On Saturday evening, the Atlanta Hawks hit the floor at home against the New York Knicks with a chance to go up 3-1 in their first round playoff series. Instead, the Hawks turned in their worst performance of the playoffs thus far and dropped the game by a score of 114-98.
This game featured an aggressive start for both teams.
The Knicks came out attacking the basket early in this one, looking to establish Karl-Anthony Towns in the paint with an early dunk on a switch with CJ McCollum. New York also
made a concerted effort to get Dyson Daniels off of Jalen Brunson at all costs, resulting in a couple of early jumpers for the Knicks’ star point guard.
Meanwhile, Atlanta saw the first good opening quarter of the series from newly minted Most Improved Player Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who buried two triples in the first five minutes of the game.
For a third straight game, this first quarter had an early verbal altercation, this one featuring Atlanta’s Mo Gueye and New York’s Jose Alvarado, who has seemingly been involved in as many skirmishes as he has scored points in this series.
Atlanta’s offense started to stagnate later on in the period, with the Hawks falling down 25-19 after a third made field goal from Brunson.
The Hawks settled for a barrage of contested jumpers in the final few minutes of the period and finished the first quarter just 3/12 from beyond the arc, finding themselves down 27-20 heading into the second.
Atlanta’s offensive struggles continued into the second quarter, with Gabe Vincent’s two triples being one of the only sources of scoring for the Hawks in the first half.
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns punished the Hawks’ smaller defense the way Knicks fans have been begging him to all series, finally getting to the basket with consistency and scoring some impressive finishes around the rim. New York took a 41-29 lead with an open three from Brunson around midway through the second quarter.
Things would only get worse from there, as the Hawks turned the ball over relentlessly, falling behind 51-35 after OG Anunoby heated up for the second straight game from beyond the arc.
For the Hawks, McCollum started getting into the lane late in the second quarter for some much-needed offense.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, that coincided with Josh Hart hitting some tough shots that Atlanta is typically more than happy to concede, and New York wound up taking a 58-44 lead into the locker room.
Overall, it was a very frustrating first half for the Hawks, with Atlanta seeming to be stuck in mud for large stretches of the game, and with referee Scott “The Extender” Foster falling for a couple of Brunson flops that turned into offensive foul calls on Alexander-Walker.
Atlanta also had 12 turnovers in the first half compared to just 11 assists, which is certainly not a recipe for success on offense.
The Hawks got off to a better offensive start to the second half, taking the ball out of McCollum’s hands and letting others initiate the offense. Atlanta at one point got the lead down to eight early in the third quarter, but the Knicks pushed it back up to 13 thanks to some strong play off the bench from Alvarado, who stepped in when Brunson was forced to exit the game after stepping on Hart’s foot.
Once Brunson got back into the game, the Knicks ran the lead up to 19, with Atlanta’s shooting and turnover woes continuing, and with some of New York’s role players off the bench knocking down contested jumpers.
It was a frustrating night for Jalen Johnson, who at one point was just 3-10 from the field, but he did get the Hawks somewhat back to within shouting distance with an and-one followed by a triple late in the third quarter.
However, the Knicks made another run to close the quarter, and ended up taking their biggest lead of the night, 86-65, into the fourth and final frame.
The Hawks opted to insert Tony Bradley into the game to open up the fourth quarter, and while the big man did a solid job of keeping New York off the offensive glass, it still wasn’t enough to allow Atlanta to make much of a dent in the Knicks’ lead.
Remarkably, Atlanta didn’t score its first fast break points until late in the fourth quarter when the game was already well out of reach.
Both teams emptied their bench with several minutes to go in the game, and the Knicks emerged with a 114-98 win.
McCollum led the way in scoring for Atlanta with 17 points, while New York had a balanced offensive performance, anchored by Anunoby, who had another impressive game by dropping 22.
While some of the Hawks’ lack of success in Game 4 can be chalked up to unfavorable shooting variance, Atlanta will need to do a better job of matching the Knicks’ physicality moving forward in this series, as well as taking care of the ball.
This is now a best of three, with the Knicks having home court advantage. Game 5 is set for Tuesday evening at MSG.
