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Two of the Eastern Conference’s best meet up at Madison Square Garden tonight as the New York Knicks host the Boston Celtics at 8:30 PM ET on ABC. This is the second of four matchups between the old rivals this year, with Boston taking the first game on opening night of the 2024-25 season, 132-109.
Let’s review each team’s recent performance while previewing this matchup and making a Celtics vs Knicks NBA pick.
The defending champion Celtics are reasserting themselves after scuffling for the better part of the last month. Boston has won 4-of-5 after going just 10-9 in its previous 19 games. The team posted a 112-105 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday and is now 2-1 against the Cavs this season.
Boston is currently second in the Eastern Conference at 36-16, 5.5 games behind Cleveland. The Celtics are coming off their NBA-leading 18th championship, and the franchise is looking to win back-to-back titles for the first time since 1968-69.
The Celtics had a hiccup Thursday night after a strong recent run, losing at home to the Dallas Mavericks, 127-120. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 25 points, followed by Payton Pritchard with 21 and both Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis with 17 each.
Before that, the Celtics had won three straight, with the team’s Big Three (Tatum, Brown and Porzingis) leading them in scoring along the way. Porzingis had 34 points and 11 rebounds to lead Boston past the Chicago Bulls, 122-100. Brown had 28 points and 6 rebounds in Boston’s 118-116 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and Tatum led the Celtics with 35 points and 11 assists as Boston rallied from 26 points down to defeat the 76ers Sunday night, 118-110.
Boston cruised past the Knicks on opening night, 132-109. Tatum had 37 points and 10 assists, Derrick White added 24 points, and Brown posted 23 points and seven rebounds. Tatum leads the Celtics and is sixth in the NBA in scoring with 26.8 per game, to go with a team-leading 8.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists. He’s followed by Brown at 23.1 PPG. Porzingis, back in the lineup and healthy, is adding more than 19.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest.
The Knicks are 34-17, just 1.5 games behind Boston. Coach Tom Thibodeau, now in his fifth season guiding the Knicks, has led New York to back-to-back Eastern Conference semifinal appearances, including a 50-win campaign last year, the franchise’s first in 11 years. The team has not advanced further than that in 25 years and is looking to take that next step.
The Knicks are rolling right now, having won seven of their last eight games. That includes back-to-back victories Monday over the Houston Rockets (124-118) and Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors (121-115). Leading scorer Jalen Brunson combined for 70 points in the two victories. The seventh-year guard is eighth in the league at 26.1 points a game.
Karl-Anthony Towns has been as advertised after coming over from the Minnesota Timberwolves in an offseason trade. KAT is averaging 24.3 points and 13.6 rebounds. Mikal Bridges is contributing 18.2 points per game, followed by OG Anunoby at 16.4, and Josh Hart, who is averaging 14.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists a game.
Towns had a monster performance against the Raptors Tuesday night, scoring 27 points and grabbing 20 rebounds. He had 22 and nine in the win over Houston on Monday. Bridges averaged 19.5 points in the two wins and Hart averaged 17 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists.
Although it was months ago, the Knicks will be hungry to show that opening night was a fluke. Brunson had 22 in that contest and Towns had just 12 points. Expect both of their outputs to increase tomorrow evening.
Shots should be flying from beyond the arc. Boston leads the NBA with 17.8 made threes a game, with the Knicks sixth in the league in 3-point shooting percentage (37.5%). New York tops the NBA in rebounds with 41.1 per contest.
Look for both teams’ big guns to show out on Saturday night, and the expectation here is that Brunson will score more than 25 points for New York.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.