The New York Knicks secured their spot in the Eastern Conference Semifinals with a 116-113 win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, May 1. New York closed out it’s first-round playoff series in six games.
Now, the Knicks will face the Boston Celtics. Joe Mazzulla’s team is the reigning NBA champions. Furthermore, the Celtics will come into the series with the best player in Jayson Tatum.
When speaking to the media on Thursday, Tom Thibodeau was quick admit that the Knicks would be getting straight to work on preparing for Boston.
“Obviously, I haven’t really dug into that yet,” Thibodeau said. “I watched some of the playoff games. Obviously, we’ll be doing a lot of work in the next couple of days, with our assistants and our advanced guys, who have been working on it for a long time. We have to get our team in. We have some days for recovery and preparation. They’re the defending champions, so we’re going to have to be at our best.”
New York must find a way to limit the Celtics’ perimeter attack if they’re going to stand a chance of making it to the NBA Finals. Furthermore, containing both Tatum and Jaylen Brown will be another key but difficult task. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges were acquired for this very reason.
Celtics Will Target Two Knicks Stars
The Celtics are one of the best teams in the NBA when it comes to generating and punishing mismatches. Mazzulla’s team pinpoints and hunts out the weakest defenders in a rotation, and then, they go at them relentlessly.
Coming into this series, both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns project as potential targets for Tatum and Co. As such, Thibodeau must land of a defensive scheme that both limits what the Celtics do best and protects the team’s two most important offensive pieces.
If the Knicks can’t keep Brunson and Towns out of defensive actions, the second-round series could get very uncomfortable.
Brunson’s Play Style is a Concern
According to a Western Conference scout, who was speaking to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Brunson’s style of play could become a problem for the Knicks.
“Jalen’s foul hunting and holding the ball has really caught up with them,” The West scout said. “There’s only so much you can do. That’s a recipe to win a lot of regular-season games, but it’s a huge load to carry on a nightly basis for playoff-heavy minutes when defenses have adjusted and loaded up. KAT and [OG Anunoby] have to play a role, and it’s hard when [Brunson] has the ball in his hands so much of the time.”
Brunson is arguably the Knicks’ best player. He’s also the team’s leader and the guy they lean on during clutch situations. However, Thibodeau can’t afford to lean on isolation-heavy basketball against the Celtics’ defense. Instead, the Knicks must become a more free-flowing offense if they want to overcome Mazzulla’s team.
New York is facing an uphill battle to beat the current champions. It also doesn’t help that the Knicks haven’t defeated the Celtics once this season. Nevertheless, the playoffs are a clean slate, and New York must enter the series with belief if they want any chance at success.
