Barbara Barker: Knicks starters rest for Game 82, prepare for Hawks in first round of playoffs
New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges shakes hands with guard Jordan Clarkson as he comes out of the game early in the first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets in an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, April 12, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Now the real fun begins.
The Knicks roller coaster of a regular season concluded Sunday with a 110-96 loss to the Charlotte Hornets that was so devoid of importance that they rested all their starters except Mikal Bridges, who played the first 23 seconds in order to extend his consecutive-game streak to 638.
It will be the last meaningless game this team plays as they enter the postseason with higher expectations, from their owner and fans, than any Knicks team has faced since Jeff Van Gundy was patrolling the sideline some two decades ago.
Winning in the playoffs is often about what team gets hot at the right time, and there are some recent indications that this Knicks team, after persevering through some really ugly stretches, is coming together when it matters most. (More on that later.)
Heading into Sunday’s play, the Knicks had the No. 3 seed locked up but the No. 6 seed was still up for grabs. Because of that, many of those at Madison Square Garden’s Fan Appreciation Night spent as much time looking at scores on their phones as they did the action on the court.
By the end of the night, the No. 6 seed was revealed and it wasn’t quite the matchup everyone had hoped for.
Instead of opening the playoffs this coming weekend at Madison Square Garden against the Toronto Raptors, a team they swept this season and have a 13-game winning streak against and beat five times this season by an average margin of 19.6, the Knicks will play host to the Atlanta Hawks.
The Knicks have the Boston Celtics to thank for that. The Celtics messed up what would have been a Knicks-Raptors matchup by beating Orlando, 113-108, on Sunday despite the fact the Magic was playing all their starters and the Celtics started their reserves.
Leave it to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla to push his reserve players to win a game to give the Knicks a tougher opponent. Though the Knicks won their series in Atlanta, 2-1, the margin was razor thin. Both the Knicks victories came by just three points, while the Hawks earned a 111-99 victory at Madison Square Garden.
It may take the Knicks more games to advance, but it’s hard to imagine them not getting out of the first round. These playoffs, however, have never been about getting out of the first round, second round or even the Eastern Conference Finals.
At the start of the season, the Knicks were a favorite to come out of what was supposed to be a an Eastern Conference weakened by injuries. In December, the looked so formidable after winning the NBA Cup that Madison Square Garden chairman declared that anything short of getting to the NBA Finals would be a disappointment.
Shortly after that the Knicks went through months of growing pains where they common refrain seemed to be whether their two best offensive weapons, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, would be able to produce together in first-year Knick coach Mike Brown’s offense. The recent returns there are encouraging as both came up big in the final weeks of the regular season, pushing the Knicks to important wins over a hot Atlanta team and the Boston Celtics.
Oh yes, about those Celtics.
Of course, they are the major road block to the Knicks going deep into the playoffs. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. No one expected the Celtics, without Jayson Tatum, to play well enough to grab the second seed. And no one expected Tatum to come back from a torn Achilles fast enough to join his team in time for the playoffs.
There are still many out there who think the Knicks win over the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals was a fluke. I’m not sure I’m one of them given that the Knicks stunned the defending champs by winning the first two games in Boston, taking control of the series long before Tatum was injured in Game 3.
The Knicks were 3-1 against Boston this year, yet they have yet to play them with Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the lineup. That day will come, and it’s going to be a challenge.
But first they have to take on Atlanta.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
