Celtics reveal flaws in Knicks' blockbuster trade in stunning win

BOSTON – The top half of the Eastern Conference knew this summer they had to improve their talent to give themselves a chance to compete with the Celtics. The Knicks in particular were one of the teams that gave themselves a good chance of promotion. Despite a host of injuries, New York fell just one game short of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, but has opted to shake things up to the core over the last three months.

After acquiring Mikal Bridges for a variety of first-round picks in June, the Knicks officially made their all-in move last month, acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick from the Wolves. The blockbuster deal, on paper, creates much greater offensive potential for this Knicks squad with the firepower Towns provides. However, that advantage didn't take into account that a Celtics rival can exploit Towns' limitations at all five positions and was on full display Tuesday night.

On offense, the Celtics attacked Towns relentlessly, forcing him to constantly screen, which led to easy looks off the field on Tuesday night. Towns is a respectable post defender, but he is a traditional big who doesn't transition well in space. Needless to say, it's no surprise that the Celtics tied the NBA record for 3-pointers made in a game (29), with Towns playing a prominent role. Boston scored 2.0 points per possession with Towns as the screen defender per second spectrum.

• BET: Check out ours MA Sports Betting Guidewhere you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.

Towns' defensive weakness isn't a new development against Boston, but the Knicks' problem is the fact that he couldn't make up for it with his offense on Tuesday night. The Celtics threw him smaller defenders most of the night (Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown) to save Al Horford some wear and tear, and it worked well. Towns (12 points on 5 of 9 shooting) regularly let them off the hook, as did a Knicks offense that didn't often catch his eye. With Boston switching against him, he was unable to make easy shots from 3-point range. His postups weren't very efficient, and even when they came in, the Celtics happily exchanged those twos, bombing down 61 3s in the process.

Horford spoke fondly of Towns after the game, but the reality is that Towns did more harm than good to the Knicks in this matchup.

“It’s always fun competing against KAT,” Horford said. “I mean, you know, one of the best players in this league and he can do so much. So now he's in New York, that's always special to me and it gives me perspective, you know, we're both from the Dominican Republic and playing at this level. It's not easy to play in the NBA and perform at this level. So that these moments are always special.”

It's only one game in the standings, but the issues Towns poses in a Celtics matchup aren't going away anytime soon anyway. Boston now has two guys who can consistently keep up with the Knicks' defense (Jalen Brunson, Towns) and the New York front office spent its entire fortune to bring Towns and Bridges on board this offseason. No additional complementary pieces can be added to this group without taking away other parts of the team's already flat rotation.

The Celtics are now a well-oiled machine with strong continuity and a talent advantage. They also go into games with a strong game plan that doesn't allow teams to let their guard down, something Tatum expressed after his 37-point night.

“I think just offensively I feel like we continued where we were last year,” Tatum explained. “We brought almost everyone back. We played to our strengths. We know what we want to do. We know who we want to attack. We know which sets and actions we need to get into and are constantly working on it. In practice, we work on reads every day and that’s basically all we do.”

The Celtics won't make 29 3s every night like we saw in Tuesday's win, but they know how to take advantage of an opponent. Given the holes Towns presents to the Knicks' defense against Boston, it's hard to imagine the Knicks developing into a team capable of defeating Boston in a seven-game series.