Hart explains what makes Celtics such a tough matchup for Knicks originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New York Knicks have had absolutely zero answers for the Boston Celtics this season.
These rivals have played three times so far, and each game has resulted in a double-digit win for the Celtics.
The latest of which came Sunday at TD Garden, where the Celtics led from start to finish in a 118-105 victory. The Knicks trailed by 19 after the first quarter and were down 21 at halftime. They had a nice run in the third quarter to get the deficit under 10 points, but Boston bounced back and quickly put the game out of reach.
What is it about this Celtics team that makes it so difficult for the Knicks to slow down?
“It’s tough,” Knicks guard Josh Hart told reporters postgame, including CLNS Media’s Bobby Manning. “They got three-level scorers at every single position. They got the length defensively to make us get into tough shots offensively, and I think in the first quarter you saw they probably had three layups and then the Sam Hauser 3-pointer in transition that really killed us, and that was from our bad offense.”
The Celtics have extraordinary depth and virtually no weaknesses. They also have guys off the bench — most notably Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet and Al Horford — who play their role extremely well. And it also helps to have two All-NBA caliber stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
All five Celtics starters scored 14-plus points Sunday, led by Jayson Tatum’s 25, and the bench shot 8-of-16 as a group.
“Man, you got Tatum, who will probably be first team All-NBA, Jaylen Brown will probably be second team, then (Kristaps) Porzingis, (Derrick) White, Jrue (Holiday), Pritchard’s probably Sixth Man. They got everything, man,” Hart said. “They’re a heck of a team, well-coached team, disciplined team, but we gotta step it up.”
The Celtics and Knicks will play once more in the regular season — April 8 at Madison Square Garden. And based on the current standings, these teams would play each other in the Eastern Conference semifinals if they both won their first-round playoff series.
The Knicks have a lot of issues when they play the Celtics, but they do have some time to fix them before the playoffs arrive.
