Healthy Celtics look to extend recent dominance over Knicks in East semifinal matchup

BOSTON AP To say the Celtics have dominated the Knicks over the past two seasons would be an understatement New York lost all four of its meetings with Boston this season by an average of points per contest That came after the Celtics won four of the teams five matchups during their - championship season It s more than enough reason for the defending NBA champs to feel confident heading into their Eastern Conference semifinals pairing with the Knicks which tips off Monday night Just don t tell that to Boston which isn t taking anything or anyone for granted at this point of the season This is the playoffs So everything we did in the regular season doesn t really mean a whole lot now Celtics guard Derrick White disclosed Not like we get to start up - So just understand it s the playoffs They re here for a reason A big part of the reason why Boston is on guard against New York is the play of All-Star Jalen Brunson The not long ago named NBA clutch competitor of the year is averaging points assists and four rebounds per challenge this postseason It includes a -point performance and what proved to be the winning -pointer in New York s - Challenge closeout win over Detroit Big-time athlete Seems to make all the big plays for them White revealed And he s had an unbelievable year And obviously this playoffs he s taken it to another level So it s going to be a group effort to try to slow him down and to understand that he s a really good contestant he s going to make tough shots but just trying to make it as challenging as we can for minutes and just have a lot of different guys to try to slow him down While Boston swept the season series with New York it took a - overtime win that included late -pointers by Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum for the Celtics to prevail in the final regular season meeting on April Brunson believes how they learned and adjusted from the first three meetings indicated up in that encounter But he also knows progress isn t enough at this point I feel like we played better in that contest Obviously still not getting it done Brunson declared Played and competed better than the first three games so that s something we can look at and build off of Holiday available Celtics guard Jrue Holiday is expected to return from a strained right hamstring in Contest No Celtics players were listed on Sunday s injury description That includes Jaylen Brown whose been dealing with a right knee issue For Holiday it s the first time he hasn t been on the injury assessment since he missed the final three games of Boston s first-round win over Orlando Holiday averaged points assists and rebounds in the opening two games of the Magic series Magic blueprint Though Orlando proved to be overmatched in their - series loss to Boston one thing they were prosperous at was limiting the Celtics success from the -point line Boston connected on an NBA record for -pointers made and attempted total and per event during the regular season But the Celtics averaged only -point attempts per tournament and only once hit at least -pointers in their series with the Magic Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau declared replicating that blueprint is the challenge for his association He also stated they don t mind being a heavy underdog in this series We unfailingly have the belief that whether it s praise or criticism it doesn t matter The only thing that really matters is what we think he noted Porzingis vs Knicks This will be his first playoff matchup for Porzingis against the band that drafted him fourth overall in before trading him to Dallas in He has been back to Madison Square Garden several times since the exchange and explained he s mostly able to play emotion-free basketball at this point against his former squad I love playing there on the road Porzingis explained My first couple of games there were pretty crazy there getting booed and stuff But I think now the time has passed and it s not as current anymore and I ve changed a couple of teams the perspective is just whatever But it s perpetually fun to go up against them Quarter-century slump The Knicks are in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the third straight season but haven t gone further in years Their injury-decimated association lost Contest at home last year to Indiana with a trip to Boston on the line and fell to Miami in The Knicks haven t played in the East finals since losing to Indiana in