Knicks to face winner of Heat-76ers Play-In game in first round of NBA Playoffs

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With their overtime win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon and the Milwaukee Bucks’ blowout loss to the Magic, the Knicks have officially clinched the second overall seed in the Eastern Conference.

New York will have a tough road ahead as they await the winner of the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers meeting in the Play-In Tournament for their opening-round matchup, which kicks off this weekend.

The Knicks, of course, were eliminated by the Heat last year in six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals but they did have an edge in the season series this time around.

Philadelphia, on the other hand, won three of their four meetings this season but star small forward OG Anunoby appeared in just one of those contests.

With the other games playing out how they did, some questioned whether or not the Knicks would’ve been better off purposely losing on Sunday to avoid the tougher matchup, as the Cavs did against the Hornets.

If New York were to lose, they’d have been the three seed and would be hosting old friend Obi Toppin and the Indiana Pacers in the first round, but that thought never went through their minds.

“The object is to win, so you put everything you have into winning, that’s the bottom line,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said.

“We don’t care what they’re doing,” Donte DiVincenzo added. “We’re focused on our locker room. Whatever they decide to do, that’s their team, their organization’s decision. Our decision was to play. Everybody played and we won the game.”

Miami and Philadelphia play Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-face-winner-heat-76ers-002003790.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2024-04-15 00:20:03

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