NBA playoffs – Playoffs – day 31
A quarter of a century has passed since the last time the New York Knicks played the Eastern Conference final, when Pat Ewing was the team’s star. This Friday they achieved their passport to do it again. They will meet in it with the same rivals of the year 2000: the Indiana Pacers. The Milestone of the New York team arrives after eliminating the current champions, the Celtics of Boston, in the sixth match of the tie (119-81, the team’s greatest victory in the team in the Playoffs in its history, and 4-2 in the series). Boston those say goodbye to the dream of being the first team that wins two consecutive rings since 2018.
The Knicks have been higher from beginning to the end of the semifinals. For those of Boston it would be tempting to blame the defeat of the injury of its star, Jayson Tatum, who suffered a breakage of Achilles tendon at the end of the fourth game. The truth, however, is that three of the four defeats of the Celtics have occurred with Tatum on the track. The champions have lacked the hunger of title that New York and success have demonstrated in the key moments.
The Celtics wasted broad advantages in the first two matches of the tie. Jalen Brunson, while, showed why the Best NBA player award has been held this year at decisive times. Also on his side, he has had Karl-Anthony Towns. The American Dominican, from the Minnesota Timberwolves, was the star signing of the Knicks for this season. With their arrival, the New Yorkers convinced themselves that they could aspire to anything.
Tom Thibodeau has managed to fit the pieces so that OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart have rendered at high level. Aware of the great quality jump with the substitutes, the coach has opted to keep as much minutes as possible on the track to his title quintet and the strategy has given him.
This Friday’s game was a party at Madison Square Garden. The Celtics surpassed the absence of Tatum in the fifth game of the series and won at the TD Garden de Boston on Wednesday for a wide advantage. At home, however, the Knicks did not give options to Celtics with the wet gunpowder that achieved ridiculous annotation figures. They did not exceed 20 points in any of the first three quarters. In the last one, it didn’t matter.
Boston’s hardly resisted the first quarter (26-20) thanks to Jaylen Brown’s contribution, but they sank irremissibly in the second. In the streets that surround the mythical New York stadium, where screens had been installed to follow the game, the classification was already held at the break, when the electronic marked a 64-37 for which no solution was seen. Derrick White, who made Tatum forget in the fifth game, reached the intermediate with only two points in a series of a basket in seven field shots. The triples, the favorite weapon of the Celtics, did not enter: only 4 of 19 throughout the first half.
The Knicks not only had a better percentage of success, but also a more intense defense, better attack combinations and greater aggressiveness in the rebound. They dominated all facets of the game. Only a miracle could save the Celtics, but did not occur. After the resumption, the Knicks put 36 points away and comfortably managed their advantage until the end of the game. When in the absence of 1:49 for the end of the third quarter the difference exceeded 40 points (92-51), not even the miracle was possible.
For Celtics it is a bitter farewell. The Boston team kept intact the block that allowed it last year to conquer the champions ring and rise as the most laureate NBA team with its 18th title. They started as the favorites and aspired to open a triumphal cycle after breaking their drought. During the regular season they beat triple records and were the best visiting team, but some relaxation signs were noted that led them to be the seconds of the Eastern Conference.
In the Playoffs They have shipwrecked. Its minimum objective was to achieve the Eastern Conference final, as they had achieved in six of the last eight years, including the last three consecutively. The propensity to the injuries of Kristaps Porziņģis, the age of Al Horford and Jrue Holiday and the injury of Tatum cloud their future. The defeat also drops the price of Joe Mazzulla, as the coach has been helpless when finding variants in his attack game beyond the triple bombardment.
The Knicks, on the other hand, enjoy their moment. Not only do they reach the East Final but they do it against a theoretically affordable team, which they won in two of the three games of the regular season, although with Tyrese Haliburton inspired they are also fearsome. Interestingly, the last three finals of the Knicks Conference have been against the Pacers. They won in 1994 and 1999, but lost in 2000.
The New Yorkers also have field advantage, as they closed the league with 51 victories compared to 50 of the Pacers. The East Final will begin on Wednesday in a Madison Square Garden who, surely, will look full like this Friday, with dozens of celebrities included.
The New York Liberty players won their first WNBA title in October and ended almost half a century of drought for New York basketball. The Knicks now aspire to continue their way.
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