A tough remaining schedule means likely play-in tourney spot
NEW YORK — The good news for the Knicks is that it will be difficult, even as they have been sliding of late, to fall out of the postseason picture. But the bad news is that after sitting in fourth place ahead of these recent struggles they are heading toward the NBA’s play-in tournament.
That’s certainly not the worst thing, not for a franchise that has been out of the playoffs since 2013 and entered the season with few observers predicting anything close to a playoff spot for the team. Even last season when the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Knicks found themselves not only out of the playoffs but not even invited to the bubble restart in Orlando.
Now, the schedule is working against them, 21 of their final 22 games — starting with Monday’s loss to the Nets, a loss Wednesday in Boston and Friday’s win over Memphis — are against teams currently in the playoff picture. The condensed schedule has limited practice time for Tom Thibodeau and his team, a blow to a coach who repeats his mantra over and over that the magic is in the work. Thibodeau has said they have settled for film work and mostly individual work, resting the high minutes’ players and focusing on recovery and treatment. Morning walkthroughs have turned into the studious preparation time Thibodeau covets.
The one plus right now with the team struggling is that starting with Friday’s revitalizing overtime win over Memphis the Knicks were home for nine of 11 games.
The counter to that is that the stretch is followed by a road trip of six games in 10 nights. They then finish off the regular season with three home games.
“I think you’re heading down the stretch,” Thibodeau said. “The important thing — you try to build that habit from the start of the season. And that’s the trap that you fall into — you start looking ahead like that.
“I think every team right now is facing the challenge of looking at a condensed schedule. So how do you maximize that time? Obviously, the added benefit of being home is there’s less travel involved. Our schedule is very unusual in the sense that the travel that we do have, oftentimes we’re walking back into an early start game or something like that. So being ready to play and understanding what goes into each and every game is critical at this point in the season.”
The reality of the Knicks current situation is that the most likely scenario puts them in the play-in tournament. If they finish seventh or eighth they would play a game for the seventh seed, with the loser facing the winner of the ninth and 10th-place finishers for the eighth seed. The consolation prize is that no matter where they finish from seven to 10, they would be in the NBA Draft Lottery if they fell out of the playoffs.
Would it be a best-case scenario, to get out of the dysfunctional sludge the franchise had been operating in and even getting a brief playoff test before taking their chances in the lottery?
Is that even better than facing the Nets, Bucks or 76ers in a firstround playoff series?