Playing without an injured Blake Griffin, the Detroit Pistons beat the New York Knicks 115-89 on Wednesday to secure a playoff berth.

The Pistons (41-41) finished in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, and they will face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.

Detroit needed a road win on the final night of the season to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

"We're not where we want to be, but we're not where we were," first-year head coach Dwane Casey said after the Pistons' victory.

If the Pistons had lost on Wednesday and the Charlotte Hornets (39-43) had beaten the Orlando Magic, Detroit would have missed the playoffs. But the Magic defeated the Hornets 122-114.

"We knew what was at stake," Detroit's Andre Drummond said after scoring 20 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in the win. "We knew that [the Knicks] were coming in to try to ruin our season that we worked so hard for."

Other Eastern Conference playoff matchups decided on the final night of the season:

The Brooklyn Nets secured the sixth seed with a 113-94 home win over the Miami Heat in Dwayne Wade's final game.

Brooklyn will face the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs.

The Magic secured the seventh seed, and they will face the second-seeded Toronto Raptors in the first round.

The other Eastern Conference series is the fourth-seeded Boston Celtics against the No. 5 seed Indiana Pacers.

With Griffin out with a sore left knee, Detroit leaned on Luke Kennard against New York in the season finale. Kennard had 27 points on 9-for-14 shooting off the Pistons' bench. Reggie Jackson had 21 points and seven assists.