Playoff basketball is returning to Madison Square Garden for the first time in three years, and three months after Garden chairman James Dolan hired Isiah Thomas as team president then guaranteed a postseason berth.

"This building should never be closed," Stephon Marbury said after the Knicks defeated the Chicago Bulls, 96-82. "It should always be open. The fans deserve it."

The Knicks (37-42) clinched a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs by virtue of Cleveland's loss to Memphis. The Knicks also moved closer to a first-round date with New Jersey. With three games left, the Knicks are in seventh place, a game and a half ahead of eighth-place Boston and a game and a half behind sixth-place New Orleans. If the Knicks finish eighth they face Indiana; they would play the Nets if they finish seventh and Detroit if they finish sixth.

"It feels good to know that there is a lot of basketball to be played," Tim Thomas said. "I didn't want to go home yet."