NEW YORK — For the sixth consecutive NBA season, the defending champions have been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs (or prior). The 61-win Celtics seemed like great candidates to buck that trend — they were heavy favorites entering the series against the New York Knicks — but instead, they’ll continue that peculiar pattern.
The Celtics choked away two consecutive 20-point leads to start the series, lost their franchise cornerstone to a ruptured Achilles in Game 4, and trailed by as many as 41 points in the final game en route to their elimination.