All season long, everyone and their mothers automatically pencilled the Boston Celtics into the Finals, disregarding the other 14 teams in the Eastern Conference.
And I get it.
They’re the defending champions, having marched through a Miami Heat team, playing without 6-time NBA All-Star, Jimmy Butler.
Then they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, playing without Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen.
Then they beat the Indiana Pacers, playing without Tyrese Haliburton.
Last season, the Dallas Mavericks scratched and clawed their way past the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves while the Boston Celtics received an automatic bye to the Finals.
But congrats to Boston on their ring last year. So earned.
On Friday night, the New York Knicks sent the Boston Celtics on a Spirit Airlines flight back to Bean Town as they blew the DOORS off them in a 119-81 beatdown to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Celtics won Game 5 in honor of their fallen leader, Jayson Tatum, who popped a tire at the end of their Game 4 loss because Jaylen Brown still can’t dribble without looking down at the ball.
A miracle 3-1 comeback was in the works.
And then the Celtics completely quit on the season while the Knicks bombed 3’s on them and taught them how to maintain a 20-point lead in a playoff game, a required course for a Boston team that blew TWO 20-point leads in Games 1 and 2, to fall 0-2 in the second round in a series where the Knicks clearly had the best player.
JALEN BRUNSON TONIGHT
39 POINTS
12 ASSISTS
14-25 FG
4-8 3P
+123-1 LETS GOOOO
pic.twitter.com/xczKTZUm2w— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) May 13, 2025
Jaylen Brown, the reigning Finals MVP—a superstar, moments away from flying out of a phonebooth with his cape, saving the Boston Celtics from an early, embarrassing, disappointing, potentially franchise-altering second round elimination—took 20 shots, only made 8 of them, turned the ball over 7 times and fouled out, waving the white flag in the third quarter, leading to a historic night for the Knicks.
Biggest blowout of a reigning NBA Champ in an elimination game in NBA History. pic.twitter.com/ACdm2emlGB
— KnicksMuse (@KnicksMuse) May 17, 2025
GET THE BOSTON CELTICS THE FUUUUUUUUUCK OUT OF HERE.
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