Barbara Barker: Knicks' starters rest for Game 82, prepare for Hawks in first round of playoffs
New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges shakes hands with guard Jordan Clarkson as he comes out of the game early in the first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets in an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, April 12, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Now the real fun begins.
The Knicks’ roller coaster of a regular season concluded Sunday with a 110-96 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at the Garden that was so devoid of importance that they rested all of their starters except Mikal Bridges, who played the first 23 seconds to extend his consecutive-game streak to 638 and then left the game for good.
It will be the last meaningless game the Knicks play. They enter the postseason with higher expectations from their owner and fans than any Knicks team has faced since Jeff Van Gundy was patrolling the sideline two decades ago.
Winning in the playoffs often is about which team gets hot at the right time, and there are some recent indications that the Knicks, after persevering through some really ugly stretches, are coming together when it matters most. (More on that later.)
Heading into Sunday’s play, the Knicks had the No. 3 seed locked up, but the No. 6 seed was still up for grabs. Because of that, many of those at Fan Appreciation Night spent as much time looking at scores on their phones as they did the action on the court.
By the end of the night, the No. 6 seed was revealed, and it wasn’t quite the matchup Knicks fans had hoped for.
Instead of opening the playoffs this coming weekend at the Garden against the Raptors, a team they have beaten 13 straight times and defeated five times this season by an average margin of 19.6 points, the Knicks will host the Hawks at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Game 1.
They have the Celtics to thank for that.
Boston messed up what would have been a Knicks-Raptors matchup by beating Orlando, 113-108, on Sunday despite the fact that the Magic were playing all of their starters and the Celtics started their reserves.
Leave it to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla to push his reserve players to win a game to give the Knicks a tougher opponent. Though the Knicks won their series against Atlanta, 2-1, the margin was razor-thin. Both of the Knicks’ victories came by only three points and the Hawks earned a 111-99 victory at the Garden.
“They’re a great team. I’m looking forward to the matchup,” said Deuce McBride, who had 21 points against the Hornets. “They are a team that defends really well. They got guys who can go get a bucket on the offensive end, but their team defense is really something challenging. So it’s going to be an exciting payoff series.”
It may take the Knicks more games to advance, but it’s hard to imagine them not getting out of the first round. This postseason, however, has never been about getting out of the first round or second round.
At the start of the season, the Knicks were a favorite to come out of what was supposed to be an Eastern Conference weakened by injuries. In December, they looked so formidable after winning the NBA Cup that Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan declared that anything short of getting to the NBA Finals would be a disappointment.
Shortly after that, the Knicks went through months of growing pains in which the common refrain seemed to be whether their two best offensive weapons, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, would be able to produce together in Mike Brown’s offense.
The recent returns there are encouraging. Both came up big in the final weeks of the regular season, pushing the Knicks to important wins over a hot Atlanta team and the Celtics.
About those Celtics . . .
They are the major roadblock to the Knicks going deep into the playoffs. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, though. No one expected the Celtics, without Jayson Tatum, to play well enough to grab the second seed. And no one expected Tatum to come back from an Achilles tear fast enough to join his team in time for the playoffs.
There still are many out there who think the Knicks’ win over the Celtics in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals was a fluke. I’m not sure I’m one of them, given that the Knicks stunned the defending champions by winning the first two games in Boston, taking control of the series long before Tatum was injured in Game 4.
The Knicks were 3-1 against Boston this season, but they have yet to play them with Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the lineup. That day will come, and it’s going to be a challenge.
But first they have to take on Atlanta.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
