Events

Knicks, Celtics meet with playoff seeding potentially at stake

Disappointing first halves have left New York and Boston mired in the same realm of a muddy Eastern Conference race.

Kemba Walker's Knicks come to TD Garden for a big Eastern Conference contest, but knee troubles could keep the guard from playing against Jaylen Brown and his former Celtic teammates.

By Dave D'Onofrio

1 minute to read

As the midway point of a season approached, the Celtics found themselves clinging to one of the final places in the NBA’s Eastern Conference play-in tournament. It was a position that left them entering the new year looking like a disappointment, and looking desperate for wins to solidify their position.

Getting one of those wins on January 8 just may prove to be a big step toward doing just that.

The Knicks roll into town for a primetime, Saturday night tussle – and they’re just as desperate as the Celtics. In fact, New York and Boston both trudged into 2022 with the same record, an underwhelming 17-19, and both teams had spent the early portion of the season damaging their case that they belonged in the conversation of Eastern Conference contenders.

The Knicks had been looking to build on last season, when they entered the postseason as the East’s No. 4 seed. In their first year under former Celtic assistant Tom Thibodeau, they went 41-31, and Julius Randle appeared on the cusp of superstardom. This year both the team and Randle have regressed, at least through the first two-plus months, and the free-agent additions of ex-Celtics Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker haven’t exactly worked out in a way that bolsters confidence this team is building toward something.

That said, the Celtics are in no better shape than the Knicks – and, in fact, if the teams should also be tied at the end of the regular season, the January home-and-home series between the teams could determine seeding, or even inclusion, in the playoffs. The Knicks scored the first of those two games when RJ Barrett banked in a buzzer beater, and Fournier’s 41 points helped New York erase Boston’s 25-point lead. After the clubs split their first two meetings of the season, that result gave the Knicks a lead in the season series, and so they’ll earn the season series (and a potentially important head-to-head tiebreaker) by triumphing in Boston on Saturday night.