{"id":696714,"date":"2026-04-03T22:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696714\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:43:15","slug":"knicks-top-3-playoff-seeding-in-jeopardy-with-9th-toughest-schedule-remaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696714\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks top-3 playoff seeding in jeopardy with 9th toughest schedule remaining"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks<\/a> are not safe as a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. In fact, they\u2019re closer to falling behind the Cleveland Cavaliers as the fourth seed than they are to catching Boston for second in the East.<\/p>\n

And with just five games left in their regular-season schedule before the top-six playoff seeds of each conference lock-in, the Knicks have the ninth-toughest remaining schedule in all of basketball. They hosted the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on Friday; will enjoy two days of rest before the visiting Atlanta Hawks in a playoff preview at State Farm Arena on April 6; will see two more days of rest before a home back-to-back against a pair of potential playoff matchups in the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors; then play their season finale at The Garden against the Charlotte Hornets, who beat the Knicks on March 6<\/a>, 114-103, to spur a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The Knicks, who are egregiously seven games behind the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons, are 2.5 games behind the Celtics for No. 2 and just one game ahead of the fourth-place Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers have the easiest remaining schedule in all of basketball, with two matchups against the Hawks, one game apiece against the tanking Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, and a season finale against the dumpster-fire Washington Wizards on the slate.<\/p>\n

The Celtics rank dead-center, 15th, in remaining strength of schedule. Boston will play four playoff teams (Knicks, Raptors, Hornets, Magic) and two tanking teams (Pelicans, Bucks) before the regular season ends.<\/p>\n

Which puts the Knicks in a bind. Because even if the Knicks lose their April 9 matchup against the Celtics, they\u2019ll still hold the tiebreaker via divisional record should the two teams finish the season with identical win-loss columns. For that to happen, however, the Knicks would need to win four of their final games \u2014 not impossible, but improbable \u2014 and the Celtics, winners of eight of their last 10 games, would need to lose four of their final six.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just to catch No. 2.<\/p>\n

The Knicks need to stay out of fourth place, because doing so effectively guarantees a second-round matchup against No. 1 Detroit, who has beaten New York by 38, 31 and 15 this season and has won six of their last seven matchups against the Knicks. The matchup could be favorable to the Knicks should Cade Cunningham\u2019s health<\/a> (collapsed lung) remain in question, but the expectation is the Pistons\u2019 All-Star will make a full recovery for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Falling to four would also pit the Knicks against the East\u2019s fifth seed, instead of sixth, though the seeding between Nos.\u00a0 5 and 10 is still in flux with just four games separating No. 5 Atlanta and No. 10 Miami.<\/p>\n

The Heat have the fourth-lightest remaining schedule in the NBA.<\/p>\n

And the Cavaliers can win out with ease, or at least cruise to four wins in their last five games should they drop a game against the playoff-bound Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n

The Knicks hold the tiebreaker with Cleveland and have the same number of games (five) on the schedule, so they can only lose one more game than the Cavs down the stretch without falling to four.<\/p>\n

Which begs the question: What\u2019s the most favorable first-round matchup for the Knicks?<\/p>\n

Certainly not the Orlando Magic, who can creep up the standings from ninth into the top-six with a strong finish and a little bit of luck. The Hornets are a wild card \u2014 the kind of team that can spell imminent doom for the Knicks if they\u2019re not firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n

The Hawks pose issues similar to those of Orlando: they are tough-nosed, physical and have one of the league\u2019s best point of attack defenders in Dyson Daniels to hawk Jalen Brunson the full length of the court, but the Knicks should be able to counter by exposing Atlanta\u2019s inexperienced young core.<\/p>\n

The 76ers could pose some problems \u2014 heavily hinging on Joel Embiid\u2019s availability and Paul George\u2019s status \u2014 but the Knicks should feel confident in that matchup should it arise. They should also feel confident in a first-round matchup against the Toronto Raptors having already beaten them four times this season with one more game left on the schedule.<\/p>\n

They shouldn\u2019t feel too confident beyond those rounds, however: The Cavaliers humbled the Knicks in their only game played after the James Harden trade. The Celtics now have Jayson Tatum back and look primed for a revenge tour following last season\u2019s second-round let-down.<\/p>\n

And the Pistons?<\/p>\n

The Pistons were robbed in Game 6 of their first-round series against the Knicks. Their coach, JB Bickerstaff, wants blood, and he\u2019s gotten it over the course of the regular season.<\/p>\n

It all underscores the need for a strong finish over the final five games of the season. Not for seeding, though it\u2019ll help. For this team\u2019s confidence. Because the Knicks haven\u2019t fared well against playoff teams this season. And playoff teams is what they\u2019ll get the rest of the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks are not safe as a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. In fact, they\u2019re closer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,46,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-696714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-celtics","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343197233107072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}