The Celtics swept the 4-game regular-season series with the Knicks.
The 2025 Eastern Conference semifinals will be the 17th time that the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks have met in the playoffs, the second most (trailing only Celtics-Sixers) for any pair of opponents in NBA history.
But these two franchises haven’t faced each other in the playoffs since 2013 and, in the famous words of Rick Pitino, “Larry Bird is not walking through that door.” Those other 16 series have little to do with this one. More important than their playoff history is that the Celtics have had the Knicks’ number of late, winning eight of the last nine meetings.
That includes a four-game sweep this season in which Boston scored an incredible 130.2 points per 100 possessions, the most the Knicks allowed vs. any opponent.
Can the Knicks now somehow win four of seven? Game 1 is on Monday.
Series schedule
Here’s how to watch the Celtics vs. Knicks series:
All times Eastern Standard Time
- Game 1: Knicks at Celtics (Mon. May 5, 7 ET, TNT)
- Game 2: Knicks at Celtics (Wed. May 7, 7 ET, TNT)
- Game 3: Celtics at Knicks (Sat. May 10, TBD, ABC)
- Game 4: Celtics at Knicks (Mon. May 12, TBD, ESPN)
- Game 5: Knicks at Celtics (Wed. May 14, TBD, TNT)*
- Game 6: Celtics at Knicks (Fri. May 16, TBD, ESPN)*
- Game 7: Knicks at Celtics (Mon. May 19, 8 ET, TNT)*
* = If necessary
Top storyline
Targeting Brunson and Towns. The Celtics’ offense is pretty simple. They want to put the opponents’ lesser defenders in front of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Those players attack those lesser defenders and gain an advantage, which leads to a good shot. Both Tatum and Brown can beat any defender one-on-one, but the offense is at its best when they draw help and the Celtics are shooting 3-pointers off the catch.
The Knicks have three good defenders in their starting lineup, and we can expect OG Anunoby and Josh Hart to be the initial defenders on Tatum and Brown, respectively. But Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns can be attacked … and they will be attacked often in the next two weeks.
The Celtics put Towns in 134 pick-and-rolls (51 per 100 possessions) in the regular season, the most of any defender against Boston. The 31 Celtics ball-screens for which Brunson was the screener’s defender were his fifth most, and the Detroit Pistons had a lot of success targeting him in the first round.
This series will be determined, in part, by how well Brunson and Towns hold up against those ball-screens and how well the other Knicks rotate behind them. That the Celtics only recorded assists on 68% of their 3-pointers (their second-lowest rate vs. any opponent) over the season series is a sliver of positivity from the Knicks’ defense getting torched over the four games.
Advancing past the Pistons, the Knicks now face the defending champion Celtics, who eliminated the Magic in 5 games.
Keep your eyes on
Towns in the post. The Celtics have two capable defenders on their frontline, but the two players who defended Towns most this season were Tatum and Jrue Holiday. The Celtics will often put Tatum on opposing centers (like in the 2024 NBA Finals) so that he can switch 1-5 pick-and-rolls and keep the opposing ball-handler contained.
But other teams have also had success by defending Towns with non-centers, in part because they can put their bigs on a reluctant shooter like Josh Hart. More mobility also allows teams to better defend Towns on the perimeter.
But can he take advantage inside? He was able to do so on occasion against Tobias Harris in the first round, but he had more success against opposing center Jalen Duren.
1 more thing to watch for each team
For Boston: Holiday’s health. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said that Holiday is “day-to-day” after missing the final three games of the first round with a right hamstring strain.
The good news is that the Celtics are used to playing shorthanded. They’ve had all six of their top players (their preferred starters plus Al Horford) for only 18 of their 87 games, and when they’ve had to go beyond their top six, they’ve generally been great. They outscored the Orlando Magic by almost 27 points per 100 possessions in Sam Hauser’s 74 minutes in the first round.
But going from the Magic to the Knicks is a big step up in competition, especially when it comes to the need for a player who can defend an elite perimeter scorer like Brunson. Brown defended Brunson more over the four regular-season meetings, but Holiday missed one game and was Brunson’s primary defender in the last two.
For New York: Hart’s motor and open shots. The one close game in the regular season (the Celtics’ overtime win on April 8) was the game in which New York had 10 more shooting opportunities than Boston, thanks to turnover and offensive-rebound differentials.
The Knicks need to win the possession game if they’re going to have a chance in this series. Hart can help them do that with his hustle and remarkable nose for the ball. He can also get them some early offense with his willingness to push in transition, so that they’re not living late in the shot clock so often.
But he will need to make open shots. As noted above, the Celtics will likely guard Hart with their bigs, who would prefer to remain in the paint and protect the rim. So Hart (1-for-9 from 3-point range in the regular season series) will need to make them pay for that strategy.
1 key number to know
39 — Over the four regular-season games, the Celtics made 39 more 3-pointers than the Knicks. That’s tied for the fourth biggest differential for any regular-season series in the 46 seasons of the 3-point line. The Celtics tied the NBA record for made 3-pointers (29) in their opening-night win over New York and then made 10, three, and eight more threes than the Knicks in the next three meetings.
The Knicks will need players like Hart, Mikal Bridges (7-for-22 from deep vs. Boston) and Anunoby (2-for-15) to shoot well. They’ll also need to get Towns free for some perimeter looks. He attempted just 11 3-pointers vs. Boston this season, with his 2.9 attempts per 36 minutes being his second-lowest rate against any opponent.
On the other end of the floor, the Knicks were pretty good at limiting opponents’ 3-pointers overall, finishing with the league’s sixth-lowest opponent 3-point rate (40.7% of their opponents’ shots) in the regular season. But the Celtics’ rate was 53.9% in the four meetings, and the Knicks’ reticence to switch with Brunson or Towns should allow the Celtics to bend the defense and get good looks off the catch.
The pick
Celtics in five. The Knicks might get their first win against one of the league’s top three teams (they went 0-10 vs. Boston, Cleveland and Oklahoma City), but it’s hard to imagine them getting four. All four of their wins against the Pistons could have gone the other way, and the defending champs are a much more talented opponent.
The Celtics have the defenders (and scheme) that can limit New York’s two best players, and they have an offense that can take advantage of them on the other end of the floor. Facing a tougher opponent themselves should give the champs the urgency to play with the necessary focus.
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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