How the Celtics Outpaced and Outclassed the Knicks (Again)

The Celtics are now 3-0 vs the Knicks this season

The Boston Celtics are 9-1 over their last 10 games and on a five-game winning streak. Two of those five games have come against the New York Knicks — a team that was retooled during the summer with the explicit goal of slowing down and catching up with the Celtics. In those two games, Boston is +40.

The Celtics are firmly back on track after a turbulent stretch between December and January. They’ve beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat during the month of February.

On Sunday, during a matinee game against the Knicks, the Celtics flexed their championship credentials once again, piling pressure onto Tom Thibodeau as a result.

From Dec. 23 to the summer of ‘24, New York pushed their chips all in. In came OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. Anunoby and Bridges were supposed to be the defensive anchors for New York’s roster, giving Thibodeau the versatile and physical defenders he craved. Furthermore, having two high-level defensive wings was supposed to give the Knicks an edge against Boston.

After all, if you can figure out how to shut down Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, then you’ve got a strong chance of overcoming the Celtics — both in the regular season and during the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, neither Anunoby nor Bridges has reached the desired heights, at least not yet. What’s worse, the Celtics seem to already have a game plan for overcoming New York’s wing duo: attack in transition.

Despite the heavy investment in defensive versatility, the Knicks found themselves scrambling—unable to set their half-court schemes before Boston had already dictated the terms of engagement.

This wasn’t just about playing fast for the sake of it. It was a calculated effort to keep New York from leaning on what’s supposed to be their biggest strength—their half-court defense. In reality, they rank just 18th in Defensive Rating right now.

I always look forward to Knicks/Celtics games. In recent years, they’ve been a prime ‘playbook’ game, with both sides going deep into their playbooks and series of actions.

Not this time, though.

Instead, the Celtics weaponized early pitch-ahead passes (EPAs), using them to collapse the Knicks’ defense before it had a chance to get organized. By advancing the ball quickly, they turned defensive rebounds into instant scoring opportunities.

The above clip is a great example of how one or two members of the Celtics rotation would leak out after the team secured a rebound, allowing a pitch-ahead to catch the Knicks in transition.

You can have all the defensive personnel you want, but if you beat them down the floor, there’s nothing they can do.

There’s more to playing in transition than generating easy, open looks, though. It’s about controlling the tempo of the game. It’s about dictating the terms of engagement in the halfcourt. Most importantly, it’s about dominating possessions by exploiting coverages that haven’t been fully set up.

It also forces defenders to think faster than they’d like. When an offense plays with pace, defenders have less time to communicate, rotate, and execute their assignments. That leads to breakdowns—missed rotations, botched switches, and open shooters. The Celtics exploited that all night.

Even when the Celtics opted against pitching the rock ahead, they were finding ways to attack matchups or create open shots based on their willingness to push the pace.

I loved the decision-making and execution on this play. Brown is pushing the pace in transition. As one of the best transition scorers in the NBA, the Knicks must look to close down his driving lane, forcing them to commit multiple defenders around the nail as they look to suffocate his dribble and force him to make a read in traffic.

Brown’s initial drive has already put the Celtics one move ahead. A quick read to find Tatum in the corner forces a rotation; however, with the strong side now overloaded, Pritchard has been left to establish himself on the weak side wing.

An elite pass from Tatum finds Pritchard on time and on the money (seams and all, by the looks of things), allowing the sharpshooting guard to take the easiest shot he had all night. When Pritchard is that wide open, there’s usually only one outcome.

“It’s tough,” Josh Hart said during his postgame news conference. “They have three-level scorers at every single position.”

Here’s another example from a little earlier in the game. The Celtics are in transition, but the Knicks’ defense is in front of the play. However, Brown’s aggression ensures the defense doesn’t have time to get set and match up how Thibodeau would like. Instead, Cameron Payne is tasked with trying to stop Brown, which is easy money for one of the best rim-finishing forwards in the league.

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The beauty of how the Celtics executed their high-tempo offense is that it indicates a high degree of success on the defensive end.

“They have really talented offensive players–but our versatility, the guys we have, can make it really difficult for them,” Porzingis said. “They're a dangerous team, we respect them. We came out in the 1st, set the tone.”

The Celtics controlled the defensive glass, allowing them to dictate the tempo and get out in the open court.

For a team that excels in the halfcourt—which they still did in this game—the shift to working at pace and limiting the possessions where they faced New York’s designed defense was wise.

The Celtics have now won all three of their regular-season matchups against the Knicks, with one left to play. As such, Mazzulla’s team firmly holds the mental advantage heading into the postseason, which could pay dividends if the two rosters are forced into a playoff series.

This summer, New York made moves to close the gap on Mazzulla’s pace-setters. Yet, for all of their moves, the Knicks remain at least one year away from being ready to contend — at least that's how things appear right now.

The Celtics did many good and interesting things in yesterday’s game. However, their ability to control the temperature and dictate how their offense would flow allowed them to control the game—save for a third-quarter run on the back of Towns and Jalen Brunson.

It was fun seeing this Celtics team embrace the open court. However, they will need a totally different game plan when playing the young, hungry and athletic Raptors on Tuesday. That’s a problem for later in the week, though.

For today, we can all enjoy our coffee knowing that Knicks fans are struggling to compartmentalize where things are going wrong.