NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks viewed reaching the Eastern Conference finals as just another step in a season that’s not over. It’s not time to celebrate.
Try telling that to the thousands of fans dancing and chanting inside and on the streets all around Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks reached the conference finals for the first time in 25 years and ended the one-year NBA title reign of the Boston Celtics with astonishing ease, rolling to a 119-81 victory in Game 6 on Friday night.
On the way to their postgame press conference, Josh Hart showed Mikal Bridges a video of a fan climbing a light pole outside the arena.
“I’m new here but just know how much New York loves their sports, especially the Knicks,” Bridges said. “So, excited to be a part of it. They enjoy it for us right now but obviously we got way more to go.”
Brunson and OG Anunoby each scored 23 points for the Knicks, who will face the Indiana Pacers, the same team they met in their last conference finals appearance in 2000. Game 1 is Wednesday night in New York.
“It’s a great win. We advance .You look at that, but you also understand you have to get ready for the next series,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The Pacers are a terrific team and we’re going to have to be ready.”
The Knicks hadn’t won a playoff series on their home floor since the 1999 East finals. So the celebrating started late in the one-sided first half and was sure to carry on deep into the night around the arena.
Bridges scored 22 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 for the Knicks, whose 38-point margin of victory was their largest in a postseason game.
Jaylen Brown scored 20 points for the Celtics, who lost leading scorer Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles tendon in Game 4 but believed they still had enough to get it back to Boston for Game 7 and keep their title defense alive.
It was quickly clear that wasn’t happening. Boston coach Joe Mazzulla began pulling his starters in the third quarter after the deficit reached 41 points.
“We didn’t have the same team this year that we had last year,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “Every year it’s a different team. We had a goal at the beginning of the year and we fell short.”
New York blew it open with a 13-3 run that made it 49-27, a surge highlighted by 6-foot-1 guard Deuce McBride’s chasedown block of White’s shot that led to Hart’s second straight basket while being fouled.
Ben Stiller and Lenny Kravitz shared a handshake and hug afterward along celebrity row, where the A-listers were standing and cheering much of the night, the same as the fans sitting near the top of the arena.
The Knicks led 64-37 at halftime, a 27-point lead that matched their biggest in a playoff game in the shot-clock era. They led the Lakers 69-42 in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, when Willis Reed’s return from injury sparked the Knicks to their first NBA title.
Hart finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
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