The New York Knicks stunned the basketball world by knocking off the defending champion Boston Celtics in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. It was a historic series win for New York, as it was the first time in 25 years that they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals and the first time since 1994 that they eliminated a defending champion in the playoffs.
Celtics legend Paul Pierce claims Knicks beat up an injured Boston squad
However, the series didn’t conclude without a major ramification. In Game 4, Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum suffered a ruptured achilles tendon, which knocked him out for the rest of the series and likely most of next season as well.
Undoubtedly, losing Tatum left a huge hole in the Celtics’ lineup and gave them a much harder chance of making a comeback down 3-1. Despite most agreeing that the Knicks were already in the position to win the series before Tatum got injured, some don’t feel the same way.
Celtics legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce sent a warning to the Knicks after they eliminated the Celtics, claiming that Boston’s injury situation helped New York advance.
“Pacers gonna pop y’all. Pacers gonna get y’all… y’all beat an injured Celtics team,” Pierce said.
The Knicks took advantage of the Celtics’ missed opportunities
Tatum wasn’t the only Celtics player to deal with an injury. Sam Hauser missed three games in the series with an ankle injury, Kristaps Porzingis was battling an illness all series, and Jaylen Brown was revealed to have been playing with a partially torn meniscus.
While Boston was banged up, they were still heavy favorites to defeat the Knicks, and they arguably should have taken care of them easily. Boston gained double-digit leads in all but one game of the series, including two 20-point leads that wound up being blown in the first two games of the series.
The Knicks simply took advantage of Boston’s poor second half play, and it was ultimately the biggest difference in them winning the series. They will turn their attention towards a Pacers team that also completed a massive upset in the second round, taking down the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five games.
Once looked at as a nearly impossible mountain to climb, the Knicks are just eight wins away from their first NBA Title in 53 years. Their quest will continue on Wednesday when Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers begins.