| In the East, it is the Celtics and everyone else.
And for the first time in more than two months, the Knicks look better positioned than anyone else in the conference to battle Boston for a berth in the NBA Finals.
That became apparent Tuesday night as OG Anunoby scored 24 points and played all-world defense in a victory in Chicago — moving the Knicks to 17-3 with him in the lineup — and Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a calf injury during the Bucks' win over the Celtics.
The Bucks were in trouble long before losing the two-time MVP — he will miss the rest of the regular season at minimum, and his return date is uncertain — with what's now a 17-17 record under Doc Rivers while receiving diminished play from Damian Lillard and no replacement for Jrue Holiday's defense. If Antetokounmpo can't return for the first round, Milwaukee may not escape, like last year, when a far more-cohesive Bucks team was upset by 8-seed Miami after he injured his back and missed half the series.
Geography works in the Knicks' favor, too: Most of the league's top teams residing out West.
 With Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined, the Knicks may have a path to the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
AP
Potential postseason matchups for the Knicks include the Magic (no postseason experience and the 22nd-ranked offense), the Pacers (24th-ranked defense), the Cavaliers (they have lost four of their past six games and have taken a step back since getting manhandled by the Knicks last year), the Heat (16-27 against teams above .500 this season) and the 76ers (have never won more than one round in a postseason with Joel Embiid).
The Knicks, currently boasting a top 10 offensive and defensive rating, are likely to finish with their best regular-season record in 11 seasons because Jalen Brunson has been one of the league's top-four guards this season.
With Anunoby, Tom Thibodeau has a player he would have built in a lab, offering unparalleled defensive versatility and another outside shooter to draw attention from Brunson. On Sunday — in Anunoby's second game back from his second absence with an elbow injury — the Knicks looked like the East's second-best team, earning a 13-point win in Milwaukee with Antetokounmpo on the court.
The Celtics — on pace for 65 wins — are a different story. They have the league's best offensive rating and rank second defensively, producing the fifth-best point differential (+11.3) in league history.
 The Knicks are 0-4 against the East-leading Celtics this season, but haven't faced them with their current rotation.
Noah K. Murray for the NY Post
They have won all four meetings with the Knicks, but Thursday night's matchup in Boston is the first time the teams will be facing off with Anunoby in the lineup. The Celtics may not be at full strength — Kristaps Porzingis was given the night off against the Bucks — having already locked up the 1-seed.
But the Knicks — who clinched a playoff spot with Miami's loss Wednesday — still could provide the toughest test the Celtics may see for months.
Or they may see how big the gap remains.
Today's back page  New York Post
Caitlin Clark jumps into the deep end A four-city tour (Minneapolis-Iowa City-Albany-Cleveland) with Caitlin Clark wasn't enough.
There is more to discuss because there is so much more to come.
On Monday in Brooklyn, Clark's professional career officially will begin when the Indiana Fever select the Iowa superstar with the first pick in the WNBA Draft.
On May 14, the Fever take the court in Connecticut in what will be the most-anticipated season opener since the league's first games in 1997.
"I know her shoulders are heavy because of what she has to give to women's basketball," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said following a national title game watched by 18.7 million people, surpassing the viewership of every NBA Finals and World Series game this decade. "We're thankful for the way she's handled all of it. Her next step is the WNBA — I do think she can be that person that elevates us."
 Caitlin Clark is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, a little more than a week after she played for the national championship.
USA TODAY Sports
The league announced Wednesday the Fever will play more nationally televised games (36 of 40) than any other team this season.
Opponents are selling tickets by selling Clark. The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces have moved the venue of a July 2 game against the Fever to increase capacity by 8,000 seats. This week, the Phoenix Mercury released an ad featuring Diana Taurasi and a shadowy figure wearing No. 22, billing it as "The GOAT vs The Rook."
It is a matchup Taurasi — arguably the best player in league history — likely has circled as well. In a recent interview on ESPN, the two-time WNBA Finals MVP emphasized the challenges awaiting Clark in the transition to the pros.
"Reality is coming," Taurasi said. "There's levels to this thing. And that's just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you're gonna see it on this side where you look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you're gonna come with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time. Not saying that's not gonna translate. 'Cause when you're great at what you do, you're just gonna get better. But there is gonna be a transition period where you're gonna have to give yourself some grace as a rookie and it might take a little bit longer for some people."
 The Mercury are slyly promoting Diana Taurasi's first duel with Caitlin Clark before the Iowa superstar has even been drafted.
X/@PhoenixMercury
It would be shocking if Clark faced no resentment from veteran stars such as Taurasi, who won her first national title at UConn two months after Clark was born.
Greatness has been in their sport for decades. Clark didn't invent it. But she captured passion and imagination in a way her predecessors could not, like Magic and Bird, entering a league Kareem couldn't keep out of tape delay. Clark's presence will ensure her peers will earn greater income and respect, when the WNBA media rights deal expires after the 2025 season.
Taurasi is right in that Clark won't dominate like she did the past four years. She will earn the matchup of the WNBA's top perimeter defenders, a parade of faster, stronger and more experienced opponents than the Big Ten presented.
Division I's all-time leading scorer won't put up points at the same pace — Taurasi's 2006 season is the only time in WNBA history a player averaged more than 25 points per game — but Clark will not need to, playing beside last year's No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston and the most talented teammates of her life.
Virtually every possession at Iowa went through Clark because it had to, because her four years in college likely ended with no teammates who ever will play in the WNBA. The NCAA's all-time No. 3 in assists will thrive in a play-making role, salivating at the extra inches of space she'll be given to shoot, at being able to dribble without double-teams lurking in every direction.
Her rookie season will be the hardest. For all of the obvious reasons. But also because barely a month will have passed between her final game at Iowa and her first game with Indiana, following a season in an unprecedented spotlight.
 With more accomplished teammates around her in the WNBA, Clark should have more opportunities to showcase her pinpoint passing as a pro.
AP
"She's going to be really tired after this season," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said the day before the national championship. "That's what concerns me the most. Rookies go into the WNBA, which is such a challenging time, at their most exhausted time. That's kind of unfair for them.
"I just know that Caitlin has stepped up to every challenge that we've posed to her. And I expect the same thing at the next level, although I know she's going to have to pay her rookie dues."
Some people want to see Clark fail at the next level, to decry her stardom as being a result of media hype or race. Some already believe she's overrated, pointing to her inability to capture a national championship at Iowa.
Of course, the biggest reason she didn't win a ring is because she chose a path that previous legends did not.
She chose to stay home to join a program that had never made the national championship game — and hadn't made the Final Four since 1993 — and then reached the title game in back-to-back years. First, she led Iowa to a monumental upset of undefeated and defending champion South Carolina in last year's national semifinals. This year, the Hawkeyes knocked out defending champion LSU and UConn en route to the final.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart said Clark couldn't be included in a debate of the all-time greatest because she didn't win a title. Stewart may be the greatest college player ever. No other player has been named the Most Outstanding Player on four straight title teams. But Stewart also committed to the most powerful program in the sport, playing alongside 11 teammates at UConn who were top-11 WNBA draft picks. Taurasi played with four top-six picks, including Sue Bird and Swin Cash. Maya Moore played with another No. 1 overall pick, Tina Charles. Cheryl Miller played with two-time All-American Pamela McGee and future four-time WNBA Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper.
 No player can match the four NCAA Tournament title runs Breanna Stewart had at UConn.
AP
ESPN's Jay Williams refused to even acknowledge Clark as "great." It's an interesting take from someone who didn't choose to elevate a program in his home state, such as Rutgers or Seton Hall, but instead joined the most powerful program in men's basketball at Duke. Williams played with four other future NBA players and wasn't even the best player (Shane Battier) on the 2001 championship team — a run that featured featured Williams making 1-of-9 3-pointers in the semifinals and 5-of-15 shots with six turnovers in the title game (when Williams was Duke's best player, his missed free throw against Indiana in the Sweet 16 ended the 1-seed's season).
Taurasi crossed the entire country to join college's defending champs. Stewart didn't stay upstate and lift Syracuse to new heights. She was Kevin Durant, jumping aboard a juggernaut.
What's more impressive: a 4-foot putt or a 195-yard iron shot that lands two feet from the pin?
Regardless, whatever happens in the pros will change the conversation. When Patrick Ewing and Carmelo Anthony come to mind, whose first thought is of their championships in college?
Clark's legacy is still unclear.
It will be formed in the coming years, when we see how her influence expands the pool of talent, when we see how much her popularity fuels even greater growth in the long-overlooked sport.
Eastern promises The Islanders are riding high, coming off the most satisfying win of their five-game streak in Tuesday's 4-2 win over the Rangers.
The only downside of a much-needed victory against a rival — and Presidents' Trophy contender — is the potential for a letdown in Thursday night's game against the Canadiens at UBS Arena.
 The Islanders took a big step toward clinching a playoff berth with a win Tuesday night over the Rangers at UBS Arena.
Getty Images
"Our group is really committed to making the playoffs," Islanders coach Patrick Roy said Tuesday. "There's a lot of hockey to be played even if there's only four games."
On paper, the Canadiens — who own the second-fewest wins (30) in the Eastern Conference — present the easiest of the Islanders' four remaining regular-season matchups with no motivation outside pride. But Roy's former franchise has won both meetings (in Montreal) with the Islanders this season. The Canadiens also humiliated John Tortorella's Flyers, 9-3, Tuesday night.
The Islanders play at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, then follow with a trip to Newark and the regular-season finale at home against the Penguins on Wednesday.
Only two of the playoff spots in the Eastern Conference remain available, with the Islanders (87 points) leading a five-team race also featuring the Capitals (85 points), Penguins (84 points), Red Wings (84 points) and Flyers (83 points, but one fewer game remaining).
What we're reading 👀 ⚾ The Yankees (10-3) dropped the series finale against the Marlins, 5-2, after a shaky start from Marcus Stroman. Other notables: Aaron Boone was ejected, Anthony Volpe led off, Giancarlo Stanton homered and Aaron Judge flew out with the bases loaded to end it.
⚾ Brett Baty's confident play has been a highlight of an uneven start for the Mets, who were rained out in Atlanta.
⛳ The Masters begins Thursday (weather permitting), and the awkwardness around the LIV golfers in the field isn't going away. Just ask Jon Rahm.
⚾ The feds are signaling that Shohei Ohtani is off the hook and former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is going to plead guilty in the alleged multimillion-dollar theft.
🏈 The Post's Steve Serby reminds us about Spencer Rattler, an NFL Draft quarterback prospect who once seemed first-round-bound. Plus: the Giants' and Jets' draft plans at QB.
🏀 Inside the Nets' point guard question going into next season (they won, by the way).
⚽ A new home stadium for NYCFC in Queens is set to be approved by the City Council.
🏀 John Calipari at Arkansas. It's really happening.
🏒 The Coyotes might move to Salt Lake City? OK then!
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