NBC Sports Boston Celtics color commentator Brian Scalabrine knows a thing or two about winning a championship.

Scalabrine was a member of Boston's 2008 NBA title team and had plenty of good moments in the team's run to hanging a 17th NBA banner at TD Garden.

Now, in his post-playing days, Scalabrine watches a lot of basketball. He calls Celtics games for NBC Sports Boston, and hosts a daily NBA morning show on SiriusXM. He knows the right way to play basketball when he sees it - and he couldn't have been more critical of how the Celtics approached the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks, which ended on Friday night in a 119-81 blowout defeat.

"The Knicks got beat by the Celtics four times pretty handily [in the regular season]," Scalabrine began. "At the time you thought, 'Alright let's see what this team is about. No way you could lose four times.' And the Celtics responded, Tatum was amazing and they won in the regular season. And then the playoffs roll around, Celtics clearly the better team in Game 1, but blow a 20-point lead...clearly the better team in Game 2, but blow a 20-point lead. They also blew another 14-point lead. So bottom line is, whether it's bad habits that creeped in during the year...one way or another, this is probably fitting, maybe, for the Celtics to go out like this because there are probably times where they maybe cheated the game a little bit in the way that they approached this series."

An interesting offseason looms for the Celtics, who sit above the NBA's second luxury tax apron heading into next year, with superstar Jayson Tatum set to miss most, if not all, of next season after rupturing his Achilles.

More NBA Playoffs on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Celtics Announcer Rips Team for Performance vs. Knicks, Says They 'Cheated the Game'.

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