After Knick's hand of Celtics ugly “death”, reality begins: it can be the end for this roster

New York – How bad did the New York Knicks humiliate the Boston Celtics in game 6 of the semi -finals of the Eastern Conference Friday evening? This is bad: About two minutes after the second quarter in Rockin 'and Rollin' Madison Square Garden, the Knicks 'Mitchell Robinson left the Celtics' Jaylen Brown in the corner.

Because it was poor brown, on the far left of the basket, ball in his hand, tried to do something, anythingto shake the lethargy from the Celtics. And there was Robinson, who suffocated brown with a flood of arms and legs. Brown lost the ball; Robinson grabbed it. The next thing you know drove Karl-Anthony Towns to the basket on the other side of the city and provided a layup that brought the Knick a lead of 13 points.

Mitchell Robinson closes Jaylen Brown and leads to a layup from Karl-Anthony Towns. 👏

(🎥 :: @Nba)))pic.twitter.com/beesaz0e8z

– Thescore (@thescore) May 17, 2025

If the story has now taught us something – and as it certainly reminded us in this series – Leads of 13, 17 or even 20 points can disappear in just a few minutes. But Robinson's dominance and Brown's helplessness were twin characters where this game and this series were run. It ended with an amazingly simple 119-81 victory for the Knicks, which will play the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference final.

It was as if the Knicks were damn crazy and would no longer endure it after it was not done in a quarter of a century until the conference final. So you have settled all family business. Even their fans rose on this occasion. After they had devoured enough tickets for game 5 in Boston to be a noticeable presence in the TD Garden, they were never screaming on Friday evening with full throwing change and hardly sat down. For those Boston fans who remember game 6 of the 2008 NBA final in the TD Garden when the Celtics jumped on a 58:35 lead against the Los Angeles Lakers and thus turned the rest of the night into a warm-up act for the victory parade, Knick's fans made all Friday evening on Friday evening. The half-time lead of the Knicks was 64-37.

“Losing against the Knicks feels like death,” said Brown after the game. “But I was always taught that there is life after death.”

But here is a sobering thought: it can be a rocky street when the Celtics begin this trip. And to withdraw the camera a little to bring the entire Boston sports market into the picture, the Celtics may have a company on this rocky street. Boston's big four – the patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins – won 13 championships this century, and there was always a favorite of the consensus about which team would be the next to expand the trophy case. This team has been the Celtics in the past four years. They won everything a year ago. Despite many warnings, they were favorites this season, how difficult it is to repeat themselves. As if they wanted to prove this point, she blew twin 20-point lead to the Knicks to lose games 1 and 2, and in game 4 they lost the superstar Jayson Tatum against a broken Achilles tendon. After new owners were able to take on the club and the President of Basketball Operations Brad Steven's challenges with the squad, it is clear that the Celtics will not be the clever choice to come back next year and win everything. The Red Sox? Despite all this optimism of spring training, they were the same so far .500 outfit. The patriots went out and received help for quarterback Drake Maye, but they need more. The Bruins don't even have a trainer.

For those who think it is too early to speak of the things that come to an end, try to say Derrick White. White, an important player in the 2023-24 championship team of the Celtics championship championship, certainly sounded like an era when he sat down after game 6 to speak to the media.

“There are ups and downs for every season,” said White. “This part is shit … we will never get this season again. We will never have the same team again.”

Part of it is a statement of the obvious. The Celtics could have gone through the post-season this year, as they mostly did last year, and at least Stevens had fiddled with the squad and kept with the squad to borrow a line from the late, big Celtics player man Johnny. But it is doubtful that white thinks and spoke in this direction. The Celtics lost more than just this series to the Knicks, but lost Tatum and may also lose their status as a first-class NBA team. The additional punishment for this rainfall series defeat against the Knicks is that nobody, maybe not even Stevens, has an idea of ​​what the circle of Celtics will look like when the 2025-26 season begins.

Brown tried to offer some optimism.

“I look forward to returning more,” he said. “You just take it with your chin.

“I know in Boston that it looks dark,” said Brown. “But there is much to be happy.

“This is not the end.”

It is certainly the end of this season. It is also the end to make it out there that the rivalry between Celtics and Knicks means nothing. Until the end of the time, repetitions of Robinson, which Brown put in the corner, have a staple on the MSG flat screens, especially when the kinks are in the city.

And it can be the end of a run – and with just one championship to show it. It is something that Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray everyone can tell them about. After this night in 2008, when they beat the Lakers to win a championship, these boys never won another.

(Photo by Mikal Bridges, who stripped the ball from Jaylen Brown: Al Bello / Getty Images)