The Boston Celtics are one of the teams who are expected to be a contender at the end of the season. They are the defending NBA champions, so they feel like they can beat anyone they play in a playoff series.
Boston isn't the top team in the Eastern Conference this year, but they don't need to be. They just need to be healthy when the playoffs roll around.
They are a really good team. As long as they have Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown healthy, they can beat anyone in the East as they try to get back to the NBA Finals.
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The New York Knicks think that they can beat Boston and take supremacy of the Eastern Conference. They think they can be the NBA title contender coming out of the East.
One NBA scout doesn't think that the Knicks have a prayer against the Celtics in a potential playoff series. He gave one big reason why the Celtics would crush the Knicks.
"At the root of it all, it's math. They're really efficient, and will win a ton of games," one Eastern Conference scout told ESPN's Chris Herring."But the [3-point] volume isn't enough to beat the Clevelands and the Bostons. Especially when you also factor in that the Knicks are [offensive] rebounding and getting to the line a lot less than last year's team did."
Boston shoots more 3-point shots than anyone in the NBA. The Knicks simply don't shoot enough threes to make the math work enough so that they can keep up with them.
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The Celtics have played well against the Knicks so far this season, not losing to them. Not only have they not lost to them, but none of the games have really been close.
Of course, the Knicks are just one team that they could potentially play in the playoffs. They have a lot of other teams who they could match up with as well.
If they do take on New York, they feel really good about their chances to advance.
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