Knicks bounce Celtics with happy closeout at Madison Square Garden

For a good quarter of a century, the most successful players at Madison Square Garden have been retired middle-aged men whom Knicks management has seated near courtside to remind fans of the glory days. Allan Houston. Latrell Sprewell. Patrick Ewing. John Starks. They are all regularly featured on the Jumbotron to show fans what is possible.

That elusive possibility finally became a reality Friday night as the Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. They did it in the most spectacular of fashions, knocking the Boston Celtics out of the playoffs with a 119-81 blowout in Game 6 of their conference semifinal series.

The victory came after 25 years of heartbreak, tease and second-round flameouts. It also sent a loud and clear message to the rest of the league that this Knicks team is one to be reckoned with, a team that can come up with its best game of the season — and perhaps its best game of the Tom Thibodeau era — when it needed it most.

The third-seeded Knicks will open the next series at the Garden on Wednesday night against fourth-seeded Indiana. That’s the same Pacers who knocked them out of the playoffs last year with a win in Game 7 of the conference semifinals at the Garden.

There will be plenty of time to talk about the Pacers later. Friday was a night for Knicks fans to party like it was 1999(-2000), a night to contemplate if the glory days are here and now, a day to contemplate just how far this team is capable of going.

“The goal is always to get to a championship,” Thibodeau said when asked if he was satisfied to see his team get to the next level. “The goal is always to win a championship. We have eight wins. We need 16.”

Yes, this is a team with big goals, ones that may not have always seemed realistic given how many close games they’ve been in and the fact that they went 0-4 against Boston in the regular season.

The Knicks’ two losses in this series were by significant amounts, and until this game, they had to rely on comebacks and Jalen Brunson’s last-minute heroics to win playoff games.

This win was a whole different story as the Knicks built a 20-point lead in the second quarter and kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the game.

The Celtics were playing without their best player, Jayson Tatum, who suffered a ruptured Achilles in Game 4. Yet they also were without Tatum in Game 5 and were able to produce an emotional 127-102 win in an elimination game.

The Knicks hadn’t closed out a series on any level at the Garden in 25 years, when they beat the Pacers in the Eastern Conferences semifinals. The big question heading into Friday night was how they would bounce back from arguably their worst game of the postseason.

The Knicks bounced back with a vengeance. They held the Celtics to 37 points in the first half and 36% shooting for the game. Their 38-point margin of victory was the largest in franchise playoff history.

It was a game that featured multiple stars. Karl-Anthony Towns, who had been criticized for his lack of aggressiveness, and Mikal Bridges totaled 21 first-quarter points. Mitchell Robinson was a monster again on defense. Josh Hart finished with a triple-double. OG Anunoby and Brunson each scored 23 points, Bridges had 22 and Towns added 21.

“We talked a lot about the importance of this game,” Towns said. “My teammates trusted me and gave me the ball and allowed me to be aggressive.”

The last time the Knicks made it to the conference finals, Brunson, was a 3-year-old sitting in the stands watching his dad, Rick, play for the Knicks. Deuce McBride was not even born. Yet all got a pretty good idea what the win meant for Knicks fans when they started sharing videos of fans celebrating after the game by climbing onto light poles and cab stands on Eighth Avenue outside the Garden.

“It’s something New York deserves, the way they supported us through the ups and downs,” McBride said.

Yes, they did. And on Friday, the Knicks finally returned the favor by showing their fans what is possible.

There’s a whole new generation of Knicks players looking to create their own glory days.

Fasten your seat belt, New York.

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.