Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Alive at No. 5: Knicks Set for Playoff Series vs. Donovan Mitchell, Cavs
With apologies to Jim Mora, the New York Knicks and their fans can officially start talking about playoffs.
Tuesday action across the NBA solidified one leg of the Eastern Conference postseason bracket: a combination of the Cleveland Cavaliers' win over Orlando, the Brooklyn Nets' loss to Minnesota, and the Philadelphia 76ers' triumph over the Boston Celtics locked the Knicks into the fifth seed in the East. Cleveland likewise clinched the No. 4 with its victory over the Magic, setting up the fourth postseason matchup with New York.
Dates and tip-off times for the series will be unveiled at a later date.
Though the Knicks (46-33) missed out on homecourt advantage, settling in the fifth seed is a fate few foresaw after the team endured last season's disappointing follow-up to its fourth-place run in the abbreviated 2020-21 campaign. New York is seeking its first postseason series victory since 2013, having fallen to the Atlanta Hawks as the No. 4 two years ago.
The matchup with the Cavs (50-30) will feature no shortage of storylines: at the forefront is an oncoming battle with Donovan Mitchell, whose offseason flirtations with the Knicks generated many a headline before Cleveland stepped in. Mitchell's arrival allowed the Cavs to break a postseason drought of their own, as this will mark their first playoff series without the services of LeBron James since 1998.
New York took this regular season's four-game set against the Cavs by a 3-1 tally, clinching the would-be tiebreaker with a 130-116 win on Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse behind a career-best 48-point showing from Jalen Brunson.
Cleveland will also look to avenge three prior teams that fell to the Knicks in the postseason: in three prior postseason matchups (all coming in the first round), New York owns an 8-1 advantage, sweeping the Cavs in two in 1978 before taking consecutive best-of-five openers in 1995-96. That last meeting also saw them meet in the Nos. 4 vs. 5 matchup, as a dominant performance from Patrick Ewing (18.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.7 blocks) set the pace in the 3-0 series win.
Tuesday night officially formed the 10-team Eastern Conference postseason party, though not all seeds have been confirmed. Orlando's loss to Cleveland officially eliminated the former from postseason contention, clinching a Play-In Tournament spot for the 10th-place Chicago Bulls, who appear destined to face No. 9 Toronto. Brooklyn currently holds the sixth and final automatic entry by one game over Miami and three above Atlanta.
In the meantime, the Knicks have three more regular season tune-ups before the postseason begins, a stretch that tips off on Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers (7 p.m. ET, MSG).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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