Madison Square Garden jumbotron shows Knicks looking way ahead to potential Eastern Conference Finals appearance

General view of Madison Square Garden.

New York Knicks fans flooded the streets of the Big Apple following Saturday night’s Game 1 victory against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, chanting “we want Boston!”

While some Knicks die-hards apparently aren’t worried about a potential Eastern Conference Finals matchup with the top-seeded Celtics, both Boston and New York still have a long way to go for that head-to-head to come to fruition.

That didn’t stop the Madison Square Garden jumbotron operators from testing out some Knicks-Celtics graphics on Monday morning.

The Celtics cruised past the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in Game 1 of their first-round set on Sunday, while the second-seeded Knicks survived a 111-104 battle in their series-opener against the seventh-seeded Sixers on Saturday.

Even if the home teams advance past Miami and Philadelphia, they’d still need to defeat the winners of the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and fifth-seeded Orlando Magic series and the survivor of the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and sixth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the next round. Both Cleveland and Milwaukee won at home in their respective Game 1s.

Boston is looking to make their third consecutive conference finals this year and sixth in their last eight seasons.

New York, meanwhile, hasn’t been to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2000 and has only been to the playoffs three times in the last 11 years. The Knicks made it to the conference semifinals in 2023 for the first time in 10 years, however, and tied the 1999-2000 campaign for their best regular season record in the millennium at 50-32.

New York last made the NBA Finals in 1999 and last won a title in 1973.

The Celtics won their most recent championship in 2008 but fell in the Finals in 2010 and 2022.

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