The Boston Celtics kicked off the 2024-25 NBA season with a bang, as they demolished the New York Knicks by a score of 132-109. The game was never particularly close, as the C's tied the NBA record for most three-point shots made in a single game with 29, which resulted in them holding a comfortable lead throughout, despite the fact the Knicks shot 55.1 percent from the field as a team.
While Boston didn't really do anything to add to their team over the offseason, they watched teams across the league swing big deals to try to compete with them. The Knicks were one such team, adding Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, while the Philadelphia 76ers brought in Paul George and revamped their bench.
And yet, for one game at least, it didn't matter, as the C's proved that they are still in a class of their own for the time being. And while every team works on getting themselves up to speed for the start of the new season, Boston has a leg up on the competition that not only makes them better than the rest of the league, but also makes them better than they were last year when they won the NBA Finals.
The Celtics have continuity that no other team in the NBA possesses
After losing to the Miami Heat in seven games in their 2023 Eastern Conference Finals series, Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office put together some big moves over the offseason to improve the team. In came Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, and out went Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon, and Robert Williams III. There was a bit of turnover, so it was reasonable to expect these new faces to take awhile to figure out how to play together.
That never really ended up happening, though. The Celtics cruised out to an 11-2 record, and never really looked back as they easily earned the best record in the league. They never lost more than two games in a row, and the additions in Porzingis and Holiday fit in seamlessly with the rest of the team, which ultimately helped the franchise win its 18th title.
And now, virtually that entire team has returned for the 2024-25 campaign. The two most notable departures are Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk, and it wasn't like they were key pieces of the rotation. After Boston meshed well early on last year, they took the league by storm, and they picked up right where they left off against the Knicks to kick off the new season.
Virtually this entire squad has at least one full season playing together with each other at this point. The only guy who hasn't that ended up taking the floor on Tuesday night against New York was Xavier Tillman Sr., and that was because he was picked up in a trade deadline deal with the Memphis Grizzlies last season.
Beyond that, many of these guys have been playing together for years now. Jayson Tatum has spent his entire career playing alongside Jaylen Brown, and virtually all of it with Al Horford. Derrick White has been here for two-and-a-half years now, as has Luke Kornet. Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser have spent their entire careers in Boston. Heck, Tatum, White, and Holiday just helped Team USA win gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics after they won a title together, with Pritchard also playing on the Select Team ahead of the Games.
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That continuity is huge, and something that can't really be taken for granted. Just look at the Knicks, who were a discombobulated mess in their season-opener. Bridges was nearly unplayable in the first half, Towns was picked on all game long, and after Josh Hart openly claimed he had no idea what his role was after New York's preseason finale, he played like, well, a guy who had no idea what his role was.
Now, the issues that flared up in the Knicks season-opener are things they should figure out through the course of the season, and it's also worth noting they aren't going to play the Celtics in all 82 games. But Boston already has a serious leg up on the competition by knowing exactly who they are and how they can beat their opponents.
Considering how they just won a title, that's an incredibly scary proposition for the rest of the league to deal with. In their first game of the season, they nearly broke the NBA's single-game record for three-pointers made, and if they didn't miss every three they took over the final eight or so minutes of the game, they would have done so. Furthermore, they didn't even have one of their top players in Porzingis on the court.
Is this an overreaction to one great game from the Celtics to open the season? Maybe, but this team has done nothing but prove that they are a relentless winning machine to this point, and even in an offseason where they didn't make any real upgrades, their plan to keep this squad fully intact has given them the ability to be an even better team than they were last season.
