The New York Knicks around national basketball player Isaiah Hartenstein have made it into the playoffs of the North American professional league NBA perfectly.
With the 118:109 home win against the Washington Wizards, the team can no longer be denied a place in the final round of the Eastern Conference. Hartenstein had about 22 minutes from the bench, during which he had nine points and eight rebounds.
The Los Angeles Lakers around superstar LeBron James and the German national player Dennis Schröder also have their sights set on direct qualification for the final round. The Lakers won the Houston Rockets 134-109. The standout player on the California team was Anthony Davis with 40 points. James managed a triple-double with 18 points, ten rebounds and eleven assists, Schröder had one point.
Lakers close to sixth
The Lakers are in seventh place in the Western Conference table, with the top six teams in each conference going directly to the playoffs. The sixth place is currently held by the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors, who lost 110-112 to the Denver Nuggets and are just one win ahead of the Lakers. In addition, the Warriors have already played one more game.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks around Maxi Kleber suffered the next setback. Despite 41 points from top star Kyrie Irving, the Texans suffered a bitter 130:132 defeat after overtime with the Atlanta Hawks and are in danger of missing out on participation in the play-in tournament themselves.
In both conferences, this is contested by the teams in places seven to ten, who make up the last two playoff places among themselves. The Mavericks are currently in eleventh place, one win behind tenth-placed Oklahoma City Thunder. Kleber only played seven and a half minutes and scored two points in that time.
Things went better for the brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner, who celebrated an unchallenged 128:102 home win with Orlando Magic against the defeated Detroit Pistons. Franz Wagner was part of the starting lineup and had 16 points, five rebounds and eight assists. Coming off the bench, his brother Moritz contributed eleven points to the win.
However, Orlando hardly has a realistic chance of making the playoffs. In twelfth place in the Eastern Conference, the Florida team would need to win all four remaining games of the season and hope for help from the competition.
