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In their quest to stay above the play-in line, the No. 5 New York Knicks took a tough loss at Miami on Wednesday, dropping their lead over the No. 7 Heat to just two in the loss column with one head-to-head-matchup remaining. The Knicks lead the No. 6 Nets by just one in the loss column.
With two games left against the No. 6 Nets, whom they trail by just one in the loss column, the Heat control their own destiny for a top-six seed.
Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Eastern Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Thursday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched.
Reminder on how the play-in tournament works: No. 7 plays No. 8 and No. 9 plays No. 10. The winner of the 7-8 game gets the No. 7 seed, while the loser plays the winner of the 9-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
READ: Western Conference playoff picture
NOTE: Our SportsLine model, developed by predictive data engineer Stephen Oh, simulates the entire season 10,000 times to produce the most unbiased and precise projections imaginable.
Projected seed: 1Current first-round matchup: TBDTiebreaker vs. Boston: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Philadelphia: Sixers lead 2-1 with one to playProjected seed: 2Current first-round matchup: vs. Heat-Hawks play-in winnerTiebreaker vs. Milwaukee: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Philadelphia: Celtics clinchedTiebreaker vs. Cleveland: Cavs clinchedProjected seed: 3Current first-round matchup: vs. NetsTiebreaker vs. Milwaukee: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Philadelphia: Celtics clinchedTiebreaker vs. Cleveland: Sixers clinchedProjected seed: 4Current first-round matchup: vs. KnicksTiebreaker vs. Boston: Cavs clinchedTiebreaker vs……
