Celtics’ Awful Losses To Knicks Share Odd Similarity To This Iconic Series

The Celtics face a 0-2 series deficit against the Knicks and also found themselves in familiar territory.

Boston gave up back-to-back 20-point leads to New York at TD Garden and hopes to make history as the 35th team to come back from 0-2 in a best-of-seven series. That comeback will need to be led by head coach Joe Mazzulla and stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

The circumstances don’t exactly align, but memories of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals came back for fans. The No. 2 Celtics were overwhelming favorites over the No. 8 Heat, but Miami shocked Mazzulla’s side to take a 3-0 series lead. Boston came back to force a Game 7, but Jimmy Butler shut the door on a historic comeback.

Again, how the Knicks and Heat earned their respective series leads was different. Miami actually was competitive in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals, whereas the Knicks rarely led in the first two games of this year’s second-round series. But the teams evoke a similar feeling.

The Knicks weren’t given much of a chance against the Celtics, with some analysts believing Boston would sweep New York. But like the Heat, New York received contributions from key role players like Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride and Josh Hart. The first two games even featured outlier shooting performances. McBride (50%), OG Anunoby (46.7%), Jalen Brunson (38.9%) and Hart (36.4%) shot very efficiently in the first two games of the series. It’s similar to how Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin shot the lights out against the Celtics in 2023.

Speaking of Brunson, he’s evoked a similar feeling that Butler long did against the C’s. Brunson showed why he won this season’s Clutch Player of the Year. The two-time All-Star was able to get any shot, whether it was Al Horford or Jrue Holiday guarding him. That was similar to when Butler seemingly was unstoppable with either Grant Williams or Malcolm Brogdon guarding him.

The most glaring part of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals was how outcoached Mazzulla was against Erik Spoelstra. It was excusable then since that was when Mazzulla took over as interim head coach. However, such excuses were not given to Mazzulla in this year’s series, as Tom Thibodeau pulled the correct levers to get the best out of his team. Despite winning a title last season, Mazzulla will face harsh scrutiny if Boston can’t come back.

Boston reverted to its bad habits from the 2023 Heat series, but that failure was also why players weren’t panicked about being down 0-2. However, the Celtics will need to show Saturday that they’ve learned from their past and can pull off a comeback against a Knicks team with not a lot to lose.