Knicks Fans Already Broke Unwritten Celtics Playoff Rule Before Round 2
It’s been 12 years since the last time the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks met face-to-face in the NBA playoffs, but the East Coast rivalry is set and the two storied franchises are set to battle it out for a chance at the Eastern Conference finals.
Instead of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett going up against Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, it’ll be Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown versus Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Instead of Doc Rivers and Mike Woodson, it’s Joe Mazzulla and Tom Thibodeau — a former Celtics associate coach and New England native. And unlike their first-round clash in 2013, Boston is the dominant force every team across the league is aiming to dethrone, not the washed-up old guys sent to the end of their chapter.
Nevertheless, Knicks fans insisted on demonstrating their innate sense of unawareness for the moment and broke the unwritten rule of playoff basketball and called out the Celtics directly. The annual “We want Boston” chants broke out outside Madison Square Garden following New York’s Game 5 loss to the Detroit Pistons — and no, that’s not a typo. The bagel-loving, obnoxiously loud people of the Big Apple spread bad juju all over their streets before the Knicks had even secured a second-round date with the Celtics.
Boston has made rival fan bases pay the ultimate price for pulling the same copy-and-paste move, including the Orlando Magic, who also tested their luck. Orlando didn’t just chant “We want Boston,” but the organization also dropped confetti after taking Game 3 of the series, and even that wasn’t original. The Philadelphia 76ers accidentally cued the confetti machines during their 2018 conference semifinals matchup with the Celtics. As the story went, then-Sixers sharpshooter Marco Belinelli drained a corner jumper that everyone in Philadelphia, including the confetti operator, thought was a game-winner. It wasn’t, and the Celtics took that Game 3 duel in overtime, and the series.
When Boston eliminated Orlando from this year’s postseason, Celtics fans at TD Garden threw the arrogance Magic fans showered themselves with as the No. 7 seed right back in their face. Boston came together in the closing minutes of Game 5 and chanted, “You got Boston,” as the fourth quarter wound down and the reigning champions had their seventh semifinals ticket punched under the Tatum-Brown era.
“What do I anticipate? We saw them a few times this year,” Kristaps Porzingis told reporters at Saturday’s practice, per CLNS Media. “Talented. Brunson, high-level, talented. Towns, high-level. It’s gonna be a challenge with those two guys and they have good guys around them also. I’m gonna give you a little bit of a default answer, but it’s gonna be a big challenge. We’re gonna have to play hard to match everything they’re doing and we’ll see where we end up.”