Stuggling Celtics face Knicks in First Round

The Boston Celtics have stumbled down the stretch. They are coming into this playoff series against the New York Knicks having lost 11 of their last 21 games, and more importantly haven’t shown much on the offensive side of the ball. It’s well known by the common NBA fan and basketball experts that the Knicks prefer to play at high speed. Boston’s “D” may still be one of the best in the Eastern conference, but they will have to make shots in order to stay ahead of the high-flying aerial assault of the Knickerbockers.

New York has made some serious moves over the past year that indicates they’re pushing hard towards building a Championship caliber team. The trade for Carmelo Anthony on February 22nd was a clear indication that New York will do whatever it takes to compete with teams like Miami, Orlando and Boston to stay amongst the top in the East. Giving up players like Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov and 3 high draft picks over the next 3 seasons, is not something that a front office does without a major dedication to winning now.

Combining Anthony with Amare Stoudemire, makes for a solid 1-2 combination that can score inside and out, but it’s overwhelmingly obvious that the lack of defense in a topic that needs to be addressed. While Chancey Billups seems to be a nice fit for this Knicks team in the present, we can’t forget that he is well past his prime, and will be going against young, faster and more athletic guards day in and day out. This is an area that will be tough to fix via the NBA draft as New York has relinquished all of their top picks over the next 3 years. The talk about getting Chris Paul is legitimate, but Paul won’t be eligible to move until after the 2013-14 season. This would leave the Knicks without a major threat at that position for the following 3 years.

As if those aren’t enough issues to overcome, New York has to deal with taking on the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Many NBA handicappers will tell you that this years’ Celtic team is not as dominating as the previous 3 seasons, but this team tend to shift gears dramatically in the post-season. The term, “Defense wins Championships” is Boston’s motto, and will be the focus of their efforts in the playoffs. Their late season struggles can be attributed to age, injuries and the late trade they made that sent Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Perkins was an important piece to the Celtics puzzle over the last few seasons, but Boston’s front office felt that Jeff Green and Nenad Kristic would be more beneficial to this team’s success.

Only time will tell if they are right, but the Vegas oddsmakers have Boston listed at the 3rd favorite to win the Eastern conference title this year. The emergence of Chicago and the abundance of talent in Miami may be too big of an obstacle for Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and the rest of this Celtics team to overcome. We will soon see as the Celtics host the Knicks on Sunday in their first playoff game of the 2010-11 season. This has the potential to be an extremely competitive game that comes down to wire. If the Celtics can control the pace of play they have a very good chance of sending New York home early. Tune in and see for yourself!

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