The Celtics lost to the New York Knicks on Thursday night, meaning their playoff position is not fully sealed. They'll play the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night.
The Boston Celtics suffered a tough 112-106 loss on Thursday night against the New York Knicks at Madison Garden. The Celtics are now 54-26 while the Knicks are 52-28.
Boston currently leads the No. 3 Knicks by two games with two to play, but because they couldn't win on Thursday, they've failed to officially wrap up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
As a result, the Celtics likely can't afford to take any liberties with Friday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans (7:30 p.m. ET).
It's not guaranteed that head coach Joe Mazzulla would have wanted to rest players in Friday's game in advance of the playoffs, but it was a possibility, and one that likely doesn't exist at this point.
The Celtics should value the No. 2 seed and the ability to play Game 7s at home against every team except the No. 1 Detroit Pistons.
About the Pelicans
New Orleans comes in at 26-54, so the Celtics certainly should be able to get a win regardless of who's playing, but Mazzulla likely can't afford to take chances if he values that No. 2 seed like we think he should.
The Pelicans are coming off a win against the Utah Jazz, but they had lost eight games in a row prior to that.
Jeremiah Fears scored 40 points in that win against the Jazz while Jordan Poole had 34 and Micah Ivey had 20. Zion Williamson didn't play, but he has played in 62 games this season, averaging 21.0 ppg.
Last time out for the C's
Jaylen Brown didn't play in the loss against the Knicks because of left Achilles tendinitis, so that factors into what happened, but the C's still had their chances. They led by two points entering the fourth quarter.
Jayson Tatum played the most minutes since returning from injury, scoring 24 points in 40 minutes. But he was just 7-of-22 from the floor and 2-of-10 from three-point range. All that said, he still almost registered a triple-double, pulling down 13 rebounds and generating eight assists.
Payton Pritchard scored 23 points while Baylor Scheireman had 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Derrick White went 0-for-6 from three-point range and didn't have a block, failing to make some incredible NBA history. He still has two more opportunities to do so.
New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) defends Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden. Lucas Boland-Imagn ImagesOn deck
In addition to Friday's game against the Pelicans, the Celtics will play on Sunday against the Orlando Magic in the regular season finale.
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