BOSTON — Take your time with that sore left foot, Jalen Brunson.
Immanuel Quickley has everything under control.
Without the injured Brunson, the third-year guard carried the Knicks in crunch time Sunday.
His career-high 38 points in an exhausting 55 minutes led coach Tom Thibodeau’s team to yet another dramatic win, a 131-129 double-overtime victory over the Celtics at TD Garden that sent the Knicks to their NBA-leading ninth straight victory.
With Julius Randle clearly out of gas, Quickley scored seven points in the second overtime and the Knicks prevailed when Al Horford’s 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer.
With the victory, the white-hot Knicks (39-27) equaled the Celtics for the most road wins in the NBA (20) and moved back to within a game of the fourth-place Cavaliers.
Randle had 31 points, nine rebounds and four assists, RJ Barrett added 29 points and 11 rebounds and Mitchell Robinson had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Jayson Tatum scored 40 for the Celtics, but made just 12 of 30 shots from the field.
Jaylen Brown chipped in 29.
Quickley scored the first five points of the second OT, giving the Knicks a much-needed cushion.
Two Josh Hart free throws with 1:21 left made it a five-point game.
But after a 24-second violation and consecutive Tatum drives, the Celtics had the ball, down two and 10.2 seconds remaining.
Up 11 following a stunning 30-7 run bridging the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, the Knicks gave the lead back.
A scoreless stretch of 3:36 enabled the Celtics to go on a 13-2 run and get even at 102 on Brown’s three-point play with 4:09 left.
Quickley gave the Knicks the lead with a baby jumper in the lane and Hart followed with a driving layup. Boston got within one on Marcus Smart’s 3-pointer following two offensive rebounds with 18.7 seconds to go.
After Randle calmly sank two clutch free throws, Brown converted a game-tying three-point play and then stripped Randle on the other end to force overtime.
In the first extra session, Horford’s 3-pointer with 29.2 seconds left gave the Celtics the lead.
Quickley tied it on the other end with 12.9 to go and Tatum missed a driving runner in the lane as time expired.
The Knicks held a four-point lead late in the first half when Robinson picked up his third foul.
Thibodeau opted to go small, using Randle at center, and he paid for it.
The Celtics reeled off the final 11 points of the half, with five of them coming after offensive rebounds.
It was the story of the opening 24 minutes, Boston crushing the Knicks on the glass to the tune of 11 offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points, and turning 10 turnovers into 14 fast-break points.
The little things they had been doing so well eluded them.
Without Brunson, Barrett was more involved.
He started hot, hitting five of his first six shots, and had a team-high 16 points at the break.
Coming off his 43-point outburst against the Heat, Randle notched 14.
The Knicks had no answer for the two Celtics stars, Tatum and Brown.
The duo combined for 36 first-half points on 12 of 23 shooting. Tatum had 19 — five more than he mustered the last time the Knicks and Celtics played one another.
The halftime break didn’t slow down the Celtics.
They built on their momentum, quickly pushing the lead into double figures.
After Smart baited Randle into an offensive foul, he bumped the official while arguing and was assessed a technical foul.
A few possessions later, Smart sank a 3-pointer, pushing the lead to 13.
The Celtics led by as many as 14, and the winning streak looked ready to end.
But the Knicks responded as they have throughout this run.
They closed the quarter on an 18-5 run to go ahead on a Randle right-corner 3-pointer at the horn — from the same exact spot as his game-winner in Miami.
Quickley scored eight points in the burst and had two steals, giving the Knicks a major jolt.
He kept on going to start the fourth, hitting another 3-pointer and setting up a Barrett triple, as the Knicks suddenly found themselves up nine with 9:04 to go.