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The Boston Celtics have failed in their quest to repeat as NBA champion with Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury proving to be the mountain they couldn't scale as they fell in six games to the New York Knicks in the second round of the 2025 NBA playoffs.
Game 6 was over in the third quarter with the Celtics not having enough firepower to mount a very unlikely comeback after Jaylen Brown fouled out in the period.
What the Celtics needed to extend the series to a decisive Game 7 was a huge shooting night from the entire team. Alas, history has shown that the shooting percentage of teams in the playoffs drops whenever they're on the road.
And according to Magic Johnson, this proved to be the Celtics' undoing, as Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Payton Pritchard had putrid scoring nights especially when compared to the games the Knicks' core players had.
“The Knicks blew out the Celtics 119-81 and because their role players OG Anunoby, Karl Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges combined for total 66 points versus the Celtics role players — Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard only had 23 total points combined,” Johnson wrote on his official account on X (formerly Twitter).
Credit belongs where credit is due, and the Knicks had the game wrapped up with plenty of time left on the clock thanks to their togetherness on the defensive end.
It helped as well that Jalen Brunson didn't need to carry the team on his back as Miles McBride was such a sparkplug on both ends of the court that the foul trouble Bridges and Josh Hart had in the first half didn't matter one bit.
“Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson finished with 23 points and Miles McBride had great contribution from the bench scoring 10 points. The Knicks defense smothered the Celtics tonight in their victory,” Johnson added.
Celtics were thoroughly outplayed by the Knicks in Game 6
At the end of the day, the Celtics have no one to blame but themselves for their lackluster effort in Game 6. The Knicks outplayed them in every facet of the game. They were more efficient shooting the ball from everywhere on the court, dominated the glass, scored more points in the paint, and took better care of the ball.
The writing may have been on the wall for the Celtics' season after Jayson Tatum went down with a long-term injury, but they still could have put up a better fight instead of whatever they showed up with on Friday night.
