BOSTON — The fire alarm is sounding at TD Garden — and no, it’s not a drill.
The elevators are down. A small crowd of reporters and arena staff cram into a tight spiraling stairwell. Even security seems unsure, ushering people out of the building without explanation.
“No one else is worried about that?” Josh Hart quips as the initial sirens sound during his postgame press conference.
The evacuees are led onto Legends Way — the street named for the champions who’ve built Boston’s storied legacy. On this night, Legends Way is lined with firetrucks.
The symbolism wasn’t subtle. Boston’s season is burning. And barring an improbable turn of events, the Celtics’ repeat title hopes are all but up in flames.
The New York Knicks did that.
Back-to-back 20-point comebacks to take a 2-0 series lead over a team that swept them in the regular season. Back-to-back wins for a team once written off as a pretender — now proving it belongs among the NBA’s elite.
And now, after back-to-back second-round appearances, the Knicks are in prime position to finally break through.
Two more wins, and the same Knicks the basketball world counted out before the season began will be headed to their deepest postseason run since 2000.
The scariest part? These Knicks still haven’t played their best basketball.
“I don’t think we even know what we’re capable of. We have to continue to build. We have to continue to put together a full game. I think that’s something that we haven’t done during the course of these playoffs. We get leads. We surrender leads. We come back from big leads,” said Hart. “We’ve got to figure out a complete game and that can answer some of those questions. But for us, it’s just about continuing to get better and figure out how to put together a 48-minute game.”
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The beauty of the Knicks’ roster construction reveals itself in the postgame pattern. In the closeout Game 6 against Detroit, Jalen Brunson shared the podium with Mikal Bridges. After Game 1 in Boston, he was alongside by OG Anunoby. And after Game 2? Hart, who led the way with 23 timely points.
This team isn’t a one-trick pony. And while Brunson’s touch time is as inevitable as death and taxes, the Knicks don’t follow one formula. They win in different ways.
“I think we haven’t played as well as we can,” said Anunoby. “We don’t want to be playing from behind, being down, coming back. We would rather be up. But that’s been the situation we’re in, confident.”
The reigning champs live and die by the three. And right now, they’re dying by it. After Orlando held them to 31 threes per game in Round 1 — well below their league-leading regular-season average — the Celtics have unraveled from deep in Round 2.
Boston shot 15-of-60 from downtown in Game 1. In Game 2: 10-of-40. That’s 25% across two games for a team built on volume and efficiency from deep.
“It’s hard to say, I want to look at the film, look at the quality of their shots. They have a style of play, I think they do a terrific job, they’re strong on both sides of the ball,” said head coach Tom Thibodeau. “You give them open shots, they’re going to make them. You give them a second crack at it, they’re going to make you pay.”
Yes, Boston is banged up. Kristaps Porzingis logged just 14 minutes in Game 2 after missing most of Game 1 with illness. Sam Hauser was sidelined with an ankle injury.
But that’s not the Knicks’ problem — just like it wasn’t Indiana’s problem last year when the Knicks limped into Round 2 with a depleted rotation.
“I think we haven’t played as well as we can,” Anunoby said again. “We don’t want to be playing from behind, being down, coming back. We would rather be up. But that’s been the situation we’re in. [We’re] confident.”
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Celebratory music thumps from the visitor’s locker room. The song? A classic: What We Do by Freeway, featuring Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel. The lyrics couldn’t be more fitting:
“Even though what we do is wrong — we still hustle ’til the sun comes up.”
The Knicks have played imperfect basketball. They shoot themselves in both feet, then regenerate mid-game. A team of X-Men clawing their way toward the Eastern Conference Finals.
As the music fades, the laughter rises.
Mitchell Robinson is roasting Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns and Bridges roast him back. Robinson was part of the game-saving stop on Jayson Tatum’s final drive.
“Way to get a stop, b— a–,” Bridges tells his center.
On the way out, surrounded by reporters, Robinson breaks character and grins as Towns walks by.
“Isn’t Mitch just the coolest guy in the world?” Towns says. “Mitch is so cool. I need a truck like his.”
The Knicks aren’t the most tactical team in basketball. They don’t diagram their way out of 20-point holes. But they have something rarer: trust, chemistry, grit, belief — the kind you can’t fake on a team built overnight.
“I think we’re just confident, confident knowing we’re just always gonna find a way,” said Bridges. “A lot of us sitting on the bench while we’re down just like, ‘We’ve been here before.’ … You can look in everybody’s eyes and it’s kinda not a stressed look. It’s kinda like a confident look, knowing ‘Alright, let’s see how much time is left and just take it one play at a time.’”
The Knicks haven’t been closer. In every sense.
This tight-knit group is two wins from the Eastern Conference Finals. The Indiana Pacers, too, are two wins from upsetting the top-seeded Cavaliers.
But the Knicks won’t look that far ahead. After Game 2, they couldn’t see much beyond the fire alarm blaring, the smoke in the air, and the firetrucks lining Legends Way.
The Celtics’ season might be going up in flames.
The Knicks lit the match.
“[We were] just excited, happy we won,” said Anunoby. “But we still have to go back, watch the film and get better because I don’t think we played as well as we can.”
