The Celtics and Knicks begin their second round series on Monday at 7 p.m. with Boston entering as an overwhelming favorite, reaching -1000 in the Vegas odds shortly after New York beat Detroit in Game 6 to advance to Boston.
The Garden Report is also in agreement that the Celtics will win, but had different opinions on how long it’ll go.
John Zannis: Celtics in 6
For the last few weeks of the regular season and as recently as five days ago the narrative surrounding Jaylen Brown was that his right knee was not going to be fully healthy this postseason.
Brown looked noticeably hobbled for parts of the Magic series and was listed as questionable on the injury report entering games 3, 4 and 5. After Game 5 Brown declared that his “body didn’t feel right” for the entire first half.
Five days later and the Celtics All-Star now claims that he’s turning the corner and trending towards 100% health.
OHHHH-KAAAAY.
As much as I would like to believe that’s the case, I highly doubt Brown went from gimpy to spry in less than a week. Which is fine, a little subterfuge and gamesmanship is called for in times like these but I’m guessing the Brown we see in this series is pretty close to the same guy we saw during Orlando. Some good, some not so good, some great.
Why does this matter? Fully healthy I don’t think the Knicks can possibly beat Boston in 7 games. I don’t even think they can make it to 5. But anything less and the door opens just a crack.
And yeah, I know about the 4-0 regular season record in which 3 of the 4 games were blowouts. But the 4th game was very competitive and I think this series will be too. The Celtics will score a couple blowouts but the Knicks won’t go quietly. Was gonna go Celtics in 7 but I’m betting on the NBA’s best regular season road team to take a couple in New York and close things out in 6.
A. Sherrod Blakely: Celtics in 5
The Boston Celtics swept the season series against New York, so the overriding sentiment going into their second-round series is how long will ot take for Boston to dispatch of the Knicks.
Jalen Brunson may be the league’s best clutch player, but when you’re losing to a team like Boston by more than 16 points per game, the clutch gene is useless.
Look for Jayson Tatum to cool off some from a strong first-round performance, and expect Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to be major factors in this series.
Porzingis is coming off arguably the worst five-game stretch as a Celtic. Take that along with matching up against Karl-Anthony Towns into account. What you have is a recipe for a strong KP performance.
And Holiday’s presence will indeed be a factor in limiting Brunson.
Jimmy Toscano: Celtics in 6
Boston. New York. The fan bases of these two cities used to hate each other, and then baseball got weird and ruined everything. But the Celtics and Knicks can fix all of that starting tonight when the Knicks and Celtics begin a second round NBA playoff matchup that could possibly spark a rivalry between the two franchisees that surprisingly enough has never gained much steam, at least compared to some other NBA franchisees over the years. I won’t bore you with the history of the NBA, I will leave that to Nick Gelso.
What I will say is this: aside from a little physicality and some barking back-and-forth that I would expect in a playoff series, I don’t see this being super competitive. Do the Knicks possess a better offense than the Orlando Magic? Absolutely. But so does your high school‘s junior varsity team. The Knicks, however, lack something that the Magic definitely possess, which is a strong defense.
Boston has been able to exploit New York’s defensive weaknesses this season and even though the Celtics are a little banged up, a clean injury report tells me that they should be able to do the same in this playoff series. The other big news on the injury front, is that Jrue Holliday appears to be fully back. He has been instrumental in the Celtics success defending New York. Containing Jalen Brunson is no easy task, but when fully healthy, it’s hard to bet against a back court of holiday and Derrick White. Add in the rest of the starting unit in Boston has a clear advantage here. The bench has room to improve after a largely ineffective first series. I like what KAT has given New York this year, but what he gives offensively he takes away defensively.
I like Josh Hart’s game and can see him being a pain, and OG could be a difference maker. It almost feels like absolutely nobody is giving the Knicks any respect, which concerns me a little bit. I think Bobby Manning has the Celtics in 3 games. Although Boston does not show up on the injury report going into this one, I would not be surprised to see some names pop up as the series progresses. For that reason, I am going to give the Knicks some hope. I think they definitely win one game and could win two, but I don’t see the Celtics trailing in this series at any point.
Noa Dalzell: Celtics in 5
I have the Celtics taking this one in 5 games. I’m (almost) never going to predict a sweep, but I do think there’s been a pretty substantial gap between these two teams, especially when they’ve matched up head-to-head this season. I have a healthy respect for the Knicks, and do think there’s another gear they can reach that we haven’t really seen yet. But, they haven’t shown me enough to make me think they can steal multiple games here when no team has against the Celtics since 2023.
Bobby Manning: Celtics in 4
Things might change in the playoffs, but I don’t see anything drastically swinging in the Knicks’ favor. Especially with the Celtics beginning this series fully healthy. Karl-Anthony Towns hasn’t been able to generate threes in this matchup, a less-equipped Pistons team already took New York to six games and dared Jalen Brunson to beat them. He eventually did with 40 points in Game 6 and looks as dangerous as any single player in the league, but no reliable depth emerging around him against Boston during the regular season I don’t believe in this team. Mitchell Robinson can swing things, and I’m curious how often the Knicks go to him to give themselves a size and physicality advantage. It wasn’t often in the first round and the lone game he appeared in against the Celtics, but he helped New York lead for most of that game in April before they collapsed late and lost in overtime.