The Knicks don’t have much room for a slow start, and Friday night in Boston already carries the feel of a game they can’t afford to let slip away.
New York opened the season with a loss, and while that doesn’t bury anything, the pattern around the franchise is hard to ignore. The Knicks haven’t dropped their first two games of a season since the 2020-21 team did it at the start of Tom Thibodeau’s first year on the bench. The last Knicks group to begin with two straight losses and still win a playoff series was the 1998-99 squad, which made it all the way to the East before falling to the Spurs in five games in the Finals.
There’s even a longer historical note hanging over this one: the last team to lose its first two games and still win the NBA title was the 1990-91 Bulls, led by MVP Michael Jordan and coached by former Knicks executive Phil Jackson. That group still won 61 games in the regular season before going on to the championship.
What should worry the Knicks more immediately is how their offense looked in the opener. Their 99.0 offensive rating was the team’s biggest problem in the defeat, and it snapped a 30-game run of posting at least a 100 offensive rating, a stretch that dated back to March 22 against the Wizards. According to ALL NBA Podcast, New York also produced its fewest points per direct pick in any game this decade, playoffs included.
Boston arrives with its own fresh pain after blowing a 22-point lead in Detroit on Tuesday, and the box score tells the story of two very different Celtics teams in the same night. Through the first 27-and-a-half minutes, they were rolling with a 130.9 offensive rating and a plus-41.6 net rating, shooting 52.1% from the floor and hitting 12 of 25 from three. Over the final 20-plus minutes, the wheels came off: a 93.2 offensive rating, a minus-71.9 net rating, 37.5% shooting and 12 missed threes in 17 tries.
Paul George made a loud debut for Boston, going for 38 points and setting the franchise mark for most points by a Celtics player in his first game with the team. He also finished with a game-high five steals, which is notable after collecting just four steals in the Sixers’ four-game playoff series against the Knicks. Jayson Tatum handed out 11 assists, but he needed 23 shots to get 13 points in the loss.
For New York, one of the sharper defensive issues from the opener was allowing Philadelphia to get downhill in transition. The Sixers piled up 24 fastbreak points.
That particular problem should look different against Boston, which scored only 11 fastbreak points in its opener in Detroit and averaged an NBA-low 11.8 fastbreak points per game. That number could dip even more now that Jaylen Brown is out of the picture.
The Knicks also did some damage on the offensive glass despite the loss, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond combining for 10 offensive rebounds. Boston’s frontcourt of former Knick Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta managed only two offensive boards against a physical Pistons team. Boston’s 31.8% offensive rebound percentage ranked fifth in the NBA last season, while the Knicks were seventh at 31.3%, according to CleaningTheGlass.
The three-point line should be a major battleground at TD Garden. New York allowed Philadelphia to get up 40 threes in the opener, and the Sixers connected on just 11 of them, a 27.5% mark. Boston launched 42 threes against Detroit and made 17, good for 40.5%.
If the Knicks are going to avoid an 0-2 start to the 2026-27 season, they’ll need to keep Boston from finding easy answers from deep and make enough of their own threes to keep pace. Last season, New York averaged just under 40 three-point attempts per game against the Celtics and hit just under 41% of them. A night in that range would go a long way on Friday.
In Other News...
Dalton Knecht May Be Chasing The Wrong Knicks Role
Dalton Knecht brings the kind of skill set that can get a wing noticed quickly: a 6-foot-6 frame, deep shooting range and the kind of offensive instincts that made him a roughly 40 percent three-point shooter in college and early pro play. For a Knicks team trying to win now under Mike Brown, that sort of shot-making is always intriguing, especially when the rotation is built around players who already know the system and can fit into defined roles.
The issue is that the path to steady minutes is not just about making shots. Knechts defensive limitations and modest playmaking profile make him a tougher fit on a roster where he already sits behind several players on the depth chart, and where younger options are competing for the same opportunity with more familiarity in Browns system. For a player whose best argument is instant offense, the challenge may be less about proving he can score and more about showing he can survive the other parts of the job long enough to matter. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Fans Wont Love Why Mitchell Robinson Landed In Boston
Mitchell Robinsons move to Boston is the kind of offseason development Knicks fans are still likely to notice, especially given how long he had been part of the picture in New York. Once the longest-tenured player on the roster, Robinson ended up signing with the Celtics after the Knicks did not make him an offer, a decision that quietly shifted one of the more familiar faces in the organization to a rival in the East.
Robinson hasnt made much of the switch publicly, saying he holds no bad feelings about leaving and that Boston offered him a starting role. For the Knicks, it is another reminder of an offseason shaped by bigger concerns than nostalgia, with Mike Brown already addressing the teams defensive issues and Mikal Bridges shooting slump while the club also dealt with statements tied to a championship ring phishing email incident. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Suddenly Have A Bench Backcourt Problem To Solve
Jose Alvarados left ankle sprain has put the Knicks in a spot where even a routine absence could ripple through the bench backcourt. With the upcoming game still in view, the question is less about replacing one player outright and more about how the team protects its guard rotation without overloading anyone else, especially as the second unit tries to keep some continuity.
Miles McBride should still get his chances as a shooter, but the Knicks may not want him carrying the entire ballhandling load if Alvarado is unavailable. That opens the door to a few possible adjustments, including staggering Jalen Brunsons minutes more deliberately and giving Tyler Kolek a look as a secondary playmaker, just to see how much help the bench can generate on its own. [Read more 🡒]