The Boston Celtics will begin their quest for back-to-back NBA championships Tuesday when they tip off the 2024-25 season against the visiting New York Knicks.
Boston defeated Dallas in five games to claim the 2023-24 championship. The Celtics haven’t won consecutive titles since 1967-68 and 1968-69.
“We want to win a championship every single year — that’s the goal, that’s the standard, that’s the expectation,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Just because something worked before doesn’t mean it’s going to work again. That’s the challenge.”
The Celtics return their top 11 scorers from last year’s team, which had an NBA-best 64-18 record in the regular season and then went 16-3 in the playoffs en route to the franchise’s 18th championship.
The Knicks won 50 games in the regular season a year ago and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference but came up short against Indiana in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. New York hasn’t reached the conference finals since 2000 and hasn’t won an NBA championship since 1973.
New York made some significant offseason moves, one of which was sending forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota in exchange for forward Karl-Anthony Towns. New York also acquired Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets.
“We can’t just be worried about one team,” Towns said. “We’ve got to be worried about the whole Eastern Conference. To accomplish what we want to do, and what the city is yearning for us to do, we need to be a team not just that beats Boston, but finds a way to beat every team in the East.”
Bridges will join Jalen Brunson in the Knicks’ backcourt. Brunson finished fifth in MVP voting last season, when he averaged 28.7 points per game during his first All-Star season.
Boston is led by five-time All-Star Jayson Tatum, who averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 74 games last season.
New York center Precious Achiuwa won’t be available Tuesday because of a strained left hamstring. The team announced that he will be re-evaluated in two to four weeks. Achiuwa was injured during Friday’s preseason game against Washington.
New York will also be without center Mitchell Robinson, who is recovering from two ankle surgeries he underwent in the last year. According to ESPN, Robinson may not be available until January.
Boston center Kristaps Porzingis had surgery on his left leg in late June and is expected to miss at least the first two months of the season. The Celtics were 21-4 without Porzingis in the lineup last season, when he averaged 20.1 points in 57 games. He spent his first three seasons in the NBA with the Knicks.
“Do we have great talent? Yes,” Mazzulla said. “Do we have great players? Yes. Do we have a great foundation? Yes. Is this ’24-25 team great yet? No, because we haven’t been in a game. It just takes time and every season is different and assuming that you’re just going to … what’d we say before? Doing this in the past doesn’t necessarily mean this is going to work now.”
