NEW YORK - It doesn't matter much to coach Mike D'Antoni where the Knicks finish in the Eastern Conference playoff race -- unless disaster strikes one of the teams in the top 4.
If that happens, D'Antoni would be open to doing whatever it takes to set up a matchup with a wounded opponent.
"The top four seeds are really important, and then you can play fantasy basketball, but you don’t know and you don’t try to get into any position unless somebody goes out with three players, then all of a sudden you say you want to get there because they don’t have three players," D'Antoni said prior to the Knicks' game Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers. "But if everybody is healthy and playing well, it doesn’t mean much. The biggest thing is just trying to play well and get in the playoffs. If you’re playing well at that point, no matter what, you’ve got to win on the road anyway sometimes."
The Knicks (34-30) began the night in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings, two games ahead of Philadelphia (34-32) in the loss column and three games behind fifth-place Atlanta (38-28).