NEW YORK — After opening the Eastern Conference semifinals with a pair of embarrassing home losses, the Celtics returned to form Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

The defending NBA champions regained both their shooting stroke and their second-half poise in Game 3, routing the New York Knicks, 115-93.

Five Celtics players scored in double figures in the win, with Payton Pritchard leading the way with 23 points off the bench on 8-of-16 shooting (5 of 10 from 3-point range). Jayson Tatum recorded 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals and went 5 for 9 from 3, with Jaylen Brown adding 19 points, six boards, five assists, one block and one steal.

As a team, the Celtics went 20 for 40 from beyond the arc — a massive improvement over Games 1 and 2, during which they made just 25 of their 100 3-point attempts and posted their worst field-goal percentages of the season. They also were able to protect a 20-point lead for the first time in the series, leading by 20-plus for the entire second half.

The win in front of a lively New York crowd was on brand for Boston, which had a 33-8 road record during the regular season. The Celtics also have not lost three straight games in nearly two full years. They’ll look to even the second-round series Monday night in Game 4.

The Celtics struggled to finish at the rim in the early going (4 for 9 on first-quarter shots inside the restricted area) but were far more effective on the perimeter than they were in the first two games. They hit each of their first four 3-pointers — by four players — and six of their first seven, with Derrick White (17 points) turning the lone miss into an easy put-back.

Pritchard hit a 25-footer to put the Celtics ahead 32-16, then beat the first-quarter buzzer with an off-balance midrange jumper to make it 36-20.

The Knicks staged several mini-runs during the second quarter, but Boston’s lead only grew. It hit 19 points on a fast-break layup by Al Horford (15 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) off a Luke Kornet block. Then 22 when Tatum and Pritchard buried 3s on consecutive possessions. Then 25 when Brown drove hard to the basket and drew a foul seconds before halftime.

Outside of the early around-the-rim shakiness, it would have been hard to draw up a better first-half response by the Celtics, who built a 71-46 advantage by shooting 54.% from the field, 63.2% from 3 (12 for 19) and 91.7% from the foul line (11 for 12). Brown accounted for four of those free-throw attempts, and the rest came from Boston’s effective bench, with Pritchard, Kornet and Kristaps Porzingis making all eight of their first-half freebies.

Porzingis, who’s dealt with symptoms from a lingering viral illness that have zapped his energy and limited his availability, came off the bench behind Horford for the second straight game. He played 19 minutes and finished with five points, four rebounds, two assists and three blocks.

Brown, Tatum and Pritchard all hit double figures in the first half, with Tatum going 4 for 5 from 3 to offset a 1-for-5 start from inside the arc.

The Knicks, meanwhile, went just 2 for 11 from 3-point range and 10 for 17 from the line before halftime, with Mitchell Robinson largely to blame for the latter. The Knicks’ backup center is a valuable defender and offensive rebounder — so much so that Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla intentionally fouled him just to get him off the floor in the fourth quarter of Game 2 — but an almost impossibly bad free-throw shooter.

Robinson missed his first five tries from the charity stripe, including multiple airballs, and drew a roar from the home crowd when he finally made his sixth. The Celtics also hacked Robinson later in the game; he finished 4 for 12 from the line.

Building 20-point leads hasn’t been a problem for the Celtics in this series, however. Holding them has. And the Knicks did threaten as Boston’s offensive production tailed off over the final two quarters.

After the Celtics’ cushion reached 31 points early in the third, New York responded with an 8-0 run, capitalizing on a string of four consecutive Celtics misses. But a third straight monumental comeback never materialized. White halted the Knicks’ rally with a corner 3, and Tatum and Horford followed an and-one layup in transition and a fast-break dunk, respectively.

Down 96-70 entering the fourth, the Knicks made another push, draining three 3-pointers in quick succession (more than they made in the first three quarters combined). But that, too, was short-lived. New York never got back within 20, and both teams emptied their benches in the final three minutes.

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