NEW YORK — Heading into Friday night’s Game 6, it would have been understandable for there to be questions about the New York Knicks‘ ability to shut the door on the Boston Celtics.
After all, the Knicks laid an egg in a 22-point Game 3 defeat after a pair of improbable 20-point road comeback victories, with captain Jalen Brunson acknowledging New York might have gone into that contest “subconsciously satisfied” because of its unexpected series lead. Similarly, when they took a 3-1 lead into Boston for Game 5 after Jayson Tatum‘s Achilles rupture, the Knicks faltered badly in that close-out opportunity and were routed by the shorthanded Celtics.
It all raised the possibility of a high-pressure Game 7 back in Boston if the Knicks couldn’t handle their business Friday night.
But New York emphatically quashed that question — and the defending champion Celtics’ slim chances of a repeat — in a thorough 119-81 victory to win the second-round series at Madison Square Garden and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000. The Knicks will host the Indiana Pacers, who knocked them out of last year’s playoffs in Game 7 of the conference semifinals, starting Wednesday night in New York.
Knicks fans, euphoric over the win, poured into the streets surrounding the Garden, with some climbing up light poles and standing on top of taxi stands along Eighth Avenue.
Coming off the embarrassing 25-point shellacking in Game 5, the Knicks’ 38-point blowout win marked the largest margin of victory in franchise postseason history.
“We watched the film and we were kind of disgusted with our communication, our effort and our sense of urgency,” wing Josh Hart said of Gams 5 after finishing Game 6 with a triple-double (24 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists). “That was something we knew we had to fix.”
Repeatedly, coach Tom Thibodeau and multiple players said New York had yet to piece together a complete, 48-minute playoff game with solid defensive effort, focus and ball movement on offense. But the Knicks brought that all Friday.
Asked if this was his team’s best postseason showing, Thibodeau thought for a moment before answering.
“Probably,” he said. “I thought from start to finish that we were terrific.”
No stretch of the game stood out more than the second quarter, when New York left Boston in the dust with a 38-17 run that resulted in a 27-point lead at the half.
In one of the defining plays of that run, Celtics guard Derrick White stepped in front of a pass from OG Anunoby and dribbled to the other end of the floor for what figured to be a layup. But Knicks guard Deuce McBride went into a dead sprint, caught White’s shot from behind and pinned it against the backboard, sending the Garden into a frenzy.
With the crowd still on its feet from the block, Hart grabbed the loose ball and began a fast break going the other way, drawing contact and a foul from Boston’s Jrue Holiday as he drilled a floater. The ensuing free throw represented a five-point swing for the Knicks in a game where the Celtics — without Tatum, and with Kristaps Porzingis again clearly not himself — had no margin for error.
That didn’t stop Jaylen Brown and his Boston teammates from making them. The Celtics had six turnovers in that second period — matching the six field goals they had during that quarter — and surrendered 15 offensive rebounds to the Knicks on the night. Brown, Boston’s high scorer with 20 points, fouled out late in the third quarter and was serenaded to Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road Jack” by the Garden crowd as he walked to the Celtics’ bench to end his season.
Four different New York players — Brunson, Hart, Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns — finished with 20 points or more.
During the team’s postgame news conference, four of the starters sat down to answer questions together — perhaps to signify the collective win.
They were asked whether they understood the joy they’d injected into the city, and if they were aware of how long it’s been since the club had gotten this far. And after a while, when the players continued to answer the questions in a straightforward manner, they fielded one about whether it was too soon for them to show any sense of accomplishment.
“I just think there’s still more to go. We’re not done,” said forward Mikal Bridges, who joined the team after being traded from the Brooklyn Nets during the offseason. “We played hard and handled business, but the season’s not over yet.”
