Lakers’ LeBron James believes Celtics got ‘bored’ vs. Knicks because of how ‘great they are’

For the first time since the 2020-21 season, the Boston Celtics will not be in the Eastern Conference Finals. After winning the NBA Finals last year, the No. 2 seed Celtics were upset by the No. 3 seed New York Knicks in the conference semifinals, 4-2. To add injury to insult, superstar forward Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4 — which leads to plenty of questions about how the Celtics will navigate the future. 

What happened to Boston? The Celtics swept the regular-season series vs. the Knicks, 4-0, while averaging 125 points per game. During a recent conversation with NBA legend Steve Nash on “Mind the Game,” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James asked the Hall of Famer if he thinks the Celtics got “bored.” After all, this was the fourth year in a row in which Boston finished in the top two of the Eastern Conference in the regular season.

“It seems like sometimes, it seems like they get bored sometimes with the — I don’t want to say the process. Because I mean, shit, they are who they are, and when you look at Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, this is years and years and years and years, they’ve punched their 10,000 hours,” James said. “But sometimes it seems like they get a little bored because of how great they are. Not only as those two as individuals, but then as a team sometimes it looks like they get bored.”

Nash believes it’s a reason why Boston dropped the first two games vs. New York. In Game 1, the Celtics were up 20 points on the Knicks in the third quarter before eventually falling, 108-105 in overtime. Boston held another 20-point lead in the third quarter of Game 2 — and a 16-point lead with just under seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter — before Jalen Brunson’s clutch free throws earned the Knicks a 91-90 victory. The Knicks actually became just the second team in the play-by-play era to record three 14-point comeback wins in a playoff series. 

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“Then they stop maybe the details, the spacing, going too soon or not waiting long enough and not getting downhill, not touching the paint, settling for longer jump shots,” Nash said. “That’s just the story of their team. We know they have another gear, and then they show it in Game 3.” 

Most would agree the Celtics were the more “talented” team in this series, but the Knicks clearly wanted it more. New York not only played better defense, but also made more clutch plays down the stretch in crunch time game after game.