The New York Knicks opened their Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Boston Celtics as -900 underdogs. Few expected the Knicks to take a 2-0 series lead, with back-to-back road wins in Boston, to start the series.
Lakers legend Magic Johnson took to X to share his assessment of the Knicks’ success.
“The biggest reason the Knicks won was because the three role players stepped up this game – Josh Hart had 23 points, Karl Anthony-Towns had 21, and Mikal Bridges notched the game ending block and 14 points to seal the victory for the Knicks. Their mindset to never give up came to fruition and they beat the Celtics 91-90,” he wrote.
Further to Johnson’s point, Mikal Bridges scored 14 fourth-quarter points in the Game 2 win, which were critical at a point when both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns were on the bench.
Knicks Keep Winning Close Games
Johnson also compared the Celtics-Knicks series to the 1988 playoff series between his Lakers and Spurs. In that series 37 years ago, the Spurs similarly entered as favorites after beating the Lakers 4-0 in the regular-season series. This year, the Celtics similarly crushed the Knicks 4-0 by an average margin of 16.6 points.
“I remember back in the day my Showtime Lakers were in the same position as the New York Knicks when the San Antonio Spurs beat us in all four regular season games and we ended up playing them in the Playoffs,” Johnson wrote.
“We had a chip on our shoulder and we had something to prove not only to ourselves but to the Spurs and we ended up beating them in the Playoffs! The Knicks are facing this against the Celtics.”
With two nail-biting wins against the Celtics, the Knicks are the first team since the 1980-81 Celtics to play in six consecutive games decided by three or fewer points, according to ESPN Research. The games date back to the final four games of their first-round series wth the Pistons, all of which were decided in the clutch.
Knicks Not Taking Eye of the Ball
Many believe that the hard-fought series versus the Pistons prepared the Knicks for the Celtics, the defending NBA champions.
The Knicks, a veteran team, know well that closing out a team is tougher than jumping out to an early lead. In 2023, the Celtics famously bounced back from a 3-0 deficit to force a Game 7 against the Heat. Although the C’s fell short of the mission, they showed a lot of resolve by notching three consecutive wins with their backs to the wall.
As such, New York expects Boston to increase its intensity for the remainder of the series.
“It means we up two zip, but it doesn’t really mean anything,” Towns said after the Game 2 win, via SNY’s Ben Krimmel. “We can’t take anything for granted, we gotta find ourselves executing at a higher level. We can’t keep doing these 20-point leads for Boston and hope to come back and win the game.”
Towns also addressed the Knicks conceding 20-point leads to the Celtics in back-to-back games.
“We gotta play better, we gotta shoot better, we gotta execute better. We can’t start having that Knicks basketball being played down 20, we gotta start the game that way and finish the game that way,” he said.
Magic Johnson Explains ‘Biggest Reason’ For Knicks Success