Conor Roche

3 days ago | boston.com | Conor Roche

After two mind-boggling losses at home to start their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Knicks, the Celtics’ season essentially hung in the balance on Saturday. No team in NBA history has ever comeback from a 3-0 deficit, making Game 3 a must-win. On top of facing the possibility of having to make history, the way the Celtics fell in a 2-0 hole only revved up the heat around them ahead of Game 3.

3 days ago | boston.com | Conor Roche |Tom Westerholm

The Celtics built a big lead and – finally – kept it on Saturday, blowing out the Knicks 115-93, trimming their series deficit to 2-1. Here are the takeaways. The Celtics found their stroke (and the game looked way more normal). Given that the Celtics have led by 20 in each of the first three games of this series, it’s staggering that they trail 2-1 after Saturday’s win, but that’s neither here nor there.

4 days ago | boston.com | Conor Roche

Kristaps Porzingis previously admitted that the virus that caused him to miss time in March impacted his performance through the first two games of the Celtics’ series against the Knicks. The return of the illness might have come as a surprise to Porzingis, though. The Celtics’ big man felt he had “turned the corner” when the playoffs began in April, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported ahead of Saturday’s Game 3.

4 days ago | boston.com | Conor Roche

Al Horford’s 39th birthday is coming up in a few, but as the Celtics’ big man nears 40, he doesn’t have the intention to stop his NBA career in the near future. Horford isn’t planning to retire and is hoping to remain with the Celtics for the 2025-26 season, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst wrote in a column on Saturday. Prior to Saturday’s report, Horford seemed to indicate his intention to keep playing in an interview following Florida’s national championship game win in early April.

4 days ago | boston.com | Conor Roche

As the Celtics’ season arguably hangs in the balance in Saturday’s Game 3 against the Knicks, Joe Mazzulla was quick and to the point in his pregame press conference. The Celtics’ head coach only fielded two questions over a 30-second span before his pregame press conference ended. The first was on Kristaps Porzingis’s availability for Game 3, with Mazzulla providing an optimistic update on the big man as he’s been dealing with an illness. “He’s gotten better. He felt better yesterday.