Heading into Friday’s Game 6, the New York Knicks hadn’t made it to the Eastern Conference finals since 2000, a drought as long as the camera phone is old.
To end the drought, the Knicks made it rain, nailing 46.2 percent of their field goals and 34.8 percent of 3-pointers en route to a 119-81 rout of the Boston Celtics. With the win, New York advances to their first conference finals in a quarter century, setting up a rematch against the Indiana Pacers, who bounced New York from the playoffs last year during a seven-game Eastern Conference semifinals series.
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The Knicks started the second quarter with a six-point lead, and quickly turned it into a 13-point lead as the Celtics unraveled. Then the Knicks led by 16, and shortly after by 21. At halftime, New York held a 64-37 lead with five players (Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges) scoring in double digits.
The second half was no different and the Knicks never let up, allowing some starters to rest nearly half of the final frame.
“(The Celtics are) not going to hand you anything. You have to earn it, and I felt we did that,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said postgame.
Brunson and Anunoby paced the Knicks with 23 points each. Bridges had 22 and Towns scored 21, while Josh Hart and Miles McBride both scored 10. For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown scored 20 points while Derrick White had a quiet eight-point outing.
The Eastern Conference finals start May 21 in New York.
New York saved its best for last
After 25 long, humbling and frustrating seasons, the Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference finals.
Yes, the Knicks are going to the Eastern Conference finals.
New York saved its best performance for last, grabbing its first beatdown victory of the playoffs. The Knicks led the Celtics by 45 points at the end of the third quarter. Boston coach Joe Mazzulla put in his end-of-bench players before the fourth quarter even started.
This performance has to be both blissful and frustrating for Knicks fans. Blissful for the obvious. Frustrating because this team has a championship level it can in fact get to, even if it rarely shows it. The team we saw on the floor in Game 6 can not only get to the NBA Finals, but it can win an NBA championship. It defended at a high level, with no communication issues that forced them to get throttled in the second half of Game 5. The offense was balanced, as every starter scored in double digits.
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Thursday night was Knicks basketball at the best we’ve maybe seen it this season. — James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer
Knicks and Pacers meet again
In order to get to the finals, the Knicks have to get past their longtime nemesis in the Pacers, who have been as dominant as any team in this postseason.
The Pacers only lost two games all postseason and decisively put an end the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this week. Indiana plays fast and turned into a really good defensive team in the second half of the season. For the Knicks, the series should look more like the one against the Pistons as opposed to the Celtics.
New York is a legitimate NBA title contender. Being one of the last four teams alive says that. Now the Knicks have a chance to prove they’re more than that. — Edwards
This series was a disaster for the Celtics
There is no way around it. They will leave this season with the lingering memory of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear and how that tanked their hopes of advancing. But their season was already circling the drain in that moment. They came into this series hobbled, but so did the Knicks. Brunson hurt his ankle in Game 4 against the Detroit Pistons, then crushed the Celtics a week later. Everyone is banged up at this point of the season and many of the Celtics’ role players did not deliver these past 11 days.
Game 6 was so confounding because the Celtics just looked listless from the start. There was a wave of energy from the Knicks’ defense that Boston could not handle at all. As much as Brown did to lead this team in Tatum’s absence, he was noticeably apprehensive about attacking closeouts. He kept letting Mitchell Robinson stifle him, which shouldn’t be an issue if he’s willing to drive through contact. For some reason, the Celtics could never get enough leverage to get past their defenders and this quickly turned into a defensive masterpiece by the Knicks.
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Jrue Holiday played so out of control in this game, though he has been that way most of the postseason. The Celtics desperately needed his playmaking and shooting in this series and they didn’t get it, putting too much pressure on Brown and Derrick White to keep up with a well-rounded Knicks offense.
This was a dud from Boston, something we haven’t quite seen from this franchise in a long time. Even in the conference finals against the Miami Heat two seasons ago, Boston won three games in a row to make up for their initial collapse. It couldn’t muster the same resilience this time and now it’s heading home. — Jared Weiss, Celtics beat writer
An overall masterclass by the Knicks
The Knicks squashed any questions they had after Game 5.
They didn’t come out with enough intensity Wednesday evening, when they lost in Boston, which prolonged their playoff lives for 48 superfluous hours. On Friday, that all went away.
The Knicks defended. They sprinted back in transition. Every one of them. They throttled the Celtics, who looked like they gave all they had Wednesday with nothing more left for Game 6.
The Knicks swarmed the basketball. They attacked the rim. Towns wrecked the Celtics down low with more physicality than he’d shown earlier in the week. He pulled up for transition 3s, which the team hadn’t prioritized enough. Robinson locked down multiple Celtics on the same possession on just about each possession he played. Hart broke the laws of physics. He was everywhere. Miles “Deuce” McBride swatted the block of his career into the Madison Square Garden backboard.
Jalen Brunson was Jalen Brunson. Anunoby was the best version of himself, as was Bridges.
This was the elite version of the Knicks the organization believed it was creating this past summer. Now, they are in the conference finals. — Fred Katz, NBA senior writer
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An offseason of uncertainty in Boston
Wow. That got ugly for the Celtics early and only got worse. Now, with Tatum injured and the hopes of back-to-back championships gone, the franchise will enter a summer of uncertainty.
Brad Stevens was going to need to consider significant changes anyway, thanks to the harsh realities of the Celtics’ financial situation. With Tatum set to miss extended time next season, Stevens could explore a more major overhaul. Even before Tatum’s injury, the Celtics were looking at a 3-1 series deficit after collapsing in three second halves of this series.
It was shaping up to be a stunning series loss for Boston anyway, and it turned into a franchise-altering series when Tatum tore his Achilles near the end of Game 4. The Celtics roster could look very different by the time Tatum returns to the court. Especially after a series like that. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer
(Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)
