The Celtics have nothing to play for.

They’ve already clinched the top seed in the East, sitting a whopping 14 games ahead of Milwaukee in the standings with just three games remaining. 

Meanwhile, the Knicks are amid the seeding battle — sitting in third place, one game behind the Bucks and one game ahead of the Magic and Cavaliers. 

The Knicks are just 2 ¹/₂ games ahead of the seventh-seeded 76ers but have avoided the NBA play-in tournament for a second consecutive season. 

(7:30 p.m. ET, TNT)

But I don’t expect that to happen. 

Sure, Boston has won and covered five consecutive head-to-head meetings, but they have nothing to play for Thursday night.

They lost by 13 to Milwaukee on Tuesday and have failed to cover big spreads in four of their past five games.

Joe Mazzulla has mailed in the remainder of the regular season, already prepping for his first-round matchup.

Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis are listed as day-to-day on the injury report, so there is no need to rush anyone back when not needed. 

Therefore, motivation is entirely on the Knicks side in this battle at the Garden.

From a pure, on-the-court matchup perspective, New York matches up OK against Boston. 

The Celtics take more 3s than any NBA team, but the Knicks rank seventh in the NBA in low-quality 3s allowed, per ShotQuality. 

Meanwhile, the Knicks run plenty of isolation actions, which Boston has struggled against — ranking 19th in isolation points per possession allowed (.92) and 20th in off-the-dribble 3-point PPP allowed (1.06). 

I think the motivated Knicks leverage a solid schematic matchup into a massive, seeding-changing win against the down-and-out Celtics. Or, at the minimum, they keep it close. 

The play: Knicks -2.5 (-110, BetMGM)