2024 NBA playoffs: Knicks, Tom Thibodeau pass on tanking for easier first-round matchup

[ad_1]

This is going to come off as disrespectful to the Indiana Pacers, and perhaps it is, but the simple fact is that a higher seed in the NBA playoffs is not always a good thing. 

Case in point: The New York Knicks are the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed after defeating the Chicago Bulls in overtime on Sunday, which means a first-round matchup with either the Philadelphia 76ers or Miami Heat. Had New York, shall we say, allowed the Chicago game slip through its fingers down the stretch, it would have been the No. 3 seed and set to play the Pacers in the first round. 

Again, perhaps it’s disrespectful to the Pacers to suggest they represent an easier series than the Sixers or Heat, but a case surely can be made. That is even with plenty of people suggesting they have a real shot to upset Milwaukee in the No. 3 vs. No. 6 series. The Sixers with Joel Embiid were a top-shelf contender, and he has hit the ground running in his return. The Heat are, well, the Heat. If you want any part of them in a playoff series, you’re a masochist. 

The league tries to avoid this sort of seed manipulation by scheduling all these games at the same time on the final day of the season. But midway through the fourth quarter, the Knicks knew that Cleveland and the Bucks had both lost and Orlando had won, which secured the Cavs into No. 4 and the Magic into No. 5. The only thing left to be determined was Nos. 2 and 3, and it rode entirely on New York’s outcome. 

So, again, they could’ve, you know, missed a few shots they might’ve ordinarily made (though I’m not sure Donte DiVincenzo could miss if he tried, to be fair), or even played a little more relaxed defense on DeMar DeRozan on potential game-winners at the end of regulation and overtime. 

But that’s not how Tom Thibodeau and these Knicks roll. 

“Competitors compete. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game, if it’s 1 on 1, if it’s a shooting game, if it’s dominoes, if it’s some crazy podcast… they compete,” Thibodeau said. “You don’t have to wind these guys up. And that’s what I love about them. We’re not…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2024-nba-playoffs-knicks-tom-thibodeau-pass-on-tanking-for-easier-first-round-matchup/

Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2024-04-15 00:06:57

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.