The big, bad New York Knicks didn’t look so big and bad on Tuesday night.
New York spent its offseason assembling one of the most intimidating starting fives in the league, acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets to put alongside Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
But the Knicks were completely exposed in their season opener against the Celtics, ending up on the wrong end of a 132-109 rout in which Boston canned 29 triples (on 61 attempts) to match an NBA single-game record.
Anunoby struggled the most, netting only four points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field in 34 minutes of action. Bridges went for 16 points in his debut, while Towns supplied 12 to go along with seven rebounds.
Chances are that the Celtics had a little extra pep in their step after watching an 18th banner go up into the rafters prior to tipoff, but still, it was an embarrassing showing from a New York team that had been deemed a title contender as soon as Towns touched down in the Big Apple.
There will already be detractors who say it’s time for the Knicks to hit the panic button. As we know, plenty of fans and analysts love to overreact, even if we haven’t hit Game 2 of 82 yet.
However, the Knicks are going to be just fine. What we really need to be talking about is how good Boston truly is.
If any team is in position to put together a dynastic run right now, it’s the Celtics. Beating down New York like they did on Tuesday is one thing, but doing so with big man Kristaps Porzingis watching from the bench in a suit jacket is next level.
Based off last season’s title run and what we saw against the Knicks, it really is hard to imagine anyone knocking off Boston in a seven-game series. With that being said, a lot can happen between now and April. Trades, injuries, other teams find their groove—the Celtics aren’t just going to peacefully skip their way into the Finals again.
Making things that much sweeter for Boston is how committed its front office is to keeping its core intact. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could end up spending their entire careers in green and white, and they’ll have Jrue Holiday and Derrick White right by their side until at least 2026-27. Porzingis is signed through the 2025-26 campaign.
And we need to be appreciating what those five guys are doing right now.
Admittedly, all of this is very easy for me to say. I grew up in Massachusetts, live in Boston now, and once had to *try to* root for a 25-57 Celtics team in 2013-14 that relied somewhat heavily on Gerald Wallace.
Although Boston never had some long, agonizing playoff drought, it did always come up just short of the finish line until last season. So to now have a window where two, three, maybe even four championships is a real possibility?
Man, that’s special.
Of course, riding a high following a blowout on Opening Night is always easy. The next five-plus years are going to be a marathon, not a sprint.
But on Tuesday, the Celtics showed the league that they are still the team to beat. Not the Knicks. Not the Philadelphia 76ers. Not anyone in the West. The Celtics. And they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
