BOSTON — This time there was no fourth-quarter magic.

This time, there was no double-digit comeback. No late heroics. No Jalen Brunson to the rescue when his team needed him most.

It’s hard to come up with fourth-quarter heroics when your team is down by 21 points and you are sitting on the bench with six fouls, which is exactly where Brunson was for a good chunk of the fourth quarter of the Knicks' 127-102 Game 5 loss Wednesday night to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.

Brunson’s Knicks team entered Wednesday night with a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Yet, instead of getting the closeout, Knicks fans got a clunker as the team played their worst game of the playoffs.

The Knicks have two more chances to try to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Game 6 is Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

After winning an emotional Game 4 at the Garden on Monday, the Knicks should have had the Celtics on the ropes. The Celtics, however, clearly wanted to prove that there is more to their team – way more – than Jayson Tatum. The Celtics' six-time All-Star guard ruptured his Achilles at the end of Game 4 and underwent surgery on Tuesday.

Coming out at halftime  tied Wednesday night, the Celtics exploded in the third quarter, outscoring the Knicks 32-17.

Brunson was whistled for five fouls in the quarter as the Knicks were buried in a barrage of three-pointers and showed signs of losing their cool. The Knicks were down by 11, 87-76, when Brunson headed to the bench after picking up his fifth foul with 2:45 left.

The Knicks were trailing by 15 at the start of the fourth when Tom Thibodeau said he decided to start Brunson with the hope of getting something going. That hope was pretty much dashed by the time Brunson picked up his sixth foul with the Knicks trailing by 21 with 7:10 left.

Brunson pleaded his case with referee Tony Brothers and the Knicks challenged the call. The challenge failed and seconds later the jumbotron camera panned to Brunson on the bench. He responded by smiling and waving to the crowd.

Afterward, Brunson was asked what disappointed him most about the game.

“A lot. A lot,” Brunson said. “I’m not going to explain it. Just a lot.”

Said Josh Hart: “Third quarter was terrible , offensively, defensively. Watch film and figure it out.”

No player has been more responsible for getting the Knicks to this point than Brunson, who heading into Wednesday’s game averaging 30.1 points in the playoffs, third most in the NBA.

In the Knicks’ 121-113 win in Game 4, Brunson scored 18 of his 39 points in the third quarter when the Knicks were digging themselves out of a hole.

It's the fourth quarter, however, where Brunson has really imposed his will. On Monday, Brunson became the highest scorer in fourth quarters through the first 10 games of a playoffs since 1997, eclipsing Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry with 102 points.

Those statistics took a hit in Game 5. Brunson finished the game with 22 points. In the second half, he scored nine points on 1-for-4 shooting while playing just 13:56.

There was plenty of blame to go around for this loss. Karl-Anthony Towns was outplayed by Luke Kornet. OG Anunoby (six points) was terrible offensively. And the Knicks just showed a perplexing overall lack of communication.

Now, they have two more chances to get it done. And they have to figure out a way to do it against a team that seems to have gained some confidence by blowing them out without their best player.

“I’d like to win a closeout game anywhere, it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away,” Towns said. “I love our fans, but I know our fans would appreciate it if it was done on the road as much as if it was done at home. It’s about winning every single game possible, putting ourselves in position to win, and I think that’s what’s more disappointing is tonight we didn’t put ourselves in position to win.”

Not even in a position to be rescued by their captain.