The New York Knicks dominated Game 6 against the Boston Celtics, avoided the pressure of a Game 7 on the road and reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years.
The Knicks eliminated the Celtics 119-81 in Game 6 on Friday night.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Knicks with 21 points and 12 rebounds, Jalen Brunson had 23 points, six assists and six rebounds and Josh Hart recorded a 10-points, 11-assists, 11-rebounds triple-double in a game filled with statistical oddities.
The third-seeded Knicks will play the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the conference finals – the Knicks haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 1999 and the Pacers haven’t been since 2000.
Game 1 is Wednesday in New York (8 p.m. ET, TNT).
Let’s take a look at some of the wild stats and numbers surrounding Game 6:
Wild stats from Game 6 of Celtics vs. Knicks
- This Knicks reached the conference finals for the first time since 2000. Entering the game, they had the league’s third-longest streak of not making it to conference finals – behind Charlotte (never have been) and Washington (1979 was the last time the Wizards made it that far).
- Brunson was just 3 years old the last time the Knicks got this far, and his dad, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson, was on that 2000 team.
- The quirky X feed called NBA Scorigami noted that the 119-81 result was the 3,168th unique score in NBA history and the 23rd this season.
- The Celtics trailed by 41 points – 92- 51 – late in the third quarter, and they had not trailed by more than 12 points in a game during this season’s playoffs until Friday.
- The Celtics had lost just three games this season by 20 or more points – the largest margin of defeat was 21 points.
- The margin equaled the third-largest points differential defeat in Celtics playoff history.
- Boston scored 37 points in the first half which was a season-low, and the 20 first-quarter points and 17 second-quarter points were also season lows in a first and second quarter for the Celtics this season.
- New York’s 64 first-half points were the most the Celtics allowed in the first half this season – eclipsing the 59 the Knicks scored in Game 5.
- New York’s 27-point halftime lead matched the largest lead after two quarters in Knicks playoff history.
- Hart became the the first Knick to register a triple-double in a playoff game since Walt Frazier in 1972. Frazier, a Knicks TV analyst, was sitting courtside to watch Hart’s accomplishment. He’s just the third player in franchise history to have a playoff triple-double (Frazier, Dick McGuire).
- This is the ninth time the Knicks and Pacers have met in the playoffs with the Pacers winning five of the series. They met six times from 1993-2000, creating one of the era’s best, most intense rivalries.
Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt