On Sunday afternoon, the Boston Celtics defeated the New York Knicks 101-89 and capped off the first round sweep in bitch slap style.

After being one shot away from winning the first two games of the series, the Knicks looked like an entirely different ball club without Chauncey Billups and seemingly had no clue how to play like a team.

The Celtics manhandled the Knicks in front of a sold-out Garden and held them to just three field goals in the second quarter. There were bursts of competition for a few minutes, but the Celtics quickly derailed those as they pounded the paint and seemingly had no trouble finding the basket at all.

So now the question becomes, are the Celtics that good or are the Knicks that bad?

After perusing the footage and reading several post-game summaries, the runaway answer is that the New York Knicks are really that bad. In fact, they were so bad during this series that they earned our Bitch Slap of the Week.

We can blame their slump in scoring on the absence of Billups (who exited the series on a strained knee in the final minute of Game 1), or on the poor shooting of an injured Amare Stoudemire in Game 4 (who tweaked his back showing off during warm-ups in Game 2), but we cannot overlook the fact that the Knicks offense never seemed to work like a unit for more than one quarter.

Carmelo Anthony couldn’t buy a bucket during the playoff opener and ended up missing 10 of 11 shots in the second half, including the potential game-winner. He also had a game-high 5 turnovers, 5 personal fouls and was just 2-8 from downtown.

On top of committing a game-crushing offensive foul, he also had zero vision on the court and was never able to find the hot hands of Stoudemire when it mattered most. The two were on completely different wavelengths during the entire second half and allowed the Celtics to come back from a 12-point halftime deficit.

Game 2 was a complete turnaround for Anthony as he netted 10 of 22 shots and matched his career playoff high of 42 points, but was let down by the rest of his teammates, who shot a pathetic 12 for 47 from the field.

And just like in Game 1, the final shot was given to the wrong guy.

In the final seconds, an open Jared Jeffries was handed the rock underneath the basket, which was dished out by a double-teamed Anthony, and basically blew the game by attempting to pass the ball instead of going straight up with it. It was the right play to draw up for the worst player to execute.

When the series is on the line, you don’t call a play for the guy who averages about a layup per game just because he had an unprecedented double-digit night. You find a way to get your star an open shot, especially when that star is shooting lights out. Every successful team has managed to do it in the playoffs, so there is no reason why it couldn’t happen here.

Game 3 was simply embarrassing. In front of a home playoff crowd for the first time in 10 years, the Knicks let the Boston Celtics walk all over them and ended up trailing the entire game. By the end of the third quarter, the fans at Madison Square Garden had seen enough and booed the team as they walked off the court and into the locker room.

Anthony was streaky, connecting on just 4 of 16, and Stoudemire was supposedly on the court the entire game, but only managed to muster up two field goals while snagging merely three rebounds. It was an all around collapse on both ends of the ball and it ended up exposing the Knicks for what they truly are– a bad team.

Whether it was self-inflicted injuries (Stoudemire), bad decision-making (D’Antoni/Anthony/Jeffries), or just flat out poor play (everyone), the Knicks just never seemed to have a grasp on teamwork. They looked extremely sloppy for the majority of the series and were unable to come together when they really needed to.

A single player going off night after night does not win championships. If it did, then LeBron would still be in Cleveland and he would have multiple rings. But for whatever reason, the New York Knicks have yet to grasp this obvious concept.

History shows that championships are won when the players around the stars play consistently down the stretch and there was never a glimpse of that happening for New York. The first two games were luck and the last two games were reality. It’s as simple as that and the Knicks should be thankful that they even made the playoffs.

Used with permission of the author.

Los Angeles Based Logan Rhoades is the Associate Editor of the website JocksBehindBars.com. With an extensive knowledge of ESPN topics and celebrity gossip, he is known for mixing sports and pop culture. Check out his “Skip to My Logan” blog and Follow him on Twitter @loganrhoades.

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