2011 NBA Playoffs: New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics Is Best First Round Series
Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls are the No. 1 seed for the first time since 1998 and have a more than favorable match up with the Indiana Pacers. It would be surprising if the Pacers managed win a single game in the series.
Doug Collins and the Philadelphia 76ers are back in the playoffs, but they have a daunting playoff series coming up with Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.
Orlando will face Atlanta in the opening round. The Magic swept the Hawks in the second round last year, winning each game by at least 14 points.
All three of these series pale in comparison to the upcoming New York Knicks-Boston Celtics matchup. This will be the most anticipated first round playoff series, for Western or Eastern Conference.
A potential Oklahoma City Thunder/Denver Nuggets series could easily go to seven games, but more people will be interested in this Northeastern showdown.
Emotions will be running high in this series. Since coming to Boston, Kevin Garnett has become the team's vocal leader and still retained his reputation as one of the league's biggest trash talkers.
Spike Lee will undoubtedly attend every game of the series. I expect at least one vocal confrontation between Garnett and Lee (similar to the Pacers/Knicks series from the 1990's).
The potential for this showdown is undoubtedly the X-factor for this to become an exciting and much talked about series.
Much of the hype and anticipation for the series is centered around the mystique of these franchises. Both have large fan bases around the world and are mainstays for sports media.
The Boston Celtics, along with the Los Angeles Lakers, are one of the NBA's premier franchises. They have won the most NBA championships and have had Hall of Fame talent that rivals the New York Yankees and Montreal Canadians.
This season has been no different. When healthy, their starting lineup consists of five players who all have a great chance of one day being enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Four Celtics made the 2011 NBA-All Star Game, and they are the defending Eastern Conference champions.
The New York Knicks may never rival the Lakers and Celtics success, but they are one of the better franchises in NBA history.
Their presence in North America's largest market will always make them a presence in the media, if they do or don't have a winning record.
This hasn't been the case this season with the arrivals of Amare Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2004 and haven't had this much national attention since Patrick Ewing played at Madison Square Garden.
Mike D'Antoni's squad has yet to reach the status of a championship caliber team, but it has made Knicks fans forget about those pathetic Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury years.
Their is no doubt the Boston Celtics will be a heavy favorite going into this series, but the Knicks have a better shot of pulling off a first round upset than the Indiana Pacers or New Orleans.
The Celtics are not the same dominant team they were when the year started. After their Monday night loss against the Washington Wizards, they are now 14-12 since the Kendrick Perkins trade.
Another reason for the struggles has been the injuries suffered by veterans such as Shaquille O'Neal and Jermaine O' Neal. This is far from the team that lost only four games before Christmas.
The Celtics have stumbled going in to the last two postseasons and still had success. In 2009, it took seven games to finish off the Chicago Bulls in one of the best series in years.
They fell to the Orlando Magic in the next round, and would likely have fared better in both series if Kevin Garnett was healthy.
Last year, they were perceived as a struggling and banged up team whose window of opportunity was closing. Instead of losing in the early rounds, they surprised many outside of New England and took the Lakers to Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
The Boston Celtics are going to the NBA Playoffs for a fourth consecutive year and have overcome many obstacles before, a big reason why they are the favorites going into the series.
On the surface, the Knicks record doesn't indicate a team with playoff experience. This is far from the truth.
Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have been part of deep playoff runs with their previous teams.
Stoudemire helped the Phoenix Suns reach the Western Conference Finals in 2005 and 2010.
Carmelo Anthony led the Denver Nuggets to Western Conference Finals in 2009 and came within two wins of the NBA Finals.
Chauncey Billups was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP for the title-winning Detroit Pistons and helped get them to Game 7 in the 2005 NBA Finals.
The Knicks' top three guys have playoff experience, but the problem for this team is their inconsistency throughout the year, both before and after the Carmelo Anthony trade.
Before the the trade, the Knicks began the season with a 3-8 record and then won 13 of their next 15 games.
After the trade, the Knicks went 1-9 in one stretch during March, but enter Tuesday's game with the Chicago Bulls on a seven game winning stretch.
There's no telling which Knicks team the Boston Celtics will face when their playoff series begins this weekend. Both teams will face each other in their regular season finales on Thursday evening, giving us a preview of things to come in the playoffs.
Boston won the first three games of the regular season by margins of four, two, and 10 points. Those margins aren't too high, but records from regular season matchups can never be emphasized enough.
The New York Knicks are currently the second highest scoring team in the NBA. The Boston Celtics have surrendered the fewest points per game in the NBA, but are second to last in rebounds (a number that reflects the injuries they have suffered).
Mike D'Antoni led the high scoring Phoenix Suns to the playoffs for four consecutive years and never made it to the NBA Finals. Three of those early exits occurred against the defensive minded San Antonio Spurs.
The Knicks can put up points, and have only scored less than 100 points, 11 times this season. Just like in Phoenix, the defensive play of D'Antoni's team will be scrutinized entering the NBA Playoffs.
Whether this is a four game sweep or a seven game thriller, the Boston Celtics-New York Knicks will play in the most anticipated matchup in the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs.
