Predicting the Celtics eliminate the Knicks 4-1! Double Tanhua faces the New York double star, Holiday s injury may become a hidden danger

NBA official website previews the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Celtics and the Knicks and gives relevant highlights of the series. This is the two teams meeting in the playoffs after 13 years, and the 17th time that the two sides met in the playoff history, and the second most confrontation combination in NBA history. Considering that the Celtics defeated the Knicks in all four regular season games and averaged 130.2 points per game in 100 rounds during the showdown, the official is more optimistic that the Celtics eliminated the Knicks 4-1 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Core Highlights: The offensive strategy of marking Brunson and Downs

Celtics is very simple. They hope to keep players with weaker defense in front of Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who can take the initiative to attack and gain an advantage, thus gaining an excellent shooting opportunity. Both Tatum and Jaylen Brown can pass any defensive player one-on-one, but the team's offense can only reach its best when they participate in the assisted defense and the rest of the Celtics complete the receiving three-pointer.

The Knicks have three players with excellent defensive skills in the starting lineup, and we expect Anunobi and Hart to be responsible for the marking of Tatum and Jaylen Brown respectively. But Brunson and Towns are easily targeted at this point, which the Pistons did a pretty good job in the first round, so in the next two weeks, Brunson and Towns will be under frequent focus.

Celtics had Towns involved in 134 pick-and-rolls (51 times per 100 rounds) during the regular season, the most defensive players against the Celtics. The Celtics' 31 pick-and-roll defense against Brunson is the fifth most against his opponent this season. This is how the Pistons curbed Brunson's offensive momentum in the first round.

The victory or defeat of this series depends largely on whether Brunson and Towns can withstand these pick-and-rolls, as well as the rotation performances of the other Knicks players behind them.

Focus: Towns' low-post threat

Celtics have two strong defensive players on the front line, but Tatum and Holiday are the ones who defended Towns the most this season. The Celtics often let Tatum mark the opponent's center (such as last year's finals), so he can switch to 1-5 pick-and-rolls and limit the opponent's ball-holder.

Other teams can also defend Towns with non-center players and succeed, partly because they can send big men to target players like Hart who are not good at shooting, and the higher mobility also allows opponents to better limit Towns from the outside.

Therefore, the key to the victory or defeat of this round of series is whether Towns can have an advantage in the inside? He can occasionally do this when he is against Tobias Harris in the first round, but his success rate against opposing center Durham is also an important reason for the Knicks to advance to the semi-finals.

points worth paying attention to between the two teams

Celtics: Holiday's health problems

Celtics head coach Mazula said that Holiday missed the last three games of the first round due to a right hamstring strain and is currently in a daily observation state.

The good news is that the Celtics are used to understaffing. In the 87 games they have played, the Celtics have sent six core players (their preferred starter plus Horford) in only 18 games, and they usually perform well when they need to send out six core players. During their 74-minute appearance time in the first round, Hauser, they outperformed the Magic for nearly 27 points per 100 rounds.

But the Celtics' opponents have greatly improved their competitive position from the Magic to the Knicks, especially the Celtics have very much needed a player who can defend a top outside scorer like Brunson. Holiday missed a game in four regular season games and became Brunson's main defensive candidate in the last two matches.

Knicks: Hart's motivation and open shots

The only game with a close score in the four regular season matches (the fourth Celtic win overtime in the match), the Knicks had 10 more shooting opportunities than the Celtics, thanks to the Knicks' better control turnovers and offensive rebounds.

If the Knicks want to win in this series, they must win possession. Hart can help them do this with his scramble to grab positive and excellent ball-handling sense, and he can also use his active push in the transition offense to bring some early offensive opportunities to the team so they don’t often take action when the offense is about to arrive.

But he needs to shoot an open shot. As mentioned above, the Celtics will likely use their big guys to defend Hart, who have to stay inside to protect the rim. Therefore, Hart (1 of 9 three-pointers in 4 regular season matches) needs to make them pay for this strategy.

Key number: 39

In four regular season games, the Celtics hit 39 more three-pointers than the Knicks. This tied the gap between the fourth largest three-point shooting in the series in the 46 seasons since the introduction of the three-point line in the regular season. The Celtics tied the NBA record of three-point shooting (29) in their opening game against the Knicks, and made 10, 3 and 8 more three-pointers than the Knicks in the next three games.

Knicks obviously need players like Hart, Bridges (7 of 22 three-pointers against the Celtics) and Anunobi (2 of 15) to improve their shooting percentage, and they also need to get Towns some outside phones. When playing against the Celtics this season, Towns only made 11 three-pointers, an average of 2.9 shots per 36 minutes, which is the second lowest shooting rate when facing any opponent.

On the defensive end, the Knicks are generally very good at limiting their opponents' three-pointers, and their regular season opponents ranked 6th from the bottom in the league (40.7%). But the Celtics shot up to 53.9% from three-pointers in four matches, and the Knicks are unwilling to let Brunson or Towns participate in the switchover, which should give the Celtics a chance to break through the defense and get a good shot after receiving the ball.

Prediction result: The Celtics eliminated the Knicks 4-1 4-1 and are likely to break the embarrassing situation of facing the top three regular season records this season (Thunder, Cavaliers, Celtics) with 0 wins and 10 losses, but it is hard to imagine that they can win 4 games in the hands of the Celtics. The Knicks had a chance to be eliminated by the Pistons in the first round, and the strength of the defending champion was much stronger than that of the Pistons.

Celtics' defensive players (and their tactics) are enough to limit the two best players in New York, and the Celtics' offensive system is able to seize opportunities on both sides of the offense. Facing a stronger opponent, this should make the defending champion urgently need to focus.

series full schedule

GAME 1: May 6 time to be determined, Celtics home game

GAME 2: May 8 time to be determined, Celtics home game

GAME 3: May 11 time to be determined, Knicks home game

GAME 4: May 13 time to be determined, Knicks home game

GAME 5 (if necessary): May 15 time to be determined, Celtics home game

GAME 6 (if necessary): May 17 time to be determined, Knicks home game

GAME 7 (if necessary): May 20 time to be determined, Celtics home game