The Celtics enter the 2024-25 season as an overwhelming favorite to win their second straight NBA championship. A stunning 25 of the NBA’s 30 GMs voted Boston as their title pick. Gambling sites like BetMGM have them with the best title odds of any team.
Besides, after Boston ran away with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference by 14 games last season, it should be heavily favored.
Despite that monumental challenge, one team spent the 2024 offseason building the best Boston kryptonite. Similarly to how the Timberwolves assembled the perfect team to take down the Nuggets, the Knicks have assembled a roster tailor-made to challenge the Celtics in the playoffs.
Here’s why New York is well-equipped to give Boston its toughest challenge.
How the Knicks built a Celtics killer
O.G. Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are capable Jaystoppers
The Celtics have one of the more balanced offenses in the league, but what makes them special is their wing-scoring duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Good defensive wings are in high demand across the league, and very few teams have two quality options to put on both of Boston’s stars.
Aggressive trades for both O.G. Anunoby and Mikal Bridges give the Knicks ideal options to neutralize the Celtics’ duo.
Both Anunoby and Bridges stand at around 6-7 with wingspans over 7 feet long. Both have made an All-Defensive team and earned votes for Defensive Player of the Year. There aren’t many better options to defend the Jays one-on-one.
Anunoby and Bridges also give the Knicks good options to help protect Jalen Brunson on defense. Teams have tried to get Brunson to switch onto their best scorers, picking on his 6-2 height. The Knicks generally try to show and recover with Brunson to keep him out of those matchups, having him jump out to the ball before recovering to his original matchup.
In order to pull that defensive scheme off, the Knicks need smart help defenders who can navigate screens quickly. Anunoby and Bridges are both solid in that department, making it easier to hide their diminutive guard.
RANKING NBA’S BEST DEFENDERS: 100-11 | 10-1
The Knicks can score with the Celtics
The Celtics created the most efficient offense of all time last season by putting capable shooting at every position on the floor. That five-out offense opened up driving lanes for their star players and allowed them to fire off a ton of 3s. No team took a higher percentage of their shots from deep than Boston.
The Knicks weren’t too shabby last year either, ranking seventh on offense. They got there a different way, pummeling teams on the offensive glass while playing non-shooters in Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein at center.
New York is totally changing its offensive strategy this year, substituting that plus rebounding for shooting at all five positions. Karl-Anthony Towns is perhaps the greatest big man shooter of all time and is replacing Julius Randle’s 31.1 percent shooting from deep. Towns will pull Kristaps Porzingis out of the paint, opening the way for more driving lanes. Anunoby and Bridges should also help spread the floor, and Josh Hart is capable of making wide-open 3s.
Brunson will have a lot more space to work with, but he may not even need that extra boost against the Celtics. He played well against them in five meetings last season, averaging 28.4 points on 47.7 percent shooting from the field. It was the other guys who didn’t score enough, leading to a 1-4 record.
With Towns, Anunoby and Bridges, the Knicks have assembled better supporting players who won’t let Brunson down this time around.
POSITIONAL RANKINGS: PG | SG | SF | PF | C
The Knicks have the better closer
The biggest weakness for the Celtics has been their propensity to lose their composure at the end of games. Tatum hasn’t been great in those last-shot scenarios in his career, hitting just 17-of-49 shots that could have tied the game or taken the lead with less than 24 seconds left. Will those same struggles remain after he’s reworked his shooting form?
Brunson, on the other hand, was a clutch monster during the 2024 NBA Playoffs. His 49 points in crunch time led the league by a wide margin, and he obliterated Tatum in terms of efficiency during those end-game situations.
2024 NBA Playoffs clutch stats
| Jalen Brunson | Stat | Jayson Tatum |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | Points | 16 |
| 41.7 | FG% | 29.4 |
| 41.7 | 3-point % | 14.3 |
Playoff series often come down to who has the best player. The Celtics disproved that formula by collecting an ensemble cast of good-to-great players, which the Knicks have mimicked. Given that same strategy, it may boil down to which of Tatum or Brunson can perform better down the stretch.
The Knicks are betting on their guy, and the Celtics are going to be tested like they’ve never been before.