NEW YORK — How badly did the New York Knicks humiliate the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Friday night? This badly: About two minutes into the second quarter at rockin’ and rollin’ Madison Square Garden, the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson literally made the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown stand in the corner.

For there was poor Brown, to the far left of the basket, ball in hand, trying to do something, anything, to shake the lethargy out of the Celtics. And there was Robinson, smothering Brown with a flurry of arms and legs. Brown lost the ball; Robinson grabbed it. Next thing you know, Karl-Anthony Towns was driving to the basket on the other side of town, delivering a layup that gave the Knicks a 13-point lead.

Mitchell Robinson locks up Jaylen Brown, leading to a Karl-Anthony Towns layup. 👏

(🎥: @NBA)pic.twitter.com/BeesAz0e8Z

— theScore (@theScore) May 17, 2025

Now, if history has taught us anything — and as it certainly reminded us in this series — leads of 13, 17 or even 20 points can disappear in mere minutes. But Robinson’s domination and Brown’s helplessness were twin bellwethers as to where this game and this series were headed. It ended with a stunningly easy 119-81 victory for the Knicks, who’ll be playing the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.

It was as if the Knicks were mad as hell and not going to take it any longer, this after not making it as far as the conference finals in a quarter century. So they settled all family business. Even their fans rose to the occasion. After gobbling up enough tickets for Game 5 in Boston to be a noticeable presence at TD Garden, they were full-throttle Friday night, never ceasing to yell and barely sitting down. For those Boston fans who remember Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals at TD Garden when the Celtics jumped out to a 58-35 halftime lead against the Los Angeles Lakers, thus turning the rest of the night into a warmup act for the victory parade, that’s what Knicks fans were doing Friday night, all Friday night. The Knicks’ halftime lead was 64-37.

“Losing to the Knicks feels like death,” Brown told reporters after the game. “But I was always taught that there’s life after death.”

But here’s a sobering thought: It may be a rocky road as the Celtics begin that journey. And to pull the camera back a little to get the entire Boston sports market into the picture, the Celtics may have some company on that rocky road. Boston’s Big Four — the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins — have combined to win 13 championships this century and there’s always been a consensus favorite as to which team would be the next to add to the trophy case. For the past four years, that team has been the Celtics. A year ago, they won it all. They were favorites to win again this season, despite many warnings about how hard it is to repeat. As if to prove that point, they blew twin 20-point leads to the Knicks in losing Games 1 and 2, and then, in Game 4, they lost superstar Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles tendon. With new owners poised to take over the club and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens facing challenges with the roster, it’s clear the Celtics won’t be the smart pick to come back next year and win it all. The Red Sox? Despite all that spring training optimism, so far they’ve been the same-ol’, same-ol .500 outfit. The Patriots went out and got help for quarterback Drake Maye, but they need more. The Bruins don’t even have a coach.

For those who think it’s too soon to speak of things coming to an end, try telling that to Derrick White. A key player on the Celtics’ 2023-24 championship team, White certainly sounded like an era has come to end when he sat down after Game 6 to talk with the media.

“There are ups and downs to every season,” White said. “This part sucks … we’re never going to get this season back. We’re never going to have the exact same team again.”

Part of that is a statement of the obvious. The Celtics could have rolled through the postseason this year, as they mostly did last year, and at the very least Stevens would have fiddled and diddled with the roster, to borrow a line from the late, great Celtics play-by-play man Johnny Most. But it’s doubtful White was thinking and speaking along those lines. More than just losing this series to the Knicks, the Celtics lost Tatum and might also be losing their status as a top-tier NBA team. The added penalty to this crushing series loss to the Knicks is that nobody, perhaps not even Stevens, has any idea what the Celtics’ roster will look like when the 2025-26 season begins.

Brown took a shot at providing some optimism.

“I’m looking forward to coming back stronger,” he said. “You just take this with your chin up.

“I know in Boston it looks gloomy right now,” Brown said. “But there’s a lot to look forward to.

“This is not the end.”

It’s certainly the end of this season. It’s also the end of putting it out there that the Celtics-Knicks rivalry doesn’t mean anything. From now til the end of time, replays of Robinson putting Brown in the corner will be a staple on the MSG flat screens, especially when the Knicks are in town.

And it may well be the end of a run — and with just one championship to show for it. It’s something Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen can tell you about. After that night in 2008 when they beat up the Lakers to win a championship, those guys never won another one.

(Photo of Mikal Bridges stripping the ball from Jaylen Brown: Al Bello / Getty Images)