A strong bounce-back season by the Mavericks finally will give the Knicks their final asset from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade.
Dallas clinched a playoff berth Tuesday night, which means its top-10 protected first-round pick will convey to the Knicks in the 2024 NBA Draft.
The Mavericks had tanked late in the regular season last year and didn’t qualify for a play-in position in the Western Conference, maintaining the No. 10 overall selection.
They ultimately traded down from that spot with the Thunder to end up with Duke center Dereck Lively. If the pick didn’t convey this year, the Knicks would have received a second-rounder in 2025.
With the Celtics already wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, they are listing Jayson Tatum (knee), Jaylen Brown (hand), Jrue Holiday (patella), Al Horford (toe), Porzingis (hamstring) and Xavier Tillman (knee) as questionable for Thursday’s game against the Knicks in Boston.
Horford and Porzingis sat out Tuesday’s loss to the Bucks.
Julius Randle underwent what a source said was “successful” season-ending surgery on his dislocated right shoulder Tuesday.
The Knicks said last week that he will be reevaluated in five months.
Precious Achiuwa was out of Tom Thibodeau’s playing rotation in Tuesday night’s road win over the Bulls.
Amid a rash of frontline injuries, the Bronx product had averaged 24.9 minutes in his first 46 games following a late-December trade with the Raptors.
But with recently returning center Mitchell Robinson logging 20 minutes off the bench in Chicago, Thibodeau went with an eight-man rotation that did not include Achiuwa for the first time since the trade.
“Just [the Bulls] being small,” Thibodeau said. “I think I was initially planning on playing him, but [Bulls center Andre] Drummond got hurt. They play Drummond and [Nikola] Vucevic together. It was more a matchup thing.”
Veteran guard Alec Burks also did not get off the bench in Tuesday’s game, having sat for two consecutive contests.
Donte DiVincenzo leads the NBA in made 3-pointers per game (4.5) and attempts per game (11.7) in 24 appearances since the All-Star break.
Only Stephen Curry (345) and Luka Doncic (280) had made more 3-pointers than DiVincenzo’s team-record 273 entering Wednesday.
