle.

Fournier showed off the entire repertoire. He pro’ly made more layups last night than Bullock did all last season. He showed something on the defensive end, at times. 

Last but not least, Fournier was the gun the Knicks brought to a gun fight. Both teams hit their first four shots in overtime, including a back-and-forth 3-point barrage. Fournier hit back-to-back-to-back longballs, then passed out of a post-up to set up RJ Barrett from deep. In the final minute of the second overtime, his sixth three of the night gave the Knicks the lead for good.

The noticeably beefier Mitchell Robinson returned to action for the first time since fracturing his foot in Milwaukee in March. With Nerlens Noel out with a sore left knee and Taj GIbson out for what Tom Thibodeau called “good personal reasons” (his first child was born!), Robinson was asked to carry a bigger load than most players with one preseason game in seven months under their belt are. He delivered 34 minutes, dominating the glass with 17 rebounds along with 11 points, a couple of blocks and three assists, one shy of his career-high.  

The other available center, Jericho Sims, played only seven minutes with the Randle/Toppin pairing getting a good run. The Knicks got out on the break a lot, Barrett and Toppin especially. Obi scored a career-high 14 in a career-high 28 minutes. Last season he averaged 11 minutes a game. If he doubles that this year, that’s 900 more minutes on the floor. Randle led the league in minutes last season; cut his total by 900 and he’d have ranked 94th, just ahead of Enes Kanter. Obviously that’s not going to happen, but an ascendant Toppin — particularly alongside Randle — gives Thibodeau more crayons to color his lineups with.

Barrett was scoreless until midway through the third, then became a blur of breakaways and quick-launch threes. He’d end up with 19 on a night where his value was there even when he wasn’t scoring. Remember this, from RJ’s sixth game as a pro? I bet he does.

Barrett’s defense continues to impress. Tatum didn’t shoot 7-30 just because of RJ, but he didn’t not shoot 7-30 because of him, either, if that makes any sense. Clips don’t lie. 

If you’re still leaving the light on in your heart for last year’s Knicks, Randle was a blast from that past. He came out hot right off the bat, dissolving whatever anxiety would have occurred had he opened the year missing his first four or five looks. Contested threes, jab-step threes, posting up, driving and finishing repeatedly while guarded by every current Celtic (pretty sure I saw Dino Radja and Pervis Ellison get some minutes on Randle, too) — Julius looked like last year’s Julius.

Late in the second overtime, both teams were exhausted. There were mental errors, flat bricks, missed dunks; you (I, anyway) couldn’t help feeling for the players. These elite conditioned humans were so tired they couldn’t perform routinely routine tasks. My head proudly proclaimed there was no second-best team in a game like this while the raw boy of my heart knew a piece of me would die if the Knicks lost. Randle was wiped out, turning the ball over and settling for what the defense gave him. Still, he gave the Knicks their penultimate lead with a spin move in the paint and an and-one over defensive demon Robert Williams, bookending the brilliance of his 20-point first half.

The Knicks stuck a pin in last year’s regular season by beating Boston in New York to clinch the four seed. Last night the pinwheel cathedral pointed in infinite places. All ended at the same endpoint: Knicks win, Celtics lose. Never gets old.

Notes:

• Fournier’s 32 made him the first Knick ever to score 30-plus in his debut. He’s not afraid to take the big shot. Or to take it again. And again. And again.

• The new backcourt giveth and taketh away. One thing they taketh: offensive fouls. Kemba and Fournier drew the only two charges New York did all night.

• Mitch’s ability to recover to someone who looks alone in the paint and keep them from even getting a shot off is something else, man. Did it to Dennis Schröder and Grant Williams. Big Strong Mitch = different upside.

• All five Knicks starters finished in double-figures. Three years ago the opening night starters of Enes Kanter, Lance Thomas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Frank Ntilikina, and Trey Burke did not.

• Brown’s 46 are the most by a Celtic in a season opener. The most in any opener, per Mike Breen: 56 by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962.

• The Knicks did an incredible job getting out and pushing after defensive rebounds. There was a stretch late in the third that saw Toppin getting out in transition for an and-one, then a breakaway dunk, then Barrett flying in for another fast break slam, then RJ drawing a foul near the end of the quarter on another push. Damn near gave me the vapors.

• Boston hit their threes early, a siren call luring the “The 3-point defensive regression is nigh!” troglodytes from their caves, only for the Cs to miss 14 of their next 15.

• For all you Thibs minutes micro-managers: Ime Udoka had more Celtics play 30-plus (6-5) and 40-plus minutes (4-3) than Thibodeau.

• It’s a good thing Kemba is a New York native replacing an outmatched Elfrid Payton, ‘cuz Walker is gonna be like feces to flies for the “first-time, long-time” crowd the moment he goes through a rough patch.

• One thing to pay attention to with Fournier: on a number of occasions he flew in after a miss in the hopeless pursuit of an offensive rebound, leaving the Knicks a man down the other way. His instinct seemed a tad askew.

• LOVING the old-school logo on the Knicks T-shirts! Do it every year. I used to draw that on my paper bag textbook covers over and over again. If you know, you know.

• Last night’s chants: “MVP!” for Randle, an “Obi!” chant, an “R-J Barr-ett!” and the White Christmas of New York sports songs, “Boston sucks!”

• Grant Williams started his career 0-25 from deep, per Breen. Since then he’s 75 of 205 (37%). Likable player, he is.

• Payton Pritchard, too. Does something on both ends.

• Romeo Langford is beautiful.

• When the score was 98-89, I hope all the other palindrome lovers out there poured one out, being sure to pour an equal amount out next to it, in keeping with the spirit of the love.

• The first-ever meeting between the Knicks and Celtics came on December 7, 1946, five years to the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The teams met in Boston; the next night, their first Manhattan matchup was a 62-44 Knicks win. The Knicks’ leading scorer in year one was Bud Palmer, who averaged 9.5 points per game on 31% shooting, the best mark on a team who shot 29% for the season. Those Knicks were a winning team, a playoff team. Boston was led by Wyndol Gray’s 13 points. At 6-foot-1, the Harvard-educated Gray was a swingman. Last night the Celtics’ smallest starter, Marcus Smart, had two inches and almost 50 pounds on Gray.

Quoth Walt Frazier, “Heroes abound.” I’m imagining Clyde said that; the game was blocked on MSG where I live, so I caught it on ESPN. Wasn’t too bad: Breen was there, I actually enjoy Jeff Van Gundy more than others seem to, and Mark Jackson makes me laugh once or twice a game (no, it doesn’t override all his other history or qualities, but if you’re reading this you’re pro’ly aware of them; if you’re not you can google them, and I don’t feel like being negative). Something last season reminded many of us: winning increases the appetite for more winning. 1-0 is nice, but 2-0 is soooo much better! Next game is tomorrow in Orlando. Hopefully the heroics make the trip along with the Knicks.