The New York Knicks have been holding steady at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff standings for quite awhile, for better or worse, but have a chance to solidify their spot in the postseason on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, they'll have to do so without the services of Amare Stoudemire once again.
Celtics Vs. Knicks: Boston Could Wrap Up Atlantic Division With A Win
The New York Knicks and Boston Celtics will meet at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night with a clear path to the Atlantic Division title on the line for the visiting Celtics.
Getty Images
The Boston Celtics will visit Madison Square Garden for the last time during the regular season when the two teams tip off at 8 p.m. in the first game of a TNT doubleheader. Considering Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin are both out for the foreseeable future -- and Ray Allen is likely to return to the visiting team's lineup -- the Knicks have a difficult task in front of them.
It's kind of seemed like a foregone conclusion, but the Celtics can officially clinch the Atlantic Division with a win over the Knicks as long as the Philadelphia 76ers lose to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, too. That would guarantee Boston home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs despite having the same record as the fifth and sixth seeds in the East (the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, respectively).
In order to stay in the division race a little while longer, the Knicks will likely need both a huge game out of Carmelo Anthony and some way to limit Rajon Rondo (on national television, no less). The latter is a difficult task, as our friends at CelticsBlog ran down in their game preview on Tuesday morning.
Rondo has faced a different point guard in each matchup with the Knicks but he’s played very well against them all. He has averaged 18.7 points, 13.3 assists and 9.0 rebounds in the 3 meetings. With this being on national TV, I expect another big game from Rondo.
So does the rest of the nation, but maybe Iman Shumpert can lock him up?
For more on the Celtics, be sure to check out CelticsBlog. For the best Knicks site on the ‘net, visit Posting and Toasting.
See More:
