The Knicks were getting destroyed on the boards in the first half Saturday night, so Tom Thibodeau decided to go smaller after intermission.

With the Knicks trailing by 13 at halftime, Thibodeau inserted Miles McBride with the starting unit to open the third quarter in place of fill-in starter Precious Achiuwa.

The move nearly worked as the Knicks opened the half and whittled the Boston lead to three, but they couldn’t sustain that momentum in an ugly 131-104 loss to the Celtics at the Garden.

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“That was part of the reason why we put Deuce in the second half just to get the shooting, because of the help that was coming from the back side, just to try and open it up for [Karl-Anthony Towns] a little bit more,” Thibodeau explained.