New York Knicks: How likely are the 4/5 seeds for the NBA playoffs?

How will the landscape of the NBA Playoffs shape out for the New York Knicks and their rivals?

The Atlanta Hawks are just one game behind New York in the standings. One important thing to note is that the Knicks do have the tie-breaker with Atlanta from sweeping them 3-0 in the regular season.

Atlanta has been one of the hottest teams in the NBA since they made Nate McMillan their head coach in March. They got close to beating New York in their last matchup the other week, where Trae Young went down with an injury.

The Hawks have actually played two more games than NYK and only have four remaining. They will play the Wizards twice, the Orlando Magic, and the Houston Rockets. While the Wizards games will be challenging, I would bet on Atlanta going 3-1. If that were the case, the Knicks would have to go 3-3 to finish above them.

There are going to be some huge games for both the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics. They’ll play each other in back-to-back games early next week. Three of the Celtics’ other remaining games are against the Bulls, Timberwolves, Cavaliers, and Timberwolves – all games where they should be heavily favored.

They close out the season against New York in what I expect to be a heated game that will almost certainly affect the seeding for the NBA Playoffs.

The Heat’s other 4 games aside from their matchups with Boston, are against the Timberwolves, the 76ers, Bucks, and Pistons – definitely a mixed bag. It might be tough sledding for Miami to reach the Knicks, but I fully expect them to be a dangerous play-in team.

The New York Knicks still have to take care of business if they want to secure the 4th seed In the Eastern Conference for the NBA Playoffs. They’re in the driver’s seat to have homecourt advantage in the first round.

Hopefully, they can hang on during the remainder of their West Coast trip and get everyone on the roster to full health.