The Knicks should finish the season with the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed–even if head coach Mike Brown says seeding is lower-priority than “playing the right way” with 14 games left on the schedule entering Sunday’s matchup against the Golden State Warriors.

The Knicks entered the Warriors game in sole ownership of the East’s No. 3 seed, 1.5 games behind the second-seeded Boston Celtics and six games behind the No. 1 Detroit Pistons.

While the Pistons are nestled comfortably with a cushion atop the East, the Celtics are within reach at No. 2—and face a far steeper schedule the rest of the way than the Knicks.

“It’s tricky because let’s say we were in second, and we were a game in front of somebody. Are we just gonna play better because of that?” Brown said ahead of tipoff on Sunday. “I hope at this point of the season we’re playing the right way [regardless of seeding], and sometimes, you’ll lose while playing the right way, but you’re playing the right way all the time—not just to try to catch Boston. That’s part of the equation, but that’s not the end-all, be-all.”

On average, the Knicks’ final 14 opponents are roughly 1.5 seeds weaker than the Celtics’ remaining slate. That discrepancy could prove meaningful in the standings, with second-round home-court advantage hanging in the balance.

After Sunday’s game against the Warriors, the Knicks enter a stretch featuring four games against teams openly jockeying for NBA Draft Lottery odds: the Indiana Pacers (15–52), Brooklyn Nets (17–50), Washington Wizards (16–50 — yes, those Wizards), and the New Orleans Pelicans (22–46).

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The Knicks still have four games remaining against top-six teams from either conference: March 29 against the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, March 31 against the No. 4 Houston Rockets in the first leg of a road back-to-back, and an April 9–10 home back-to-back against the Celtics and Toronto Raptors.

Boston’s road is steeper: The Celtics still have five games remaining against top-six opponents — Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Toronto, New York and Orlando — plus six more games against teams fighting for Play-In Tournament positioning.

“I want us to play the right way because it’s time to do that. We’re going into the playoffs. Play the right way,” Brown continued. “Again,  you’ll lose sometimes playing the right way, but you want to go into the playoffs doing this (gesturing up), not just with your play but with your confidence or your belief, and so I think that’s just as much of it as opposed to — hey let’s find a way to win just to catch these guys. No, no: handle all the small details, embrace the details, embrace the journey. All that stuff and go get a win. So there are a lot of factors, not just those guys are ahead of us by a game-and-a-half and the guys are behind us by two games.”

The Knicks, meanwhile, face only four games against teams seeded between sixth and tenth: Sunday’s meeting with Golden State, two matchups with the surging Charlotte Hornets, and one game in Atlanta against the Hawks. Both teams have two remaining back-to-backs, but Boston’s remaining strength of schedule is significantly stronger.

The Knicks don’t even necessarily need to finish with a better record than the Celtics to secure home-court advantage in a potential second-round matchup. A tie will do the trick.

New York currently holds a 2-1 edge in the season series entering the April 9 Atlantic Division finale. Even if the Knicks lose that game, the NBA’s tiebreaker rules will still work in their favor. Divisional record is the next tiebreaker, and as of Sunday, the Knicks held an 11-3 mark within the Atlantic Division compared to Boston’s 9-5 record. New York still has three divisional games remaining—Brooklyn, Boston and Toronto—while the Celtics have only two.

That means even in a scenario where the Knicks lose to both Boston and Toronto but defeat Brooklyn—and Boston wins its remaining divisional games—the Knicks would still have a better Atlantic record and win the tiebreaker. In that case, the No. 2 seed—and with it second-round home-court advantage—would belong to New York.

Of course, the Knicks aren’t insulated from sliding the other direction.

The Cleveland Cavaliers sit just two games behind New York and have seven remaining games against teams currently tanking for lottery odds. Cleveland also has no games left against the top four seeds in either conference.

And the Knicks have shown this season how quickly things can spiral. Their recent back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers marked the first time New York has lost exactly two games in a row this season. Every other downturn has been either a single loss—or a slide of three or more.

So yes, the Knicks have a clear opportunity to catch Boston. Avoiding fourth place may be even more important. Because if the Knicks slip to No. 4, they would almost certainly be on a collision course with the top-seeded Pistons in the second round—the same Pistons team that has dominated New York this season with victories by 37, 31 and 15 points.