BOSTON – The top half of the Eastern Conference knew this summer they had to upgrade their talent to give themselves a chance to stay with the Celtics. The Knicks in particular were one of the teams in a good position to give themselves a chance to move up a level. Despite numerous injuries, New York fell just one game short of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, but decided to shake things up considerably over the past three months.

After acquiring Mikal Bridges for a host of first-round picks in June, the Knicks officially made their all-in move last month, bringing in Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick of the Wolves. The blockbuster deal, on paper, creates a much bigger offensive advantage for this Knicks roster with the firepower Towns provides. However, that advantage didn’t take into account a Celtics rival that can take advantage of Towns’ limitations at all five positions and that was on full display Tuesday night.

Offensively, the Celtics attacked Towns relentlessly, keeping him under constant surveillance, which led to easy looks from the perimeter on Tuesday night. Towns is a respectable post defender, but he is a traditional big player who doesn’t operate well in space. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that the Celtics tied the NBA record for scoring three points in a game (29) in which Towns was prominently featured. Boston scored 2.0 points per possession with Towns as the screen defender, per Second Spectrum.

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Towns’ defensive vulnerability isn’t a new development against Boston, but the Knicks’ problem is the fact that he couldn’t make up for it with his offense on Tuesday night. The Celtics threw smaller defensemen at him for much of the night (Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown) to save Al Horford some wear and tear, and it worked well. Towns (12 points on 5-for-9 shooting) regularly let them off the hook, as did a Knicks offense that didn’t catch his eye often. With Boston turning on him, he couldn’t find easy looks from three-point range. His post-ups weren’t very efficient and even going in, the Celtics happily traded those twos as they bombed 61 3s.

Horford spoke fondly of Towns after the game, but the reality is that Towns did more harm than good for the Knicks in this game.

“It’s always fun going against KAT,” Horford said. “I mean, you know, one of the best players in this league, and he can do so much. So now he’s in New York, so it’s always special for me, and it gives perspective, you know, we’re both from the Dominican Republic and playing at this level. It’s not easy to be in the NBA and play at this level. So that those moments always remain special.”

It’s only one game in the standings, but the problems Towns brings to a Celtics game aren’t going away anytime soon anyway. Boston now has two guys they can consistently chase with the Knicks’ defense (Jalen Brunson, Towns) and New York’s front office has spent all their assets to bring Towns and Bridges on board already this offseason. No other complementary pieces can be added to this group without taking away other parts of the team’s already shallow rotation.

Meanwhile, the Celtics are a well-oiled machine with strong continuity and a talent advantage. They also enter games with a strong plan that keeps teams off the hook, something Tatum expressed after his 37-point night.

“I think offensively I feel like we’ve gone further than last year,” Tatum explained. “We got almost everyone back. We played to our strengths. We know what we’re trying to do. We know who we are trying to attack. We know what sets and actions to take and we are constantly working on them. We work on reads every day in practice and that’s really all we do.”

The Celtics won’t make 29 3s every night like we saw in Tuesday’s win, but they sure know how to exploit an opponent. With the holes Towns presents for the Knicks’ defense against Boston, it’s hard to imagine the Knicks developing into a team that can beat Boston in a seven-game series.