Points were hard to come by in the Celtics’ first-round playoff series against the Magic, who boasted an elite defense but one of the NBA’s worst offenses.

Expect an uptick in scoring in Round 2.

The New York Knicks, Boston’s opponent in the Eastern Conference semifinals, aren’t nearly as stout defensively as Orlando was (13th in defensive rating during the regular season), but their offense is far more potent (fifth best).

“Obviously, their offensive numbers are better,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said Friday in a video conference. “Their ability to change defenses is good. They have two guys that can score at all three levels. They’ve got role guys that can really impact the game. Their defensive pressure is great, and they have the ability to impact the margins in a big way. So we have to be able to combat that with our physicality, our attention to detail and our execution.”

Those “two guys” are point guard Jalen Brunson and big man Karl-Anthony Towns — premier offensive players who both ranked in the top 12 in the NBA in points per game this season. Brunson averaged 31.5 points per game in the Knicks’ opening-round series against Detroit, including a 40-point clinic in Game 6 on Thursday that he capped with a series-winning 3-pointer.

New York’s decision last offseason to swing blockbuster trades for Towns and Mikal Bridges to pair with Brunson, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby gave the Knicks one of the league’s most talented starting fives.

That group managed just one more win than last season’s team, however, and the gulf between 51-31 New York and the top tier of championship contenders (Boston, Oklahoma City and Cleveland) remained wide. The Knicks went 1-11 against the teams with the league’s four best records, including an 0-4 mark against the defending champion Celtics.

Three of those four games weren’t close, with Boston winning 132-109 at TD Garden on opening night, 131-104 at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 8 and 118-105 in Boston on Feb. 23. Only the finale of the season series — a 119-117 overtime win at MSG on April 8 — was competitive.

New York’s wing defense duo of Bridges and Anunoby struggled to contain Jayson Tatum, who scored 25, 32, 37 and 40 points in the four meetings while shooting 53.5% from the field and 47.8% from 3-point range.

And the Celtics were at full strength for just one of the four games. Jaylen Brown was limited by a knee injury in the final matchup, sitting out the entire fourth quarter and overtime. Kristaps Porzingis missed each of the first two, and Jrue Holiday sat out the second.

What does that all mean for this postseason series — the first between the Celtics and Knicks since 2013 and their first in the second round or later since 1984?

“This is the playoffs, so everything we did in the regular season doesn’t really mean a whole lot now,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “It’s not like we get to start up 1-0 or anything like that. So we just understand it’s the playoffs, they’re here for a reason, they’re a really good team, and it’s going to be a big challenge.”

The Knicks don’t play the same bruising style as the Magic — a relief for the Celtics after multiple players suffered injuries on hard Orlando fouls — but Mazzulla still is anticipating a “physical series.” The final five games of Knicks-Pistons all were decided by six points or fewer, and Detroit scored above its season average just once in the series.

“It’ll come down to the margins,” Mazzulla said. “You have to be able to defend without fouling, rebound, take care of the ball, execute and be able to get to different stuff defensively because of their ability to put pressure on the rim and get great shots.”

Game 1 is Monday at TD Garden.

Holiday still ‘day to day’

Mazzulla would not say Friday whether he expects to have Holiday available for Game 1 against the Knicks.

“(He’s) day to day,” Mazzulla said in a video conference. “Just getting better every day, doing whatever he can to make sure he puts himself in position to try to come back as fast as he can. He’s working hard.”

The veteran guard missed the final three games of Boston’s first-round playoff series against Orlando with a hamstring strain. Mazzulla has consistently described him as “day to day.”

The 34-year-old is one of the Celtics’ best defenders, and he was productive in all three games he played against the Knicks during the regular season, averaging 16.0 points per game on 66.7% shooting (57.1% from 3-point range). If available, Holiday will play a key role in Boston’s plan to defend Brunson, New York’s All-Star point guard.

Tatum (wrist) and Brown (knee) also dealt with injuries during the Magic series, which Boston won in five games. The swift end to that series gave the Celtics five days off before the East semis begin.

“It’s the playoffs,” Mazzulla said. “No one’s 100 percent, so we just do what we’ve got to do to be ready for Game 1.”

Changes coming?

Regardless of how their current playoff run ends, the Celtics could look substantially different next season.

With a star-studded roster that’s on track to be the most expensive in NBA history in 2025-26 between salaries and massive luxury tax penalties, Boston will look for ways to trim its payroll this offseason, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Thursday.

“The rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to come to the Celtics from their roster this offseason,” Charania said on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “Sources have been telling me for weeks now that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason. This team, this iteration just is not going to be sustainable for this team, and no one around the organization, from players to staffers, would be surprised if there are changes coming to this roster.”

While notable given Charania’s profile, the report was not at all surprising.

The Celtics have assembled the most talented roster in basketball, and arguably the deepest. Their five starters all are set to earn more than $28 million next season, with Tatum and Brown both making upward of $53 million as Tatum’s record-setting supermax extension kicks in.

With only two current rotation players in contract years (Al Horford and Luke Kornet), Boston already has a projected payroll of $227.8 million for 2025-26, per Basketball-Reference, plus a tsunami of luxury tax sanctions that would push the overall cost of the roster to around $500 million.

And cost isn’t even the most prohibitive issue. Teams above the second apron of the luxury tax are also subject to severe roster-building penalties, including the inability to aggregate salaries in trades or trade first-round picks in any of the next seven drafts. They’re also taxed more than $3 for every dollar they spend above the luxury tax threshold, and teams that remain in the second apron over multiple seasons are hit with even heavier “repeater” taxes.

Just ask Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, who’s in the process of selling his family’s majority interest in the team to Bill Chisholm for $6.1 billion. Grousbeck said in a recent appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” that it’s untenable for a team to consistently surpass the second apron.

“You can’t stay in the second apron,” Grousbeck said. “Nobody will, I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”

The question isn’t whether the Celtics will look to move key players this offseason, but rather which ones. Two potential candidates: Porzingis and Holiday.