Game Day: Knicks vs. Spurs, 5/13/21

The Knicks return home as a newly-minted playoff team, looking for revenge over the Spurs after they drubbed New York back in March. Can the Knicks close out the season with a bang and get higher playoff seeding than their guaranteed sixth?

The Knicks are a playoff team.

That feels pretty damn cool to let flow off my fingers! While sitting at home on Wednesday night, the Celtics shitting the bed against the Cavs was enough to punch the Knicks’ ticket to the ’offs, avoiding the play-in round and guaranteeing they’ll be playing as one of the Nos. 4-6 seed.

Now, which one of those they end up isn’t entirely up to the Knicks at this point, but they can start off by doing work at home tonight and at least controlling what they’re capable of controlling.

The Spurs, meanwhile, have not been all that good against guaranteed playoff teams lately (which, I might remind you, the Knicks are). They’ve played seven such games in their last nine, and only won one of them. Also during that nine-game stretch, they’re operating with a -5.7 net rating, sputtering as they attempt to hold onto the 10th seed in the West and stay in the play-in round.

If you recall, once upon a time, this Spurs team beat the crap out of the Knicks shortly before the All-Star break. It seems pretty safe to say that that was one of the final straws as far as the Knicks being a mediocre team and leveling up to good: since the All-Star break, the Knicks have the eighth-best net rating in the entire NBA at +4.2.

So there’s kinda two sides to this coin — on one side, the Spurs kinda stink lately, and there’s a big opening here for the Knicks to crush them and welcome themselves back to their home floor. On the other, we’ve already seen this season that while the Spurs maybe aren’t good, they’re certainly an NBA team, and certainly able to beat you if you don’t come at them with 100% effort.

So will the Knicks be content with their newfound playoff spot, or come out guns blazing trying to get back in the fourth seed? My money’s on the latter, and they’re also likely getting back Alec Burks and potentially getting back Immanuel Quickley. If they can get this win, wins against the Hornets and Celtics to close things out this weekend don’t seem out of the cards. Even just winning two of these three would give the Knicks 40 wins for the year, a far cry from the low 20s they were projected prior to the year.

The game is at 7:30 on MSG tonight. Only two more Clyde games for the season now, with Sunday’s game being announced as an ESPN contest, so enjoy these last two while they last! Come hang with us on Twitter if you want.