HG08 NBA Playoffs: Celtics and Knicks Series Expectations

Celtics swept their opponents in four regular season series against the Knicks.

The 2025 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals will be the 17th time the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks meet in the playoffs, making it the second most opponent in NBA history (after the Celtics and the Sixers).

But the two teams have not played in the playoffs since 2013, and to the famous quote by Rick Pitino, "Larry Bird will not walk into that door." The other 16 series have little to do with this game. More important than their playoff history, the Celtics have been in a hot state recently, winning eight of their last nine encounters.

This includes four sweeps this season, with Boston scoring up to 130.2 points per 100 attacks, the highest score the Knicks allowed in front of any opponent. Can the Knicks win four of the seven games now? The first game will be held on Monday.

Schedule

The following is how to watch the Celtics vs. Knicks series:

All times are ETST

Game 1: Knicks vs. Celtics (Monday, May 5, to be determined)

Game 2: Knicks vs. Celtics (Wednesday, May 7, to be determined)

Game 3: Celtics vs. Knicks (Saturday, May 10, to be determined)

Game 4: Celtics vs. Knicks (Monday, May 12, to be determined)

Game 5: Knicks vs. Celtics (Wednesday, May 14, to be determined) *

Game 6: Celtics vs. Knicks (Friday, May 16, to be determined)*

Game 7: Knicks vs. Celtics (Monday, May 19, to be determined)*

Hot storyline

Targeting Brunson and Towns. The Celtics' offense is simple. They want to keep opponents weak defenses in front of Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. These two men will attack these weak defenses and gain an advantage, thus gaining a beautiful shot. Both Tatum and Brown can pass any defensive player one-on-one, but when they get assisted and the Celtics get three after receiving the ball, their offense can only reach their best.

The Knicks have three players with excellent defense in their starting lineup, and we can expect OG Anunobi and Josh Hart to serve as Tatum and Brown's starting defense respectively. But Jaylen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns may be marked by opponents…and they will be regularly marked by opponents over the next two weeks. During the regular season, the Celtics had Towns involved in 134 pick-and-rolls (51 times per 100 possessions), the most of all defensive players against Boston. Brunson participated in the 31 Celtic pick-and-rolls as a pick-and-roll defender, which was his fifth most pick-and-rolls, and the Detroit Pistons had a great success in the first round.

The victory or defeat of this series depends in part on whether Brunson and Towns can withstand these pick-and-rolls, as well as the rotation performance of other Knicks players behind them. The Celtics’ three-point shooting percentage this season has come from assists (their second-low shooting percentage against any opponent), which somewhat suggests that the Knicks’ defense has suffered a heavy blow in four games.

Knicks will face defending champion Celtics, who eliminated the Magic in 5 games.

Keep attention

Downs at the low position. The Celtics have two players with excellent defensive abilities on the front line, but the players who have defended the most of Towns this season are Tatum and Ju Holiday. The Celtics often let Tatum mark the opponent's center (such as last year's finals) so that he can switch to 1-5 pick-and-rolls and limit the opponent's ball holders.

But other teams have also used non-center players to defend Towns, in part because they can send big men to target players like Josh Hart who are not very good at shooting. Higher mobility also allows the team to better defend Towns from the outside.

But can he have an advantage in the inside? He can do this occasionally in the first round against Tobias Harris, but he has a higher success rate against opposing center Jaylen Durham.

One more thing to pay attention to for each team: Holiday's health. Celtics head coach Joe Mazura said Holiday missed the last three games of the first round due to a right hamstring strain and is currently "observing" the injury.

The good news is that the Celtics are used to understaffing. In 87 games, they sent six core players (their favorite starter plus Al Horford) and they usually do well when they have to send out players other than the six core players. In their 74-minute playing time in the first round of Sam Hauser, they netted the Orlando Magic for nearly 27 points per 100 possessions.

But there has been a big improvement in competition from the Magic to the Knicks, especially in the need of a player who can defend a top perimeter scorer like Brunson. In four games in the regular season, Brown defended Brunson more, but Holliday missed only one game and became Brunson's main defensive candidate in the last two games.

New York: Hart's explosiveness and open shots. The only regular season game with a close score (April 8 win overtime) was New York's 10 more shooting opportunities than Boston, thanks to turnovers and goal difference on offensive rebounds.

Knicks must win possession if they want to win the series. Hart can help them do this with his active scramble and excellent sense of ball possession. He can also create some opportunities for the Knicks early in the offense with his active advancement in the conversion attack so that they don't often take action when the offense is about to arrive.

But he needs to make an open goal. As mentioned above, the Celtics will likely use their big guys to defend Hart, who are more likely to stay inside to protect the rim. So Hart (1 of 9 three-pointers in the regular season series) needs to get them to pay for this strategy.

1 key number to know

39 - In four regular season games, the Celtics hit 39 more three-pointers than the Knicks. This tied for the fourth largest gap in three-point shooting in the series in 46 seasons. The Celtics tied the NBA record of three-point shooting (29) in their first game against the New York Knicks. In the following three games, the Celtics hit 10, 3 and 8 more three-pointers than the Knicks.

The Knicks obviously need players like Hart, Mikal Bridges (7 of 22 shots against the Boston Celtics) and Anunobi (2 of 15 shots) to improve their shooting percentage. They also need to give Towns some out-of-the-line phone chance. When playing against the Boston Celtics this season, Towns only made 11 three-pointers, an average of 2.9 shots per 36 minutes, which is his second lowest shooting rate against any opponent.

On the other end of the court, the Knicks performed quite well in limiting their opponents' three-pointers, with regular season opponents ranked sixth-last from the league (40.7%) in three-point shooting percentage. But the Celtics shot up to 53.9% from three-pointers in four matches, and the Knicks are reluctant to switch defenses with Brunson or Towns, which should give the Celtics a chance to break through the defense and get a good shot after receiving the ball.

Choose

Celtics won all five battles. The Knicks may defeat one of the top three teams in the league for the first time (they drew 0-10 with the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder respectively), but it's hard to imagine they'll win all four games. Their four wins against the Pistons are likely to be reversed, and the defending champion is far superior to his opponents.

Celtics have enough defense (and tactics) to limit the two best players in New York, and their offense can also have an advantage on both sides of the offense. Facing a stronger opponent, this should make the defending champion more urgently need to focus.