With Holiday back, the expectation here is the Celtics still go nine players deep in their rotation in this series, at least to start. The Celtics had great success in the regular season against the Knicks with their double bigs and the Knicks personnel shouldn’t scare Joe Mazzulla away from using one of their best lineups all year.

Kristaps Porzingis on why the Celtics keep emphasizing the margins: “We want to build this run on a strong foundation. We don't want it to be, ‘oh, we pulled this one out, somehow, someway, based off of JT or JB’s talent & they made some crazy plays.’” (Q: @JackSimoneNBA) pic.twitter.com/yhebOCC1aM

The stage is set for the Eastern Conference semifinals series between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks, as Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown provided an injury update, and Kristaps Porzingis is anticipating a hard-fought battle.