{"id":194847,"date":"2026-04-13T02:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/194847\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T02:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:04:08","slug":"knicks-lose-regular-season-finale-will-play-hawks-in-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/194847\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks lose regular-season finale, will play Hawks in playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks lost twice Sunday.<\/p>\n

After dropping their meaningless regular-season finale, the Knicks learned their first-round opponent will be the Hawks instead of the Raptors.<\/p>\n

On paper, that\u2019s a tougher series for New York, which won two close games against the Hawks in the regular season \u2014 and suffered a blowout loss at home \u2014 while sometimes struggling with Atlanta\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

Conversely, the Knicks dominated the Raptors this season \u2014 going 4-0 \u2014 and would\u2019ve been a good bet to drop Toronto in five games or fewer.<\/p>\n

The Knicks, who finished with a 53-29 record after Sunday\u2019s 110-96 loss to the Hornets, will still be favored against the Hawks, but it\u2019s a tougher matchup.<\/p>\n

Plus, the Hawks clearly wanted that series after resting their top players in a blowout loss Sunday to the Heat. If the Hawks had beaten Miami, Atlanta would\u2019ve instead faced the Cavs in the first round.<\/p>\n

\"NewCharlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball defends against New York Knicks guard Jose Alvarado during the second half at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, USA, Sunday, April 12, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n

At the very least, the Hawks aren\u2019t afraid of the Knicks.<\/p>\n

Still, the Atlanta-New York series, which is a rematch of the 2021 first round, required a surprising result elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Celtics, who were locked into the second seed and sat their top players, topped the Magic in a 113-108 victory. It left a two-way tie for fifth in the East, and the Raptors won the tiebreaker over the Hawks because of head-to-head results.<\/p>\n

It could help the Celtics if the Knicks are locked into a tougher first-round matchup. Those teams are potential second-round opponents.<\/p>\n

The Knicks were locked into the third seed before Sunday\u2019s results and therefore rested most of their playoff rotation. The only active regular starter was Mikal Bridges, who logged 23 seconds to maintain his consecutive games streak.<\/p>\n

\"NewKnicks forward Jeremy Sochan puts up a shot as Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges jumps to defend during the second half at Madison Square Garden. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Deuce McBride (21 points) and Jordan Clarkson (2 points, 15 minutes) were the other top nine players.<\/p>\n

More significant to the Knicks were the results outside MSG.<\/p>\n

Coach Mike Brown said he would wait to hear about the Knicks\u2019 first-round opponent, rather than scoreboard-watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wait until it\u2019s over. At the end of the day, I\u2019m sure somehow, some way, I might be told it,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, I\u2019m a firm believer that trying to ask for this opponent or that opponent is not good for you, when you mess with the basketball gods. So whatever happens, happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, the Knicks have already been scouting potential playoff opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff has been fantastic all year,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had guys assigned to that stuff already, on both sides of the ball. Our two advanced scouts have been doing a good job taking care of it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks lost twice Sunday. After dropping their meaningless regular-season finale, the Knicks learned their first-round opponent will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6425,14063,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":["post-194847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194847","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=194847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}