Knicks clinch No. 5 seed, face Cavaliers in first round of NBA playoffs

The Knicks have their first-round playoff series set.

With the Nets’ loss to the Timberwolves and the Cavaliers’ win over the Magic on Tuesday night, the Knicks clinched the No. 5 seed.

And with the 76ers’ win over the Celtics, Cleveland is now locked into the No. 4 seed.

That means the Knicks will face the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, which begin the weekend of April 15 after the play-in tournament is completed.

Cleveland will own home-court advantage in the series as the higher seed.

The Knicks are three games above the Nets, who are currently the No. 6 seed, and both teams have three regular season games remaining.

If the Knicks lose all three and the Nets win all three, the two sides would have the same record and be even on the first four tiebreakers — head-to-head record, division leader (neither team can win the division), record against teams in the division and record against teams in the conference.


Jalen Brunson
Jalen Brunson
Noah K. Murray / NY Post

But the Knicks have clinched the fifth tiebreaker, which is record against playoff teams in their own conference.

The top 10 teams in the East are already set, and the Knicks own a 18-16 record against those teams while none of their remaining games are against playoff teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets own a 16-17 record in that metric and only have one remaining game against a conference playoff team, meaning they can’t draw even with the Knicks.

The Knicks now have three meaningless games to finish out the season.


Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell
NBAE via Getty Images

Head coach Tom Thibodeau refused to say whether or not he would rest key starters in those games following practice on Tuesday.

“It’s human nature, and that’s the challenge of the entire season,” Thibodeau said when asked about looking ahead to the Cavaliers matchup. “You’re always faced with something, so how do you build the habits that allow you to focus and concentrate on each and every day? Because that’s what the important thing is, that’s how you improve. If you start looking ahead, you’re gonna skip over things, and then you don’t get the improvement that you need to have.

“And then you’re not prepared to play your best. So you try to build that habit every day and it’s easy, very easy to get distracted in this league.”

The Knicks will face the Pacers twice, sandwiched around a clash with the Pelicans to close the regular season before their date with Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and the upstart Cavaliers.


Tom Thibodeau
Tom Thibodeau
AP

Like the Knicks, the Cavaliers own a young core that’s far exceeded preseason expectations. Along with backcourt studs Mitchell — whom the Knicks came close to trading for last offseason — and Garland, Evan Mobley has emerged as one of the league’s best and most versatile two-way big men in his second season.

The Knicks beat the Cavaliers, 130-116, on Friday in what could be viewed as a statement performance ahead of their playoff showdown.

Though they are the lower seed, the Knicks can carry confidence into the series with how their regular season matchups went down, owning a 3-1 record against Cleveland this year.

After losing the first game, the Knicks have won three-in-a-row.

It’s the Knicks’ second playoff appearance in three years. Following a surprising run to the No. 4 seed in 2020-21, they had a letdown performance in the first round, losing to the Hawks in five games.

The team’s biggest stars, mainly Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, struggled through a nightmarish series while Atlanta’s Trae Young instantly became a New York villain.

But at least for now, redemption is not on their mind.

“When we clinched, of course everyone is happy,” Barrett said on Tuesday. “It’s a very big accomplishment for the franchise, but we’re just focusing on beating Indiana, because we can’t get to the playoffs before we play these three games.”

source: nypost.com