The New York Knicks looked to some like a team that may not be interested in facing the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs when they nearly let the Clippers come back from an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit in last night’s 99-93 victory.
After scoring 17 points, Carmelo Anthony sat out the entire fourth quarter, but he certainly did not seem concerned about who his team will face.
”Right now it really doesn’t matter,” Anthony said. ”Whoever we play, we’ll have to start on the road anyway, so we just want to start just preparing for whether it’s Chicago, whether it’s Miami, just get ready to go.”
Coach Mike Woodson told the team to pack for a long trip, in case the first playoff game is scheduled for Saturday. If that is the case, the Knicks will fly tonight to Miami or Chicago. If their Game 1 is scheduled for Sunday, they will return home to New York.
If both the Knicks and Sixers lose, New York (35-30) will remain in the seventh seed as they hold the tie-breaker against Philadelphia.
Their fate will be decided tonight when they visit the league-worst Charlotte Bobcats to play the final game of the season in Thursday’s best game, on TNT.
The teams played all three of their previous matchups in January, with the Knicks taking two of the three contests.
In their last meeting on Jan. 24, New York routed Charlotte 111-78 despite Anthony scoring only one point in the game. Tyson Chandler led the way with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
Anthony will likely sit out the final game, while Chandler and Amare Stoudemire may or may not play.
Chandler, a defensive player of the year candidate, has a shooting percentage of 67.9 percent going into the game. That mark leads the league and is the third highest mark of all time, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain who shot 68.2 percent in 1966-1967 and an NBA record 72.7 percent in 1972-1973. Chandler will be the first Knick to lead the NBA in shooting since Kenny Sears (47.7%) did it back in 1959-60.
For Charlotte (7-58), the last game may be about playing for pride more than anything else.
With a loss tonight, they would extend their losing streak to 23 games and break the league mark for the lowest single-season winning percentage of all time at .106.
The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers held a 9-73 record for a .110 percentage, the current worst winning percentage.
The Bobcats have beaten just two teams that currently hold a winning record: New York and Orlando.
The 118-110 victory against New York came back on Jan. 4, when Boris Diaw was still on the team and scored a season-high 27 points.
A win against the Knicks would make New York the only team with a winning record to lose to the Bobcats twice this season.
James Park is a regular contributor to Sheridanhoops.com. You can follow him on twitter @nbatupark.