Celtics Stars Dismiss Knicks Sweep Hype

Don't expect an invite to the Boston Three Party after what transpired against the New York Knicks.

The defending champion Boston Celtics refused to relish a four-game sweep of the Knicks, securing that with a 119-117 overtime win on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. Bostonians remained humble in the aftermath, as the Knicks gave them all they could handle in this final meeting amidst the regular season's twilight.

"No, not at all. The playoffs is a different animal, regardless of what happened in the regular season," Jayson Tatum, scorer of 32 points, said when asked if the sweep meant anything (h/t New York Basketball on X). "It goes out the window when the playoffs start."

"No, not at all. Playoffs is a different animal…Regular season goes out the window when the playoffs start"

–– Jayson Tatum on sweeping Knicks this season pic.twitter.com/NOPvBS6roP
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) April 9, 2025

Fellow championship starter Derrick White kept it even more concise, remarking that such a sweep "means absolutely nothing" in his own postgame comments (h/t New York Basketball on X).

Boston (50-29) earned a four-game sweep of the Knicks for the first time since the 2010-11 campaign and has won all but one of the nine meetings staged over the last two years. Death from deep defined this year's set.

The Celtics, already owners of the NBA record for most threes in a single season, sank 84 in four showings in the quartet against the Knicks, tying the record for most triples for a New York opponent in any such set (2023-24 Milwaukee Bucks). After putting in 29 (tying an NBA single-game record) in October's opening night win, Boston had 19 at MSG on Tuesday.

Former New Yorker Kristaps Porzingis had eight alone, including one that gave the Celtics a permanent lead in overtime with 40 ticks remaining. Tatum forced that extra session with a deep ball of his own that fell with just under three regulation seconds left.

If the season ended today, Boston would be on pace to face the Knicks in a second-round set in the upcoming NBA playoffs, provided each side handled its business in the opening stanza. The Celtics are officially locked into the East's second slot after Cleveland's Tuesday win over Chicago while the Knicks will be in third with one more win or an Indiana Pacers loss over the final three games.

Like his proteges, however, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla refused to look that far ahead.

"It means nothing," Mazzulla said (h/t New York Basketball on X). "Anything is more dangerous for us, thinking one, that we're going to get to the second round, we may not get there. You have to surrender to that, that you may not get there, it may not go the way you want."

“There's so there's so much that needs to happen before that, and if you don't handle the what you've done against somebody else, then that can actually be more detrimental to you psychologically. So, it all depends on how we continue to get better as a team.”

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