As a diehard fan of the Celtics, it has been brutal to watch the Knicks dominate their way through the Eastern Conference. They rolled into Cleveland on Saturday night and took down the Cavaliers, 121-108, to take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the conference finals, moving to within one win of the NBA Finals.
I can’t stand watching them decimate the competition like this, and they’ve now won 10 straight games after going down 2-1 to the Hawks in the first round. But since that moment, they’ve looked like a juggernaut, coming together, to smack Atlanta around for the final three games, sweep the 76ers while barely breaking a sweat, and now, riding an all-time Game 1 comeback to a vice-grip 3-0 lead in the ECF.
It’s a nightmare for the Celtics, but they can’t deny the brilliance that’s emanating from New York at the moment. They may fall short in the Finals against whichever incredible team they face, the Thunder or the Spurs. But still, they’ve proven to be a worthy adversary for either team, a true contender on their level, and by far, the best team in the East despite only finishing in third place.
Celtics aren’t that far from top of the East
So if you’re the Celtics, you can look at this Knicks run in a couple of different ways. The first one is to see that, even though the team completely choked away the Sixers series, they’re not looking up at many teams in the East. Philly showed their true colors in round two, and Boston knows they are the better team.Â
The Cavs and Pistons certainly haven’t covered themselves in any glory in these playoffs either. Yeah, yeah, I know the Cs did not beat the Sixers, but still, I think you can make a very reasonable case that they were the second-best team in the East, and they’d give the Knicks a much better fight than anything we’ve seen thus far.
Knicks are a lot better than people thought
That’s the optimistic spin for the Celtics. But the other way to look at it is to note that this Knicks team is no joke, and they are going to be a force to be reckoned with atop the East for the foreseeable future. This core is all on roughly the same timeline, and things have come together in a beautiful (for them) way in these playoffs under Mike Brown.
Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are two stars in their primes, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are outstanding complementary stars with perfect two-way skillsets for this team, and Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, and even Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado are outstanding role players.
This team isn’t going anywhere, and we already know they match up extremely well with this iteration of the Celtics. Add in a healthy Pacers team next year, and there will be some serious competition at the very top of the East. That puts Boston in a bit of a pickle. They could mostly run it back and likely still end up with one of the top few seeds, but beating the Knicks or Pacers in the playoffs could be daunting.
Or, they could make some moves, try to shake up this core, and add some real star talent like Giannis, KD, Kawhi in a way that would shake things up, shorten their championship window, likely even lower their regular-season floor, but possibly provide a higher ceiling, and a better chance to compete with the best of the best in May and June.
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