Celtics raise banner No. 18 before season opener against Knicks

The defending champions celebrate their 2024 NBA title with a banner and ring ceremony in front of the Knicks-Celtics at TD Garden in Boston.

• Get NBA League Pass TODAY >

BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Celtics are giving themselves one more chance to celebrate their recent NBA championship before turning their attention to a repeat.

The league's most decorated franchise will raise its 18th banner to the TD Garden Rafters on Tuesday night before their season opener against the New York Knicks (7:30 ET, TNT). Players will also receive their championship rings at the pre-game ceremony.

“The fact that we can do this is a great achievement. “It’s going to be a heck of a night,” guard Payton Pritchard said after Monday’s practice. “But on the other hand, we talked about having to do it again. We need to reset this focus.

“We’re going to get the rings and then we want to go out there and prove that we’re ready to make another statement.”

The Celtics went through the NBA regular season last year and had the best record in the Eastern Conference with 14 games. They then went 16-3 in the playoffs. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they return their entire starting lineup and most of their bench and are favorites to win again.

Coach Joe Mazzulla said he felt no pressure to repeat.

“We'll all be dead soon, and it doesn't really matter anymore. So there is no pressure,” he said. “You have the opportunity to move the organization forward and strengthen the tradition and history of this organization. And what else would you expect other than someone constantly expecting you to win?

“It’s no pressure,” he told reporters at the team’s practice facility. “Nobody in this circle can do anything to me that could affect my identity and who I am as a person or a coach. Either we’ll win or we won’t, and in 40 years none of you will be invited to my funeral and that’s it.”

The Celtics won 16 NBA titles from 1957 to 1986, with Bill Russell winning 11 in 13 years. The 1970s team of Dave Cowens and John Havlicek won a pair, and the Big Three of Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale won three more in the 1980s.

When Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen won it all in 2008, they ended the franchise's longest title drought ever. Two years later they made it to the NBA Finals again, but lost to the Lakers. (The period from 2008 to 2024 was the second longest drought.)

Pritchard said that to be considered one of the Celtics' all-time greats, they would need to get another win.

“A lot of people can do it once,” Pritchard said. “I know a championship is hard, but there are a lot of people who have won one. But winning it multiple times and almost starting a dynasty is hard. So that’s something great and it’s something we want to achieve.”

The search begins against the Knicks, who have positioned themselves as Boston's top rival in the East after acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges over the summer.

Mazzulla said he believes his team is ready.

“I trust who they are. I think they have an understanding of both 'This is what we achieved' and 'This is what we want to achieve,'” the coach said. “All the intangibles that contribute to winning should carry over from one season to the next.”

“You have to appreciate it,” he said. “But you have to know what got you there, and if you forget what got you there, you’ll never come back.”