thelesterlee
Last night, I hovered over my bed—replaying all of my favorite moments from the Knicks stealing Game 1 of their second-round series against the Boston Celtics—a team that annihilated them on the first night of this season—breaking the record for most 3’s in a single game.
Garbage time started with 9 minutes left in that game. There was damn near an entire garbage quarter.
The Knicks took home an overtime win in a series everyone and their mothers believed would be a pointless 4-game sweep as the defending champion, Boston Celtics, ragdoll the Knicks, once again.
Fuuuuuuuuck all that.
New York shot 54% from the free-throw line.
They took 23 fewer 3-point attempts.
They lost the rebounding battle by double digits.
At one point, Boston had a 20-point lead.
Didn’t matter.
The Knicks did what they had to do to make sure they had more points on the scoreboard than the Celtics did when time ran out.
Considering this game will be the only thing I think about for the next 24 hours, let me share some of my biggest takeaways.
1. Hack-A-Mitch is Stupid
I understand the idea that once your team is already in the penalty, fouling a Steven Adams or Rudy Gobert or Mitchell Robinson—taking the opposing team’s offensive set away and putting the possession in the hands of atrocious free-throw shooters.
I get it.
Cool.
But when you hit the e-brake in the middle of the game, especially if you’re Boston—a team reliant on rhythm, timing 3’s—you’re not just affecting the opposing team but changing your own team’s offense.
Plus, someone has to commit these fouls. We saw it in the Detroit Pistons series when Paul Reed suddenly had 5 fouls and couldn’t come in to replace Jalen Duren, who also had 5 fouls.
Luke Kornet came into this game, had a put-back dunk, a steal and blocked OG Anunoby’s dunk.
He was singlehandedly bullying this Knicks team.
And then coach Mazzula had him foul Mitchell Robinson over and over again until he couldn’t play anymore because of foul trouble.
Maybe just play fucking basketball.
Imagine in the NFL if a cornerback could halt a team’s offense by fouling a wide receiver and then that wide receiver had to just hit a field goal and that team’s drive was over.
I know some people will say “Well, Mitchell Robinson should hit his free throws if they doesn’t want to be fouled” and sure but Mitch isn’t in the NBA because of his shooting prowess. His defensive versatility, rebounding in traffic and rim protection make him special. This sport would be boring as shit if every player excelled in every skill.
Just play basketball.
2. Fuck First Round Picks
The Knicks have 3 rookies on their bench who’ve played a combined 624 minutes this entire season. For comparison, 36-year-old backup Nuggets center, DeAndre Jordan, played 691 minutes on his own. He barely played and was on the court more often than 3 players the Knics drafted last summer combined.
It feels like the media realized it was easier to talk about basketball in hypothetical futures instead of analyzing the actual gameplay, ya know, because it requires sitting down and actually watching the games—and that new emphasis on “what ifs” trickled down to the way fans talk about basketball leading to the hyper criticism of the Knicks trading 4 unproctected first round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Mikal Bridges.
As if those rookie players would make any impact on a championship roster—especially playing for Tom Thibodeau who would have their asses glued to those hard ass folding chairs they use on Monday Night Raw.
If you think those picks were valuable assets the Knicks could use to acquire a star player, sure, but what star player is making this play:
MIKAL BRIDGES STEAL TO SEAL GAME 1 FOR THE KNICKS!!
20-POINT COMEBACK COMPLETE ✅ pic.twitter.com/us3Nq0Dykx
— NBA (@NBA) May 6, 2025
Mikal Bridges’s defense dominated this overtime with two big steals—including ripping the ball out of Jaylen Brown’s hands on the final play of the game.
I’ve watched the NBA long enough to know there aren’t many star players willing to do all the dirty work that Bridges does for this Knicks team.
From connective passes to keep the ball moving on offense, to his understanding that this offense needs an in-motion 3-point shooter and stepping up into that role despite never really being that at any other point in his career—his little rebound taps that always knock loose balls into the hands of his teammates—Bridges does all the little winning things a superstar wouldn’t
I mean, the Karl-Anthony Towns trade is a perfect example (and we’ll get to his weird ass in a second).
KAT is much closer to a superstar than Julius Randle is. 5-time All-Star. A couple All-NBA teams. His wife is somewhat famous-ish.
And Towns doesn’t do any of the little things required to win at the highest level.
You know, let’s just get into Karl-Anthony now.
3. KAT sucks (and that’s okay)
Karl-Anthony Towns did everything in his power to lose this game.
Unfortunately, Towns is one of those playoffs performers who visibly look nervous, terrified of making a game-changing mistake—leading him to commit back-breaking, game-changing mistakes like his addiction to fouling.
Here’s how KAT opened up the 3rd quarter after being benched with too many fouls for most of the 2nd quarter:
- missed 3
- missed layup
- a weird drive to the basket resulting in KAT awkwardly just throwing the ball out of bounds
- Al Horford blocked his shot
- offensive foul
- Derrick White blocked his shot
- Then Mitchell Robinson checked in for him with about 6 minutes left in the 3rd and the Knicks started to play competitive basketball again.
If the Knicks lost, I would’ve been the first to shout at KAT for playing like he didn’t want to be too loud and wake up his parents sleeping in the other room—but the Knicks won, and I have to give Towns credit for coming back in the 4th quarter and overtime locked in—or as locked in as he is capable of being—grabbing big rebounds, including some clutch offensive put-backs, and actually rotating on defense in time to force another pass.
Karl-Anthony Towns sucked against the Celtics all season.
He was never going to magically gain confidence against them.
Personally, I would’ve benched him for the remainder of the night but I love that he came back into a pressure cooker of a 4th quarter and just played basketball.
No overthinking.
No showing off for his dad in the front row.
No fouling so he can appear to be protecting the rim when we all know he cannot.
He just played basketball. All the Knicks need KAT to do is play basketball.
4. Jayson Tatum sucks (and that’s not okay)
However, the Boston Celtics cannot afford Jayson Tatum having a Towns-esque game.
Tatum finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block. KAT would get a statue outside of a Washington Heights bodega for those numbers but Tatum has to be better.
He shot 7-for-23 from the field and 4-for-15 from 3.
Disgusting.
Towns drives are reckless, uncoordinated, desperate flails at the hoop—praying the refs bail him out with a whistle but at least that man tries to get to the paint and generate some contact for easy free throws.
Jayson Tatum simply stopped playing basketball.
That was the theme of Game 1. One team played basketball and the other played calculator—hoisting up as many threes as possible with no situational awareness or willingness to ever waver from their offense algorithm.
The Celtics are a basketball simulation. They play like the floor is lava.
I feel like we all collectively forgot how low this Celtics team floor can be.
Yes, they won an NBA title last season so they’re champions and blah blah but it wasn’t that long ago that they lost to Jimmy Butler and some Uber drivers.
I still remember when they lost the Finals to the Golden State Warriors and Boston was so inept in the halfcourt, it felt like they were throwing passes directly to Warriors players, on some Jontay Porter type shit.
The Knicks biggest advantage is slowing every playoff game into a back-and-forth 4th quarter where they believe their team will execute better than the opposition.
It was true against the Sixers last year. It was true against the Pistons this year. And so far, it’s true against Boston—a team that doesn’t even seem to run plays outside of “stand behind the 3-point line”.
Jayson Tatum was hunting mismatches against Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns—one guy he can easily outpower and another he could easily blow right past.
And all Tatum wanted to do was take step back 3’s.
Boston had almost a week off and played this game like it was the second night of a back-to-back and they all went out drinking the night before.
To be fair to Boston, they whooped the Knicks all season and I have to imagine their shot selection was mostly inspired by vanity and hubris—wanting to look cool and not taking the Knicks seriously—but that’s how you lose playoff games.
Especially with Kristaps Porzingis scoring 0 points and leaving the game early because of some sort of life-altering STD he has.
Jayson Tatum won’t shoot 4-for-15 in Game 2 but like, are we sure he won’t in Game 4 or 5? Because I know for a fact Jalen Brunson won’t.
5. Jalen Brunson is the best player in this series
So we all recognize Jalen Brunson is better than Jayson Tatum now, right?
You can see it in the 4th quarter and overtime. The Knicks can put the ball in Brunson’s hands and expect positive results in a way the Celtics simply cannot with Tatum.
Jayson Tatum moves are so mechincal, slow-motion—unable to get any separation from a defender without stiff-arming them in the chest for space or retreating backwards for a tough step-back.
He has a pump fake that no serious defender really respects so when Tatum gets to the midrange, he kinda stuffs himself into a locker with no real moves or counters—leading to awful-looking shot attempts.
Meanwhile, Brunson constantly gets to his spots, juking and shaking defenders into confusion and easily gets to the free-throw line.
You could say Tatum’s a better defender but did that even matter this game? OG Anunoby scored 29 points on him.
At the end of the day, Jalen Brunson crossing up Ausar Thompson to hit the game-winner in Game 6 last round could never be replicated by Jayson Tatum. Ausar would be standing directly next to Tatum as he chucks up a nasty fadeaway.
I will be rewatching this game on a loop until the Knicks inevitable 70 point loss in Game 2.
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This is silly. Celtics in 5.