The Boston Celtics have been unstoppable in the playoffs since falling to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. They’ve since won an NBA championship, notched 61 regular-season wins in 2024-25, and defeated the Orlando Magic in five games last month.
Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics, long the hunters, are now the hunted. They faced elimination in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
Boston fended off the Knicks for a 127-102 victory at TD Garden on Wednesday, even without star forward Jayson Tatum. To evade elimination on Friday night, the Celtics needed to summon that same resilience.
“One thing that you anticipate is that you’re going to get the Knicks’ absolute best game,” Mazzulla said. “You have to be able to dictate the environment, minimize [bad plays] and maximize the plays we need to make through our execution and our toughness. They’re obviously going to fight better than they did last game, and we need to find ways to do that as well.”
The Knicks, now relentless hunters, faced intense pressure on Friday as well. After a chance to reach their first Eastern Conference Finals since 1999-2000, they were defeated soundly on Wednesday.
Another loss would force the Knicks back to TD Garden for a decisive Game 7, where they hold a 7-9 all-time record in those scenarios. Meanwhile, Boston has a 22-6 record in Game 7s at home all-time.
With another kill shot in their sights, the Knicks couldn’t afford to miss.
“I think that’s what the playoffs are,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “There’s a lot of emotional highs and lows and you have to deal with those things. I think it’s important to be disciplined, right? I think the discipline gets you past any distractions. You have to play with toughness, but each game you have to reset and be ready for that game. What’s going to go into winning this game? So, there’s no carryover from the previous game. There’s no looking ahead. You have to lock into exactly what’s in front of you.”
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