BOSTON — The New York Knicks spent the offseason boosting its roster to compete with the defending champion Boston Celtics. But through three matchups this season, it is abundantly clear  the Celtics still own the Knicks.

While the final score of Sunday’s Celtics-Knicks tilt at TD Garden read 118-105, it was never really that close. Boston led by as many as 27 points before New York went on a run in the third to make it respectable. The Celtics have won all three of their regular-season meetings with the Knicks by an average of 21 points. 

Boston started the season with a 132-109 lambasting of the Knicks on Opening Night after raising the franchise’s 18th championship banner at TD Garden. Just a few weeks ago, the Celtics dominated the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, embarrassing them with a 131-104 beatdown.

Then came Sunday, which saw Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown shine, while New York’s big offseason acquisitions of Karl Anthony-Towns and Mikal Bridges struggled to make a big impact. Tatum was an assist shy of a triple-double (25 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists), while Brown poured in 24 points and eight rebounds. 

The final score was closer than it should have been because of a 39-25 third quarter by the Knicks, led by 14 points and eight rebounds by Towns. But the big man had just 10 points and 10 rebounds through the other three quarters, and provided next to no rim protection for New York throughout the contest. The Celtics were 18-of-25 around the basket and 25-of-39 in the paint overall on Sunday.

And in usual fashion, Tom Thibodeau’s team was out of gas after that third-quarter surge and the Celtics were able to close them out in the fourth. 

The Knicks gave up a bounty of draft picks for Bridges in July, but he had just 14 points and was a minus-23 on Sunday. Bridges and OG Anunoby were supposed to give the Knicks a chance against Tatum and Brown on defense, but neither has been much of a match for Boston’s star duo.

Tatum has become a true point-forward and near-elite playmaker for Boston this season, and has dished out 19 dimes over the last two contests. On Sunday, he was either attacking mismatches or finding them elsewhere, leading to easy hoops for himself or his teammates. Tatum is averaging seven assists per game for the month of February.

Add in that he connected on eight of his 20 shots on Sunday while adding six free throws, and he’s difficult to stop on his own. But the Celtics are far more than just Tatum, and on Sunday, we saw Brown get extremely active without the ball in his hands. It led to a number of easy looks for the reigning NBA Finals MVP.

If that was all the Celtics had, maybe the Knicks would have had a chance on Sunday. But Kristaps Porzingis looks as healthy as ever, contributing 15 points and seven rebounds, while Derrick White casually dropped 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists against New York. Jrue Holiday had 14 points off 6-of-9 shooting, but made a bigger impact defensively as he mixed it up with everyone from Jalen Brunson to Towns.

After the Knicks picked up Bridges and KAT over the summer, they were expected to duke it out with the Celtics atop the Eastern Conference. But the Knicks have been no match for the Celtics this year, a trend that goes back to last season.

Celtics have the Knicks number

The Celtics have now won seven of their last eight meetings with the Knicks going back to last season and five straight overall. It looks like the two could be hurdling toward a second-round matchup in the playoffs, though there is a long way to go before anyone reaches that point. 

After Sunday’s win, Brown said Boston wasn’t trying to send any message to it’s Eastern Conference counterpart. The Celtics, who have now won five straight and nine of their last 10, are just looking to round into form for the stretch run of the regular season.

“There’s no message that we are sending them. We are playing some good ball and maybe we caught them on a bad day. Anything could happen in the playoffs,” said Brown. “We’re not overlooking anybody. We just have to get ready for the playoffs.”  

The Celtics now own a four-game lead over the Knicks and the head-to-head tiebreaker for the two-seed in the East (Boston still trails Cleveland by six games for the top seed). The two teams will square off one final time in the regular season when they meet at Madison Square Garden on April 8.