Knicks and 76ers load up to challenge champs
NEW YORK—The the Atlantic Division is home to the NBA champions.
But New York and Philadelphia are conceding nothing to the Boston Celtics. They are loading up for a run at them.
Both teams added top wing defenders to match up with the Celtics’ tandem of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, with the Knicks acquiring Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn and the 76ers signing perennial All-Star Paul George.
The Knicks then addressed a hole in the middle by landing All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns from Minnesota in a blockbuster move as training camps were opening.
“Obviously Knicks are on the rise as well as ourselves and a couple other teams out East,” George said, “so they definitely made a splash with that pickup.”
The offseason moves could put the top three teams in the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic, with the Toronto Raptors and Nets further down in various stages of rebuilding. Aggressive plays were needed to close the gap with the Celtics, who rolled to an NBA-best 64-18 (win-loss) record last season before a dominant 16-3 run through the postseason en route to their league-record 18th championship.
With Tatum and Brown taking turns carrying the scoring load, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White combining to make one of the toughest defensive backcourts in the league, and Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford manning the middle, the Celtics seem to have everything they need to repeat after winning their first championship since 2008.
The droughts are much longer in New York and Philadelphia—and the teams have rarely gotten close to ending them.
Playoff failures
The Knicks haven’t made the conference finals since 2000. They felt they could get there last season after winning 50 games and earning the No. 2 seed in the East, then knocking off the 76ers in the first round. But injuries caught up to them and they were beaten by Indiana in Game 7 of the East semifinals, one game before they would have matched up with the Celtics.
The 76ers haven’t gone beyond the second round since reaching the 2001 NBA Finals. But with former NBA MVP Joel Embiid in the middle now flanked by George on the outside, there’s the same belief in Philadelphia going into the season that there is in New York. George left Monday’s preseason game against Atlanta with a hyperextended left knee. There was no immediate update how much time George might miss following his injury.
“I know Philly’s passion. I know New York’s passion, so I know both sides demand greatness and they want to win,” said Bridges, who played in college at Villanova. “So I mean, we both got better but we’re in preseason right now. Just trying to take it one game at a time, one practice at a time and just try to be the best team we can be when it’s all said and done.”
