Knicks have less arduous 16 games left on regular-season schedule
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson stands on the court during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday in Inglewood, Calif. Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong
LOS ANGELES — When the Knicks arrived in Los Angeles for a back-to-back set of games against the Lakers and Clippers they were riding high from a one-sided win in Denver and enjoying the warmth of the sun, the first time they’d arrived in summer-like weather since the NBA Cup in Las Vegas.
But they departed Tuesday afternoon with a cloud over them after a pair of troubling losses that not only ruined the mood, but put their place in the playoff race in question.
The Knicks held the second spot in the East much of the season, trailing only the Detroit Pistons, who despite a recent slump, still hold the top spot. But Boston, buoyed by the return of Jayson Tatum, has passed the Knicks. Cleveland, with the addition of James Harden, are hot on their heels, just a half-game behind the Knicks.
But after enduring the most arduous stretch of the schedule — six-game stretch that included San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Toronto at home and then road games against Denver, the Lakers and Clippers — the Knicks now begin a 16-game finish to the season with the third easiest schedule on paper in the NBA.
Their opponents combine for a .439 winning percentage. The road trip continues in Utah and Indiana, both teams mired near the bottom of the league and focused on the lottery. Back home they host Golden State, then tour the dregs of the NBA with games against Indiana, the Nets, Washington and New Orleans.
How it matters most is where it places the Knicks in the playoff race, what path they have to reach the goal they’ve clearly stated: winning an NBA championship this season.
Knicks coach Mike Brown is in his first season in New York, but has been to the Finals as a head coach in Cleveland and an assistant twice with Golden State. And he believes this group has the pieces that those teams did.
“Everybody says what is the difference between the three teams . . . ” Brown said. “But the things I think are common amongst all of them are what we formulated as our standard and all those teams, they sacrificed for one another. All those teams, they’re connected. All those teams have a competitive spirt. All those teams have a belief in the process and each other. . .
“Throughout the course of the team we’ve grown a lot in those areas. Everybody needs to go through adversity. We went through some adversity and we were able to try to lean on our standards while we did do that. That’s something that’ll carry us a long way come playoff time.”
The Knicks currently line up against the Orlando Magic, a team that gave them trouble early in the season and sits in sixth place. A drop to fourth place could put the Knicks in position to face Toronto, a team that they have swept all four games from this season. Miami and Philadelphia loom as teams in the chase with reasons to fear a matchup with them.
The Knicks dismiss any talk about this, about anything beyond the next game on the schedule. But the organization, even under former head coach, Tom Thibodeau, didn’t play the game of giving up games to secure a preferred position. Just as the Knicks and Cavs or even the Celtics could shuffle positions from two to four, Orlando is just one game back of Toronto.
And Cleveland’s schedule is even easier than the Knicks the rest of the way. Boston has the third most difficult schedule in terms of opponent winning percentage (. 538). Starting Tuesday night in San Antonio the Celtics are on a tough stretch of the schedule.
Last season, teams sat players to try to plot a path through the playoff matchups. The Knicks wound up with the Pistons in the opening round and after a hard-fought battle seemed bound to see their season end with Boston, the defending champs who had beaten them all four times in the regular season. But the Knicks eliminated the Celtics in six games while Indiana upset first-place Cleveland in the second round.
“It goes back to not being satisfied when we do the things that we're supposed to do,” Jalen Brunson said.
Ranking the Knicks' possible first-round playoff opponents from easiest to hardest:
1. Toronto: The Knicks not only have swept them this season and beaten them 12 straight times, but the Raptors don’t possess the weapons that have given the Knicks fits. They’re 25th in three-point field goals made and 22nd in shooting percentage beyond the arc.
2. Orlando: The physical style of the Magic, like Detroit, has given the Knicks problems. But much of their threat relies on the injury status of Franz Wagner, who has been sidelined with a high ankle sprain since Feb. 11 and has played just 28 games this season.
3. Charlotte: The hottest offensive team over the second half of the season, but they would enter any playoff series with no postseason experience.
4. Miami: It has not seemed like a typical season for the Heat, but Erik Spoelstra in a playoff series and the unorthodox style the Heat adopted this season would make any Knicks fan nervous.
5. Philadelphia: It’s certainly contingent on the health of Joel Embiid, but at full strength the 76ers are an imposing threat with the sort of speedy backcourt in Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe that the Knicks have had a difficult time dealing with this season.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
