Boston vs. New York Is A Tale of Two Philosophies

How The New Yorkers and the Bostonians each have similar, yet opposite, win conditions

It’s interesting how the playoffs bring out the extremes in team structures. For the Houston Rockets — yes, I’m still bringing them up post-elimination — the team’s offensive woes were further exacerbated, while Golden State’s ability to create threes from anywhere turned into Buddy Hield putting on his own chef hat. The Pacers, as they stand right now, are thriving off of a fast-paced, constantly flowing offense behind Tyrese Haliburton, while the Thunder, love it or hate it, are living and dying by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander more than ever.

Over on the East Coast, there’s another case of dichotomous extremes being played out between the Celtics and the Knicks. Yes, the Knicks are up 2-0, and that’s arguably because their strengths have worked better in a playoff setting than Boston’s, but it still feels like either side could end up winning this series.

Today, I want to take a look at both teams and how they’ve built entirely different, but not dissimilar, team structures, which have resulted in dichotomous win conditions.