Celtics, Knicks renew long-dormant playoff rivalry

NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND II

‘It’s going to be a war’

Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis, left, blocks the shot of New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson during Friday’s clash at the TD Garden in Boston. The Celtics posted the victory. STAFF PHOTO — STUART CAHILL/BOSTON HERALD

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By Zack Cox

The Boston Herald

The Celtics and Knicks are two of the NBA’s oldest rivals. As the only founding members of the league that still play in the same cities, they’ve been squaring off for nearly 80 years and have done so a total of 565 times.

They met five times in the playoffs in the 1950s, five more from 1967 to 1974 and three more from 1984 to 1990.

But for the last 35 years, the Boston-New York basketball rivalry has been almost exclusively limited to regular-season clashes. Since 1990, there have been exactly two postseason series between the Celtics and Knicks, both in the first round. The most recent: way back in 2013, when Boston closed out the tenures of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers by falling to Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks in six games.

Since then, the Celtics have faced 13 different teams in the playoffs without seeing their closest geographical foe, with New York ranking well behind clubs like the Miami Heat (four playoff matchups during that stretch), Philadelphia 76ers (three) and Milwaukee Bucks (three) on the list of chief Celtics antagonists.

That drought finally will end this week when the Celtics and Knicks meet in the Eastern Conference semifinals — their first postseason showdown in 12 years and their first after the opening round since 1984. Games 1 is Monday at TD Garden (7 p.m., TNT).

“It’s a great stage for basketball,” Jaylen Brown said. “Just all the history between Boston and New York, it’s excellent to be able to live or to relive in that. So I don’t take that for granted. You know, I think a lot of people will be excited watching this series, just because of the history. So it’s our job to come out and put on a great performance and take care of business, but it’s definitely something to look back and just enjoy the platform that basketball kind of delivers at this stage in the playoffs.

“Boston versus New York, you don’t get too much better than that.”

It’s been nearly a half-decade since any Boston and New York teams met in the postseason, the last such instance coming when the Red Sox hosted the Yankees in the 2021 American League wild-card game.

Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis, who began his career with the Knicks, said the long-held animosity between the two fanbases will add extra juice to the highly anticipated series.

“It’s going to be fun,” Porzingis said. “It’s just going to add more to the whole thing, and New York fans are always great. Boston fans are always super-invested and there to support their team. Even between the fanbases, it’s going to be a war, for sure. Even the videos that they put out with the fans, it’s fun and then it makes the rivalry even more fun as a fan and as a player.”

Whether the matchup will produce much on-court drama remains to be seen.

Despite the Knicks retooling their roster with the specific goal of challenging the defending champion Celtics, Boston dominated the regular-season series, winning all four games by an average of 16.5 points despite having a full-strength starting lineup for just one of them.

The Celtics tied the single-game NBA record for made 3-pointers in a 132-109 rout of the Knicks on opening night, rolled to a 131-104 win at Madison Square Garden without starters Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, took the third meeting 118-105 after leading by as many as 27 points, then won the fourth 119-117 in overtime with Brown limited to 22 minutes while he nursed an injured knee.

Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum averaged 33.5 points while shooting 53.5% from the field and 47.8% from three against the Knicks this season, routinely tormenting big-ticket offseason additions Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges on the offensive end. He was similarly lethal in the Celtics’ first-round playoff series against Orlando, dropping 36, 37 and 35 points in the final three games after returning from a wrist injury.

Boston is vying to become the NBA’s first repeat champion since 2018 and the first Celtics team to go back-to-back since the days of Bill Russell (1968 and ’69). The Knicks, who took down a scrappy Detroit Pistons squad in Round 1, are seeking their first trip to the conference finals since 2000.

“I don’t know how they feel and if they have this huge amount of pressure,” Porzingis said. “Honestly, just going into the series, I believe we’re going to be the favorites in betting odds. So, if anything, it’s us who have more to lose because we’re supposed to win. But they’re dangerous. They’re dangerous, and they’re going in as the underdog, and they have the whole New York behind them and they have the capability.

“So it’s us that have to be on our A game and have that same hunger we had last year. And we’re showing it. We’re not defending what we did last year, we’re trying to win another championship. And that’s going to be our mindset going into this and into the future.”