Knicks get what they wanted: Celtics in second round
Jalen Brunson #11 of the Knicks shoots the ball against Dennis Schroder #17 of the Detroit Pistons during the first quarter in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena on May 01, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. Credit: Getty Images
Yes, it’s a little scary. Yes, the Knicks are heavy underdogs. And yes, this Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Celtics is what Knicks fans have been waiting for all year.
If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. This was the driving force behind all of the Knicks’ roster moves last summer. Now, thanks to one of the biggest postseason buckets in franchise history, the Knicks are going to get their shots at the defending champions.
The Knicks and Celtics will begin writing the next chapter of their storied rivalry in Game 1 on Monday in Boston.
The Celtics have been resting and waiting to see whom they would face in the second round since finishing off the Orlando Magic, 4-1, on Tuesday. The Knicks narrowly avoided having to go to a Game 7 in their dogfight of a first-round series against the Detroit Pistons when Jalen Brunson — who else, of course — hit the game-winning three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left.
This marks the Knicks’ third straight trip to the second round of the playoffs, but the aim when looking at the roster this past summer was to do better than that. The Knicks knew they had a generational player in Brunson and wanted to load up around him while the 28-year-old was still in his prime, so they redesigned their roster in order to counter Boston’s biggest strengths.
They re-signed OG Anunoby and traded for Mikal Bridges to help guard Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Then they traded for Karl-Anthony Towns, a big man with the ability to knock down three-pointers like former-Knick-now-Celtic Kristaps Porzingis.
Heading into the season, everyone projected the Knicks to be a contender and the second-best team in the East. Although the Knicks did finish with their second straight 50-win season, perceptions quickly changed.
Cleveland, under new coach Kenny Atkinson, charged out of the gate and held onto the No. 1 spot in the conference throughout the season. The Knicks also struggled against elite teams, going 0-10 against the Cavaliers, Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Celtics didn’t just sweep the Knicks in the regular season; they had a plus-65 point differential in the four games. In the much-anticipated season opener, the Celtics tied an NBA record by making 29 three-pointers. Three out of the four games were double-digit losses. The lone close game was on April 8, an overtime victory for Boston at Madison Square Garden.
This, of course, was something that Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was trying to downplay at his team’s practice Friday.
“Every game takes on a life of its own, every series takes on a life of its own,” he said. “Right now, the series is 0-0. It’s two good teams getting ready to play.”
Can the Knicks actually flip the narrative? Can their team, after surviving a tough battle against an underrated Pistons squad, rise to the occasion and give the Celtics a tough series?
“They’re the defending champions,” Tom Thibodeau said after the Knicks closed out the series in Detroit to advance. “So we know we’re going to have to be at our best.”
Yes, and even that might not be enough.
The Celtics’ three-point shooters are skilled and savvy. While Anunoby and Bridges have the ability to slow them, the Celtics know how to attack a team’s weakest defenders, so look for them to try to go at Brunson and Towns. What’s more, the Knicks definitely suffered some mental and physical lapses in the series against the Pistons; those certainly will have to be eliminated.
Yet in their closeout game in Detroit, there definitely were some signs that the team is coming together. Leading the list was the play of Bridges, who had his most impactful game as a Knick, finishing with 25 points, including a tip-in that tied the score at 113 with 35.1 seconds left.
“We’re built for this [stuff],” Bridges said in his postgame interview when explaining how the team came through when it had to. “Sorry, sorry, but we’re built for it. That’s all it was. Stayed with it, stayed positive and just stayed fighting.”
And now the Knicks have three days to prepare for their next fight.
“We know it’s going to be a test,” Josh Hart said. “They’re the champs last year. They’re playing at a very high level. It’s going to test us. But we’re confident in ourselves, we’re comfortable with who we are. I think we’ve grown and we’ll continue to grow. So it’s going to be a good series.”
Against the opponent everyone wanted.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
