Predicting where the Knicks will finish in the Eastern Conference Standings
With the Knicks season being just nine games away from concluding, New York is currently the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference as of 3/21/23 and could see their positioning fluctuate depending on how the rest of the season goes.
The Knicks are currently 3.5 behind the No. 4 seed, but just half-game from falling back down to the sixth seed, below the rival Brooklyn Nets. However, there’s still plenty of time for the Knicks to prove people wrong and potentially be a top-four seed for the second time in three seasons.
Regardless, the Knicks have a very up-and-down schedule that will play a massive role in how the rest of this season pans out.
Where will the Knicks end up in the Eastern Conference standings by the end of the season?
As things currently stand, here is the remaining schedule for the Knicks:
- 3/22/23 @ Heat
- 3/23/23 @ Magic
- 3/27/23 vs. Rockets
- 3/29/23 vs. Heat
- 3/31/23 @ Cavaliers
- 4/2/23 vs. Wizards
- 4/5/23 @ Pacers
- 4/7/23 @ Pelicans
- 4/9/23 vs. Pacers
While there are certainly some tough teams to beat such as the Cavaliers and Heat, there’s a really high chance that the Knicks win a majority of their final nine games to close out the season and potentially push up.
While the Knicks’ schedule may look somewhat easy, it’s important to take a look at their opponents and their schedules as well. The team ahead of them, the Cavaliers, have an incredibly easy stretch of games ahead of them that could make moving up the standings difficult.
Cleveland plays the Magic twice, the Hornets, and the Pacers. These are three tanking teams not looking to win many games, especially toward the end of the season. As for the team below them, the Nets, who are just half-game back, they have a much more difficult schedule and could slip down the standings.
Out of the 13 games the Nets have left, eight of them are against opponents with a record of above .500, including teams like the 76ers, Nuggets, and Cavaliers twice. While this Brooklyn team is no joke even after being blown up, we have to trust the Knicks to out-perform them as the year comes to a close.
Will the Knicks rise or fall down the Eastern Conference standings?
Given the schedule of the three teams within main contention for the Knicks’ current playoff position, it seems more likely than not that they’ll will just coast into the playoffs as the five-seed.
The only way we can really see the Knicks moving in either direction is if the Cavaliers manage to lose some incredibly easy games, or the Nets do some unprecedented things in their final 13 matchups. These are both just incredibly unlikely based on what we’ve seen so far this season.
Under this scenario in which they remain the fifth seed, the Knicks would enter the playoffs set to face off against the Cavaliers in the first round. That would be an entertaining series since these are two relatively inexperienced teams looking to prove themselves.
Regardless, it’ll be incredibly fun to watch and hopefully the Knicks can prove everyone wrong by making it past the first round for the first time since 2013 when Carmelo Anthony was running the show.
