NBA champion Celtics prepare for banner night and opener against rival New York Knicks

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics are giving themselves one more chance to celebrate their latest NBA championship before they turn their attention to a repeat.

The league’s most decorated franchise will raise its 18th banner to the TD Garden rafters Tuesday night before the season opener against the New York Knicks. Players will also receive their championship rings in the pregame ceremony.

“This is a great accomplishment, that we get to do this. Be one hell of a night,” guard Payton Pritchard said after practice Monday. “But then again, we talked about we’ve got to do it again. We’ve got to reset that focus.

“We get the rings, and then we want to go out and prove that we’re ready to make another statement.”

The Celtics cruised through the NBA regular season last year — finishing with the best record in the Eastern Conference by 14 games — and then went 16-3 in the playoffs. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they are bringing back their entire starting lineup and most of their bench, and are the favorites to win it all again.

Coach Joe Mazzulla has said he doesn’t feel any pressure to repeat.

“We’re all going to be dead soon, and it really doesn’t matter anymore. So there’s zero pressure,” he said. “You have an opportunity to carry the organization forward, to double down on the tradition and history of what this organization has. And what else would you expect than someone expecting you to win all the time?

“It’s not pressure,” he told reporters at the team’s practice facility. “There’s nothing anyone in this circle can do to me that’s gonna impact my identity and who I am as a person or a coach. We’re either gonna win or we’re not, and 40 years from now, none of you are invited to my funeral and that’s it.”

The Celtics won 16 NBA titles from 1957-86, with Bill Russell claiming 11 in 13 years. The 1970s teams of Dave Cowens and John Havlicek won a pair, and the Big Three of Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale won three more in the 1980s.

When Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen won it all in 2008, they ended the franchise’s longest-ever title drought. They made it back to the NBA Finals two years later, but lost to the Lakers. (The period from 2008-24 was the second-longest drought.)

Pritchard said that to be considered among the Celtics greats they will need to win another.

“A lot of people can do it once,” Pritchard said. “I know a championship’s hard, but there’s a lot of people who have won one. But winning it multiple times, creating almost like a dynasty, that’s hard to do. So that’s greatness, and that’s something we’re trying to achieve.”

The quest begins against the Knicks, who have positioned themselves as Boston’s top competition in the East after acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges over the summer.

Mazzulla said he thinks his team will be ready.

“I trust who they are. I think they have an understanding of both ‘This is what we accomplished’ and ‘This is what we’re trying to do’” the coach said. “All the intangibles that go into winning should carry over from one season to another season.”

“You have to appreciate it,” he said. “But you’ve got to know what got you there and if you forget what got you there, you’ll never get back.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Jimmy Golen, The Associated Press