Knicks on Verge of "Super" Upset?

It may not be "perfect," but the New York Knicks may be on the verge of a super upset.

New York set the tone for road warriors to take over the second round of the NBA Playoffs on Monday with a 108-105 overtime win over the defending Boston Celtics, granting them an improbable 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven set.

While the Knicks still need three more wins to pull off the upset bid, the nature of Monday's win (one that erased a Boston lead that summited at 20) has created the most palpable buzz Manhattan basketball has seen in quite some time. The hype has spread to the studios of WFAN, where hosts Tiki Barber and Evan Roberts stated that the Knicks pulling off the best-of-seven win would surpass the New York Giants' shocking Super Bowl XLII victory over the undefeated New England Patriots in 2008.

. @EvanRobertsWFAN states that if the Knicks defeat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals that it would a bigger upset than the Giants defeating the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII pic.twitter.com/DfApwsaGwC
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) May 6, 2025

"The Knicks beating the Celtics just feels so improbable because the Knicks were so ... inferior to the Celtics that this is a massive upset," Barber, a former Giants running back, said. "Whereas the Giants, who are in the Super Bowl, can't be that much inferior than the New England Patriots because they won the NFC."

To Barber's point, many believed that the Knicks would be soundly swept by the Celtics in the conference semifinal round after dropping all four stanzas of the regular season series by a sound margin. The Giants, on the other hand, gave New England its toughest challenge in the regular season just before the postseason kicked off and then won three consecutive road games in the NFC playoffs to generate a little momentum toward the 17-14 win that followed in Glendale, AZ.

Roberts noted that the Giants, unlike the Knicks, had gained their share of supporters in an upset bid with shocking victories over the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers while the Patriots had somewhat stumbled in the lead-in to the championship game. Both Barber and Roberts noted that no one afforded the Knicks such a luxury despite lingering in the Eastern Conference's top three all season.

"If you remember the last three or four weeks, the AFC Championship Game, the AFC Divisional round, and the way the Giants were playing, upsetting Dallas, upsetting Green Bay, when we got to the [Super Bowl], I thought the Giants were going to win," Roberts added. "We'll see if the Knicks could pull this off, but them beating the Celtics four times in seven games, yes, is a bigger upset."

Toppling Boston won't be easy, but the Knicks are well-used to sizable upsets. The franchise, after all, staged its most recent NBA Finals run as a No. 8 seed in 1999, one of only two teams to do next to the 2023 Miami Heat.

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