Celtics Vs. Knicks, Game 2: Will It Be Another Boston Massacre?

The New York Knicks and Boston Celtics square off in Boston tonight for Game 2 of their series, with the Celtics looking to take a 2-0 lead and gain control of the series for good. Hmm...

When have we heard that before?

Oh, right. On April 28th, 1990.

What happened that day, you ask? The Celtics absolutely destroyed the Knicks, 157-128, a beating that would forever be remembered as the Boston Massacre. After the jump, let’s relive the carnage in its all glory.

From the New York Times’ recap the next day:

Doing as they pleased today, the Celtics ... wrote themselves a place in the National Basketball Association record book by overwhelming the Knicks, 157-128, at the Boston Garden to take a 2-0 lead in their opening-round series. ... The margin of victory - 29 points - could have easily been greater.

“What is there to say?” said Al Bianchi, the Knicks’ general manager, as he watched the final seconds of one the most dreadful games in Knick history. “They whipped us in every department. We let them do anything they wanted.”

Throughout the game, several coaching voices on the Knick bench tried to rally the team with cries of “C’mon defense; ‘D’ it up.” The pleas fell on deaf ears. “The scoring was pathetic,” said Billy Cunningham, the Hall of Fame player and former Philadelphia 76er coach, who did commentary on the game for national television. “The scary thing is the Celtics tried to control the tempo of the game. Can you imagine how many points Boston might have scored otherwise?”

...Aside from the sheer insanity of what the Celtics did to the Knicks that night, the entire article is a time capsule to a bygone era. Notes on a young Charles Oakley, Reggie Lewis as the young Celtics scorer, and even a mention of Ed Pinckney, who entered the game after the Celtics tried to ease up, and proceeded to shoot 6-6 for 16 points. Ed Pinckney!

Boston finished with 46 assists. Forty-six. By comparison, they had just 20 in Sunday’s Game 1.

So what does this say about tonight’s game? Okay, so... Not that much. Nothing, actually. But maybe we just needed an excuse to remember one of the most memorable beatings in NBA history. As for tonight, the Knicks can take solace in this: no matter what happens in Game 2, there’s no way it’ll be worse than what happened 20 years ago...