New York Knicks pay a visit to the Boston Celtics
If history repeats itself, the Boston Celtics (1-1) shouldn’t have much trouble against the New York Knicks (1-0) on Friday 29 October at the TD Garden in Boston. The Celtics have won
20 of their past 25 matchups against the Knicks, including eight straight wins when the teams play in Boston.
The Celtics, who lost in last year’s NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers, have some mixed feelings after splitting their first two regular season games. They got a huge dose of confidence
when they defeated the much-hyped Miami Heat 88-80 on Tuesday 26 October in the season opener for both teams, a game that attracted 7.4 million television viewers. But they followed up the win with a disappointing 95-87 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday
27 October.
Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers said he expected a letdown for his team after their emotional opener against the Heat. And he was right as the Celtics had 19 turnovers and were outscored 27-14
in the final quarter Wednesday night.
"We turned the ball over a lot. I think we played good defense in stretches only," said Paul Pierce. "We were too inconsistent on that end of the court."
But despite the inconsistent start, Rivers likes what he sees from his team so far and expects them to improve as the season goes on.
"We're going to be really good,” he said. “I can take that (from first two games). We have yet to play well in my opinion and we're 1-1. We're going to be who we thought we were."
Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo had a game-high 17 assists against the Heat on Tuesday night to go along with four points. Against the Cavaliers the next night, he scored 18 points and
had nine assists. And history shows that the Celtics are a better team when Rondo focuses on distributing the basketball. The Celtics were a mere 10-9 last season when Rondo scored more than 18 points.
Against Cleveland, the 34-year-old Kevin Garnett looked ten years younger, pulling down 15 rebounds, his highest total in almost two years. And the power forward should play well against
the Knicks tonight, as he has scored in double-digits in 29 of their last 32 matchups.
The Knicks will look to win the first two games of their regular season for the first time since the 1999-00 campaign. Amar’e Stoudemire, the Knicks’ big off-season acquisition, made an
impact his first night in a Knicks uniform, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. The All-Star did not want to lose to the underachieving Toronto Raptors. "You want to beat the teams you feel you're supposed to beat, so tonight was a big win for us,''
he said after the game.
Wilson Chandler, a starter for most of last season, came off the bench against Toronto, scoring a team-high 22 points.
"The reason we want him off the bench is not because he's not good, it's because we need the firepower,'' Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said of Chandler.
Stoudemire knows his team will be facing a tough squad in the Celtics. "We'll see if we can steal one. They're playing great so we'll see what we can do," said Stoudemire, whose career-high
against Boston came in 2005 when he scored 42 points.
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