The upcoming second round series between the Knicks and Celtics will be another chapter in this long-storied rivalry. It will be played under the bright lights of both Gardens and fought between two rabid fanbases.
But you can disregard all that history heading into Monday night. You can even throw out Boston’s regular season sweep. None of that matters when Game 1 tips off.
“To me, the series is at 0-0. It comes down to executing simple details over and over again with a high level of physicality and attention to detail. At the same time, you have to have no expectations. It’s the playoffs. It’s two teams fighting for something,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said after Saturday’s practice.
It’s hard not to have a little recency bias and confidence. The outcomes of the four regular season games are staggeringly in favor of the Celtics. Due in large part to two early season blowouts, Boston holds a 17.2 net rating against New York. They made a whopping 43.5% of their over 48 three-point attempts per game.
However, as the season progressed, New York narrowed the margin from 23 to 27 to 13 to 2 in last April’s overtime loss at MSG. As Kevin Garnett so emphatically reminded us, anything is possible.
“There’s no one way that a series is supposed to go. As you’ve seen over the course of history and as you’ve seen in the playoffs now, at the end of the day, have no expectations about how it’s supposed to go,” Mazzulla continued. “Just be ready to give the environment what it needs and do whatever it takes to win for however long it takes to win.”
A bruising series against the Magic might have been the perfect reminder that what happened over 82 games won’t be relevant come the postseason. Orlando forced Boston to shoot less threes and play more one-on-one.
Defense wasn’t exactly New York’s strong suit, but the Knicks have been specifically built to guard Boston. Last year, they dealt for OG Anunoby and then over the summer, they mortgaged their future to bring in Mikal Bridges to face Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Brown brushed off the suggestion. “Those are two excellent, excellent defenders. Two hard-working guys,” Brown said. “We got to be ready, but it’ll be fun.”
Mazzulla, of course, has stressed the fundamentals and controllables heading into the marquee matchup: “the margins. You got to be able to rebound. You got to be able defend without fouling. You got to take care of the basketball.”
“Those are just the simple things that we have to do right to be a great team,” Porzingis concurred. “That’s just a small insight into Joe’s mindset and what he expects from us. We have to do the small things, the simple things right and we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
But despite the rather buttoned up demeanor on Saturday, the Celtics know that this series is going to be a little spicy. Even when Porzingis was talking about their measured approach, he was sure to include that they’ve got a little extra for the Knicks.
“We have all the talent. We have a lot of tricks that we can pull out of our sleeves when we need to, but we want to build this run on a strong foundation. We don’t want it to be ‘oh, we pulled this one out somehow, some way based on JB or JT’s talent — they made some crazy plays and we just close our eyes and hope that happens again,’ ya know?,” Porzingis said. “We want to have a good base as a team and do all the foundational things correctly and then have that in our back pocket when we need it.”
After missing a handful of games at the end of the regular season, Brown seemed to get back his base in the first round and showed flashes of his explosiveness. He gave a promising health update after practice and a little peek behind the curtain of how he preps for a series.
“A lot. Changed a lot. I see things so much different, just even the preparation for the playoffs, for a series, or even throughout a game,” Brown said after the Celtics have been in the playoffs in every one of his nine seasons in Boston.
“There’s certain things you show, certain things that you don’t show, because you know ultimately, everybody’s watching,” he continued with a twinkle in his eye. “You let people think one thing and then you come out and hit them over the head. There’s just certain stuff I’ve learned over the regular season and throughout the playoffs, it’s totally different. You just need to show what needs to be shown.”
Game 1 is on Monday at 7 pm EST.
