The Boston Celtics were eliminated from from postseason on Friday, losing in six games to the New York Knicks. With the Celtics’ loss, the NBA will now have a new champion once again.
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Entering the series with the Knicks, the Celtics were heavy favorites, but the team faltered down the stretch of multiple games. Boston is now entering a crucial offseason that could see them heavily change up the core group of the roster.
But after the blowout loss, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla offered some curious comments. Mazzulla admitted that New York was the better team, even though Boston was much stronger during the regular season.
“I told the guys in the locker room, one of the honors of my life was to be able to coach this group of guys,” Mazzulla said. “So you go down the list, every one of these guys is a champion, a warrior, and they’ve done a lot of great things in this league. It’s an honor to be able to share the locker room with them, be next to them on the court and be in the arena with them. So I’m grateful for that, and to me, it just shows who they are as people, who they are as players. But that’s really what it’s all about, is those guys.
“They came in, we had a legit shot at it, and they gave everything they had to try to go. But we ran into a better team.”
Many still view the Celtics as the better team, even if the Knicks were the ones to win the series. The Celtics swept the Knicks during the regular season, but in the playoffs, New York seemed to figure something out.
Boston couldn’t make a shot from 3-point land in the first two games, and the Knicks took advantage. New York seized an opportunity against the Celtics, and never looked back.
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The physicality of the Knicks’ defense in the series gave the Celtics some fits, and Boston never adjusted. It was a rare miss from Mazzulla, who is normally good about making in-game adjustments.
Boston now enters an offseason with a lot of questions to answer. Losing star Jayson Tatum to an Achilles tear during this Knicks series doesn’t help anything, but this summer could change everything for the franchise.
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