Who Should Celtics Want To Face In Eastern Conference Finals?

The Celtics await their next opponent for the Eastern Conference finals, but there’s debate over who they should want to play on their road to Banner 18.

Boston beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals and will play the winner of the New York Knicks-Indiana Pacers series. Tom Thibodeau’s side holds a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, which could end Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

NESN’s Travis Thomas and George Balekji on the Friday edition of “Boston Has Entered The Chat,” debated which team the C’s should want to face in the Eastern Conference finals.

“Number one, above everything else, the Pacers don’t play defense,” Thomas said. “I mean that helps. I would want to play a team that doesn’t play defense. They play the same style as the Boston Celtics. They want to just run up and down, and play pick-up basketball and chuck threes. Great, no one does that better than the Boston Celtics.”

Balekji agreed with Thomas and noted how dangerous Jalen Brunson can be since he has the ability to potentially steal two games from Boston. However, he made his case for New York being more vulnerable than the Pacers.

“This is a team that is like five deep?” Balekji said. “… If you go by defensive rating, you know who the second-worst defense left is? The New York Knicks. Thibs is running this team into the ground. You have the size. If you’re a Celtics fan, you fear the Garden, you fear Jalen Brunson, but you want the Knicks. They’re so banged up, and they’re so depleted and they don’t have the depth.”

You can hear the full conversation and more from “Boston Has Entered The Chat” in the video embedded above.