NEW YORK \u2014 The New York Knicks\u2019 playoff picture is still a bit pixilated despite their holding the No. 3 seed for most of the calendar year and having only two games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Knicks took down the Boston Celtics on Thursday night, 112-106, and grabbed their second straight win against an opponent with an above-.500 record after going winless in their previous five attempts. It also secured the tiebreaker against the No. 2-seeded Celtics and kept the door open to moving up a spot in the standings before the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
With that said, it\u2019s not yet written in stone that the Knicks can\u2019t grab the No. 2 seed from their rival, but the odds aren\u2019t in their favor. If New York wins its last two games \u2014 against Toronto and Charlotte \u2014 and Boston loses its last two games, the Knicks would go into the postseason as the No. 2 seed. The Celtics, however, end the regular season against the lowly New Orleans Pelicans and Orlando Magic, making it a tough hill for New York to climb, especially since it has no control over the matter.<\/p>\n
The Knicks will likely finish the regular season as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed, with the former route most realistic. One win by New York or one loss by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who finish the regular season against the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards, and the Knicks will be the No. 3 seed. Yet, if the Cavaliers win their final two games and New York, which is taking on two teams still with something to play for, loses its last two games, the Knicks would drop to No. 4.<\/p>\n
The difference in seeding doesn\u2019t matter as much in the first round. New York will either have home-court advantage and take on one of the Hawks, Raptors, Magic or Hornets. The difference will come in the second round. If the Knicks stay at the No. 3 seed, it would set up a potential second-round matchup against the Celtics, and dropping to the No. 4 seed would position New York for a potential second-round meeting with the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n
While many consider Detroit a young team with roster flaws \u2014 such as lacking another primary playmaker alongside Cade Cunningham and turbulent 3-point shooting \u2014 it has dominated the Knicks with its physicality and Cunningham\u2019s star power during the regular season. Furthermore, the Pistons have been looking forward to facing New York in a win-or-go-home setting since losing a thrilling six-game series last year. There\u2019s an extra edge there from the Detroit side that the Knicks haven\u2019t replicated during the regular season. I\u2019m not saying New York can\u2019t beat the Pistons in a series. Not at all. I just think \u2026<\/p>\n
As it pertains to the Celtics, yes, the Knicks have yet to take on Boston at full strength this season \u2014 Jayson Tatum was absent in the first three meetings, and Jaylen Brown missed Thursday\u2019s game. However, New York appears to match up well against the Celtics, whom the Knicks beat three times this season, because of its wing defenders and interior advantage. Also, the Knicks beat Boston in last year\u2019s postseason and would surely carry that confidence into that matchup.<\/p>\n
New 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. First, 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.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the Knicks should fight to win out not only to secure the No. 3 seed and, possibly, get another crack at Boston in the second round as opposed to the Pistons, but they should also try to take out the Hornets from possibly grabbing the No. 6 seed if it comes to that in the final game of the regular season. Charlotte has been one of the NBA\u2019s best teams over the last few months and is in the Play-In picture only because of its rough start to the season. All the top teams, not just the Knicks, should hope that Charlotte is not the team it takes on to open the postseason.<\/p>\n
When talking about \u201cWingstop,\u201d the defensive nickname for the Knicks\u2019 duo of OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, it might be time that Josh Hart gets lumped into the brotherhood.<\/p>\n
Lately, the veteran forward has been asked by his head coach to defend bigger, ballhandling wings with the game on the line. Hart has risen to the occasion. He was physical and suffocating on Tatum in moments late in Thursday\u2019s win. Earlier this week, Hart was guarding the Hawks\u2019 Jalen Johnson and forced a few key turnovers. In that same game, he also had an isolation stop on the scorching-hot Nickeil Alexander-Walker that helped secure a win.<\/p>\n
In early March, in a matchup against the Raptors, wing Brandon Ingram was having his way with the Knicks offensively for close to three quarters, and then Brown put Hart on him, and the 31-year-old slowed down Ingram en route to New York\u2019s comeback win.<\/p>\n
A big reason the Knicks have had such up-and-down defensive play this season is that the point-of-attack defense hasn\u2019t consistently come with the physicality needed to maintain an elite defense. Hart, when called upon, has provided it, and it\u2019s allowed the likes of Anunoby and Bridges to do what they do best as defensive players.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just trying to use my physicality and make it tougher for those guys,\u201d Hart told The Athletic after a 26-point performance against the Celtics. \u201cWhen you\u2019re able to do that, you can allow OG to guard the big and switch the pick-and-rolls, or you allow OG to roam and be that defensive playmaker that he is. I think that\u2019s the thought process. I like the challenge. There\u2019s some trust there.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, the numbers are in my favor. I hope they look good.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Hart can combine that level of defense with 3-point shooting, as he did against Boston by hitting five 3-pointers in the second half, he\u2019s a no-brainer choice to close games. Teams continue to sag off Hart in the half court to try to muck up New York\u2019s offense. He\u2019s made them pay more often than not this season by converting on over 41 percent of his 3s.<\/p>\n
Hart\u2019s intangibles are always going to be there, whether his shot is falling or not. The Knicks are legit title contenders, though, when he defends with the force that he\u2019s shown against bigger wings and knocks down his jumper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The New York Knicks\u2019 playoff picture is still a bit pixilated despite their holding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,1104,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-192371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}