2 weeks ago
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ESPN News Services
May 16, 2025, 10:49 PM ET
NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks reached the Eastern Conference finals for the archetypal clip successful 25 years and ended the one-year NBA rubric reign of the Boston Celtics with astonishing ease, rolling to a 119-81 triumph successful Game 6 connected Friday night.
Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby each scored 23 points for the Knicks, who volition look the Indiana Pacers, the aforesaid squad they met successful their past league finals quality successful 2000. Game 1 is Wednesday nighttime successful New York.
The Knicks hadn't won a playoff bid connected their location level since the 1999 East finals. So the celebrating started precocious successful the one-sided archetypal fractional wrong Madison Square Garden and was definite to transportation connected heavy into the nighttime astir the arena.
Mikal Bridges scored 22 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 for the Knicks, whose 38-point borderline of triumph was their largest successful a postseason game.
Jaylen Brown scored 20 points for the Celtics earlier fouling retired with 2:50 remaining successful the 3rd quarter, the second-earliest successful a playoff crippled that a subordinate picked up his sixth idiosyncratic foul successful the play-by-play epoch (since 1997-98), per Elias Sports Bureau.
Boston mislaid starring scorer Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles tendon successful Game 4 but believed it inactive had capable to get it backmost to Boston for Game 7 and support its rubric defence alive.
It was rapidly wide that wasn't happening.
The Celtics led by astatine slightest 14 successful each of the archetypal 5 games, but this clip the Knicks started accelerated and kept pouring it connected until Boston manager Joe Mazzulla began pulling his starters successful the 3rd 4th aft the shortage reached 41 points.
The Knicks scored the archetypal 7 points of the 2nd 4th to marque it 33-20. New York blew it unfastened with a 13-3 tally that made it 49-27, a surge highlighted by 6-foot-1 defender Deuce McBride's chasedown artifact of Derrick White's changeable that led to Josh Hart's 2nd consecutive handbasket portion being fouled.
Ben Stiller and Lenny Kravitz shared a handshake and hug afterward on personage row, wherever the A-listers were lasting and cheering overmuch of the night, the aforesaid arsenic the fans sitting adjacent the apical of the arena.
The Knicks led 64-37 astatine halftime, a 27-point pb that matched their biggest successful a playoff crippled successful the shot-clock era. They led the Lakers 69-42 successful Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, erstwhile Willis Reed's instrumentality from wounded sparked the Knicks to their archetypal NBA title.
There was different 3 years later, but the Knicks person been unopen retired since and it didn't look this would beryllium the twelvemonth that could extremity aft the Knicks were a combined 0-8 against Cleveland and Boston, the 2 teams that finished supra them successful the East.
But they won't person to interest astir the Cavaliers and wholly turned things astir against the Celtics, overcoming 20-point deficits successful the 2nd halves of some games successful Boston to unfastened the series.
Hart finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the Knicks.
The 38-point was the largest by a defending champion facing elimination successful NBA postseason history. It was besides tied for the Celtics' third-largest nonaccomplishment successful a playoff crippled successful franchise history.
Information from The Associated Press was utilized successful this report.
