The Boston Celtics have nothing to play for on the last day of the regular season against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, so they're going to be tanking the game by sitting out all of their top players.

That means no Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown (who's out for the season), Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams, Tristan Thompson, or Evan Fournier, per NBC Sports Boston's Chris Forsberg.

Boston is locked in as the No. 7 seed heading into the play-in tournament, so there's no point in risking the health of these guys in the final regular-season game. With the way this Celtics season has gone, somebody would have gotten seriously injured if they did play.

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Meanwhile, the Knicks will gladly accept this decision as they continue to jostle for seeding in the Eastern Conference. New York is currently the No. 4 seed in the East and will secure that spot with a win. The Atlanta Hawks share the same 40-31 record and should get to 41-31 after playing the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, but that likely won't matter since the Knicks own the tiebreaker.

New York should have little trouble taking care of the severely undermanned Celtics squad. If all goes as expected, the Knicks will then have home-court advantage in their first-round series against Atlanta.

The Celtics are still waiting to see their opponent for the play-in tournament. The Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers are all 33-38, with the winner of Hornets-Wizards on Sunday determining that eighth spot.