NEW YORK — Jalen Brunson had 39 points and 12 assists, and the New York Knicks moved a win away from their first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years and pushed the defending champion Boston Celtics to the brink of elimination with a 121-113 victory Monday night in Game 4.

The Celtics will have to make the NBA’s 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit to extend their title reign, and may have to do it without All-Star Jayson Tatum, who was carried off the court after an right leg injury with 2:58 left.

Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each added 23 points and OG Anunoby bounced back from two poor performances by scoring 20 points for the Knicks, who can win the series Wednesday night at Boston. If not, they would come back to Madison Square Garden to try to do it Friday night.

Tatum scored 42 points, his high in these playoffs, before he was hurt when the Celtics turned the ball over and his leg gave out as he tried to lunge forward toward the loose ball.

The Knicks had taken control just before that in front of a delirious crowd of fans who haven’t seen them play in the conference finals since they lost to Indiana in 2000. The game was tied at 102, but New York pulled away with a 14-2 run.

Nobody has come from 3-1 down since Denver did it twice in 2020 at the Walt Disney World resort. It hasn’t happened when a team had to win a true road game since Cleveland rallied past Golden State in the 2016 NBA Finals.