New York: Knicks secure home-court advantage

🏀Knicks: The Knicks closed out their regular season yesterday with a 96–94 win over the the Boston Celtics. This win also locked the Knicks as the East’s No. 4 seed, meaning they’ll have home-court advantage for their playoff series against the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks. HYFR.

🏀Nets: The Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 123–109 last night to finish out their regular season and secure the No. 2 seed in the East — and they did it with style. Playoffs, here we go!

🏒Islanders: Even without star goalie Semyon Varlamov, the Isles edged out the Pittsburgh Penguins 4–3 in Game 1 during overtime (OT) on Saturday. Fortunately, rookie goalie Ilya Sorokin stepped up to hold down the net for his playoff debut. Yessir.

• The game’s star, however, was Kyle Palmieri — a right winger the Isles acquired at this year’s Trade Deadline — who scored two of the team’s goals, including the OT game-winner. Color us impressed. Catch Game 2 tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET.

🏀Liberty: The Liberty opened their season with back-to-back victories against the Indiana Fever, winning 90–87 on Friday and 73–65 yesterday. Besides Ionescu’s aforementioned game-winner, we have to shout out the WNBA’s Most Improved Player from 2020, Betnijah Laney, who led the team with 30 points on Friday and 20 yesterday. Can you say, undefeated?

⚽️Gotham FC: Gotham FC also opened their regular season with a win, beating the Houston Dash 1–0 thanks to forward Midge Purce’s mid-game goal. That’s how we do it.