NEW YORK _ The Knicks took the floor at Madison Square Garden on Christmas with their spirit for giving in the right place but their priorities backward.
Consider two statistical trends that jumped out from the final box score after the Celtics' 119-114 victory on Sunday:
The Knicks totaled 11 assists on 41 made field goals while turning over the ball 17 times.
The Celtics totaled 20 assists on 45 made field goals while turning over the ball only six times.
So, to review: the Knicks (16-14) did not give up the ball when they should have and did give it up when they should not have. The Celtics (18-13) did the opposite.
The result was what players agreed was a loss that felt extra bad because of the national showcase and a holiday crowd at the Garden that ached for a rare victory over an opponent with a winning record.
"You don't want to lose at all, but to lose today, it was a tough loss," Carmelo Anthony said after rallying from a 1-for-10 shooting start to finish with 29 points on 9-for-24 shooting from the field.
As often is the case, Anthony was at the center of the action when it mattered most _ for both good and bad.
The highlight came with 1:06 left when he completed an 8-0 by the Knicks _ who had trailed by as many as 13 points _ to tie it at 112 and ignite the crowd.
The score came on a layup off a gorgeous feed by Joakim Noah to the cutting Anthony, who had begun the play by tossing the ball to Noah.
Marcus Smart gave the Celtics back the lead with an open 3-pointer from the corner off a pass from Al Horford with 47.8 seconds left. The Knicks had trouble defending Boston's threes all night; the Celtics made 14 on 36 tries.
After Anthony missed a 3-pointer and Noah rebounded, Melo had the ball and was dribbling near the sideline as the clock wound down and fans rose in anticipation.
The Celtics had switched Avery Bradley onto him. Anthony could not and/or did not get rid of the ball, Bradley got a piece of it and Anthony turned it over. That happened with 18.8 seconds left; the Knicks never recovered.
"He got his hand on the ball," Anthony said. "He made a good defensive play. I don't want to take that away from him."
Derrick Rose, who finished with 25 points, and Kristaps Porzingis, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds, could only watch helplessly as the ball rolled away to the Celtics' Jae Crowder.
"We had Melo with the ball," Rose said when asked about his lack of involvement. "If the coach wanted me to have the ball I'd have the ball, but I'm not the coach or the coaching staff. My job is to go wherever they want me to go."
Said Porzingis, "I was ready to shoot it if I had a chance but we trusted Melo in that situation and sometimes you knock down big shots and sometimes you don't."
The Celtics were led by Isaiah Thomas with 27 points on a night that featured on-court testiness _ notably between Anthony and Horford. There were three technical fouls on the Knicks and one on the Celtics.
Coach Jeff Hornacek said the Knicks' ball movement was lacking at times. But Porzingis noted the Knicks' style and personnel do not always lead to high assists totals, even in good times.
"A lot of it is (isolation plays) for guys and guys making one-on-one plays," he said. "I'm not really worried about that too much."
Anthony added the Celtics' mostly rely on one-on-one defense with limited help, which encourages more one-on-one offensive play.
"I honestly didn't see any issue with the ball movement today," he said. "It was one of those days when I thought we did move the ball ... I don't think us having 11 assists was any indication of the way we played."
