![\"Knicks,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270649941_afbac6-e1775817335180.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Josh Hart #3 of the New York Knicks attempts to steal the ball from Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden on April 09, 2026 in New York City. <\/p>\n
The New York Knicks<\/a> (52-28) gave themselves a mathematical chance to pass the Boston Celtics<\/a> (54-26) for the No. 2 seed after beating their Atlantic Division rivals, 112-106, on Thursday night.<\/p>\n Since the Knicks won the season series 3-1 over the Celtics, they own the tiebreaker and will finish higher in the standings if the two teams finish with identical records (54-28) at the end of the regular season on Sunday. ClutchPoints\u2019 Brett Siegel laid out the scenario that would propel the Knicks above the Celtics in the coming days.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Knicks win their final two games against Toronto & Charlotte, and the Celtics lose their final two games against New Orleans & Orlando, then New York will win the Atlantic Division and the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference,\u201d Siegel wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Knicks win their final two games against Toronto & Charlotte, and the Celtics lose their final two games against New Orleans & Orlando, then New York will win the Atlantic Division and the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n You never know.<\/p>\n Knicks Won\u2019t Rest Players<\/p>\n The win on Thursday was extremely crucial for the Knicks, given that the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> (51-29) are on a four-game winning streak of their own and are on their heels for the third seed. However, with Thursday\u2019s win, the Knicks maintained a 1.0-game cushion over the Cavs, to go with a series tiebreaker (2-1). As such, the Knicks are now almost guaranteed to finish as a top-three seed unless they lose their final two games.<\/p>\n After Thursday\u2019s win, Knicks head coach Mike Brown<\/a> made it clear that the seeding scenarios mattered to his team, as detailed by The Athletic\u2019s James L. Edwards III.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cNew York head coach Mike Brown said his team will \u201crun through the finish line\u201d \u2014 meaning it doesn\u2019t intend to sit players \u2014 as long as it can move up in the standings or has the potential to fall. That\u2019s the right approach,\u201d wrote Edwards.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, the Knicks have been searching for some semblance of consistency against good teams lately, and I\u2019d be hesitant to ruin that just for seeding purposes. Also, the Basketball Gods are always watching \u2014 don\u2019t try to manipulate games for a worse seeding even if you think it provides a better matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n Knicks vs. Celtics Playoffs Rematch?<\/p>\n If the Knicks can clinch the second seed by Sunday, they\u2019d have home-court advantage over the Celtics in a possible playoff semifinal rematch from last year. Celtics star Jaylen Brown<\/a> recently spoke about his team wanting to exact revenge<\/a> on the Knicks after they blew two 20-point leads last year en route to a 2-4 series loss.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like death,\u201d Brown said on his Twitch stream of losing to the Knicks in last year\u2019s playoffs. \u201cThe Knicks, good team. But to blow two 20-point leads, like how does that happen?\u201d Brown pondered. \u201cThe energy was off, and we lost, but shout out to the Knicks. They won. They moved on. We lost. We did it to ourselves. Can\u2019t be mad at it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this story\u2019s a different year,\u201d Brown added. \u201cWe might match up with the Knicks again, and we\u2019ve got to be ready to slide. We\u2019ve got our young killers right here. Sometimes, you\u2019ve got to spin the block. You\u2019ve got to run it back.\u201d<\/p>\n The Knicks will know by Friday night whether the second seed is still attainable when they host the Toronto Raptors and the Celtics host the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>. Elsewhere, the Cavs will face the Hawks<\/a> on the road in another critical matchup.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Knicks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Josh Hart #3 of the New York Knicks attempts to steal the ball from Jayson Tatum #0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-598247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}