Michael Wilbon: If healthy, Knicks would beat Celtics in ECF
The Celtics went 4-1 against the Knicks in the 2023-24 regular season.
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While the Celtics wait to see who their Eastern Conference finals opponent will be, one ESPN analyst has a favorite to win a hypothetical matchup — if that team was at full strength.
ESPN’s Michael Wilbon said he would pick the New York Knicks to beat the Celtics in a theoretical East finals between the two. That is, if the Knicks were not decimated by injuries.
“If the Knicks were healthy, I would take them to beat the Boston Celtics, who I can’t trust,” Wilbon said on ESPN’s postgame show following the Indiana Pacers and New York’s Game 6 on Friday night. “And they’re not healthy, I’m not even sure if I can take them to beat Indiana.”
New York can’t seem to catch a break from losing starters to ailments. Bojan Bogdanovic (left foot, wrist) and Julius Randle (shoulder) both underwent season-ending surgeries in April. Mitchell Robinson underwent ankle surgery earlier this week and is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs.
On top of those losses, OG Anunoby has missed the Knicks’ last four games with a hamstring injury and is questionable to play Game 7, as is Josh Hart (abdomen).
However, there isn’t much precedent to say that New York would eliminate Boston in a hypothetical conference finals matchup. The Knicks were far healthier than they are now when they faced the Celtics during the regular season this year, but they still lost four times out of five contests.
The Knicks’ only victory against the Celtics came on April 11; by then, Boston had already secured the No. 1 seed.
Take away the regular season results and New York’s injury issues, and the Celtics still have the superior roster. Boston has arguably the best starting five in the NBA and maybe the most talented bench. It possesses an NBA-best 12.8 net rating in these playoffs — the Knicks have a -0.9.
New York has certainly made a memorable postseason push despite the injury issues it’s faced. Nevertheless, the Knicks didn’t necessarily play well against the Celtics head-to-head this season. And Boston is simply the better team.
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