Well, here we are.
After a long, 82-game season full of twists and turns, we’ve arrived at the start of a playoff journey. Conventional wisdom said that the Toronto Raptors would be the first-round opponent entering Sunday, but the Orlando Magic somehow lost to the Celtics’ C-team, so here we are. Whatever way you feel about that doesn’t matter now.
It’s the No. 3 seed New York Knicks (53-29) and the No. 6 seed Atlanta Hawks (46-36), reviving a five-year-old rivalry whose main combatants are no longer
in town. The fanbases sure as hell still remember, and you’ll be reminded of 2021 pretty much every single game, so we had to mention it.
P&T will have plenty of coverage as we lead up to Saturday’s series-opener at the World’s Most Famous Arena, but use this as a starting point. Here’s everything you need to know about this matchup.
Season Recap
You know how the Knicks’ season has gone. After all, you’re reading this on a Knicks site, but just to sum it up.
After firing Tom Thibodeau, engaging in a long coaching search, and keying in on Mike Brown, the Knicks mostly ran back the same team, albeit with new faces Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, while drafting Mo Diawara. It was supposed to be a deeper, offensive powerhouse, and, for the most part, it was. The Knicks started 23-9 and even got some hardware along the way, beating the Spurs in the NBA Cup Final in December. Everything was coming up New York as 2025 turned into 2026.
And then everything fell apart. Starting with a New Year’s Eve collapse in San Antonio, the Knicks lost nine of their next 11 games, capped off by a terrible effort on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at MSG against the tanking Mavs. The sky was falling, we had podcasters saying he couldn’t wait to blow up this core, we had loud calls for Mike Brown’s job, the defense was abhorrently bad, and the season was in a tailspin.
Then, they mollywhopped the Nets by 54 and everything calmed down. After going from 23-9 to 25-18, the Knicks won 28 of their final 39 games, powered by the NBA’s second-best defense over the final 2.5 months of the season. They swapped the disappointing Yabusele for Jose Alvarado, who may not be in the rotation, but was an upgrade. Unlike last year, they haven’t looked overmatched against the top dogs (well, except Detroit), and they look poised to make a run.
The Hawks had a surreal season to watch from afar. Entering the season with real expectations of the playoffs after pairing Trae Young and a great collection of wings with former All-Star big man Kristaps Porzingis. The season then started disastrously. The team was playing better when Young was sidelined, Porzingis was still battling his mysterious illness, and the Hawks were struggling to stay in the play-in.
Then reports started to surface that both Young and the Hawks wanted to move on. A complicated contract situation made the former All-Star grow estranged from the team he had emerged under, and it came to a head with a January trade to the Wizards. With Porzingis later traded for Jonathan Kuminga, the Hawks appeared to be content with a play-in berth and regrouping next year with a juicy draft pick from that boneheaded Pelicans trade.
But sometimes, that’s not how sports work. After falling to 27-31 to end February, the Hawks hit a lighter part of their schedule and tore through it. They won 18 of their next 20 games, outlasting the brief win streaks of Orlando and Miami to surpass them and make the playoffs. Nickeil Alexander-Walker was blossoming into a star and was no longer in his cousin’s shadow, Jalen Johnson is likely heading for an All-NBA selection, and the role players were all contributing. They met the expectations they had in October, but did it with an entirely different team.
Regular Season Series
12/27/2025: Knicks win 128-125
1/2/2026: Hawks win 111-99
4/6/2026: Knicks win 108-105
The season series alone encompasses just how different the Hawks are from where they were a few months ago. The first matchup saw the final installment of the Trae Young/Knicks rivalry end in a whimper, as the flamboyant point guard had just nine points and 10 assists on 2-for-9 shooting and six turnovers in 31 minutes, while being -13 in a three-point loss.
Powered by Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson combining for an efficient 70 points (and Towns shooting a season-high 18 free throws), the Knicks led by as much as 18 before a ferocious Hawks comeback gave them the lead with two minutes left. Kevin McCullar Jr. even had a standout performance with Josh Hart injured!
Of course, Captain Clutch took over and put the Knicks back in front, despite the Hawks’ offense tearing through a then-terrible Knicks defense. With a one-point lead and 10 seconds to go, OG Anunoby picked off a pass from Young (his final installment of this rivalry) and made two free throws. Alexander-Walker bricked his chance to send it to overtime.
The second game was much less competitive. With no Towns or Mitchell Robinson, Onyeka Okongwu feasted on the overmatched center rotation of Ariel Hukporti and Yabusele, as we reached the part of the Stretch of Hell where the offense stopped working. Jalen Johnson recorded a triple-double, and the Hawks led by 26 late in the third quarter. The Knicks pulled to within 11 with four minutes to go, but ran out of gas in an ugly loss that was a sign of things to come.
The finale came after Young was traded (he was on the roster but injured for the January 2 clash) and the keys to the offense were firmly being shared by Johnson and Alexander-Walker, with the latter putting up a performance that made you think his cousin was wearing Hawks colors. With a 13-game home winning streak, the Hawks looked a step quicker than the Knicks all night and, when the game was at their pace, they thrived. A 10-point third-quarter deficit and a struggling Brunson made things look bleak for the Knicks as their grip on the No. 3 seed loosened.
And then, Captain Clutch took over again. Running an excellent two-man game with Towns, Brunson scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and dragged the Knicks back into the game and into the lead, outdueling Alexander-Walker’s 36-point masterpiece. Some late-game shenanigans ensued, as even though the Knicks successfully knocked down all of their free throws, the Hawks somehow came a millisecond away from tying the game on a miracle half-court heave by CJ McCollum, but he fortunately couldn’t get it out of his hands.
Playoff History
(Andrew has a full story on the playoff history here)
1971 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Knicks win 4-1
1999 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Knicks win 4-0
2021 Eastern Conference First Round: Hawks win 4-1
Key Stats
Hawks:
Offensive rating: 115.0 (14th)
Defensive rating: 112.9 (T-9th)
FG%: 47.4% (13th)
3pt%: 37.1% (5th)
FT%: 77.4% (20th)
Pace: 102.5 (5th)
OREB%: 29.1% (20th)
TOV%: 13.8% (8th lowest)
Points in the Paint: 51.7 (12th)
Opponent PITP: 51.9 (20th)
Opponent 3pt%: 35.5% (12th)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +2.3 (12th)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 17-18, +2.2
Knicks:
Offensive rating: 118.7 (T-3rd)
Defensive rating: 112.3 (7th)
FG%: 47.8% (11th)
3pt%: 37.3% (4th)
FT%: 79.2% (T-10th)
Pace: 97.5 (25th)
OREB%: 32.8% (7th)
TOV%: 13.9% (T-10th lowest)
Points in the Paint: 47.8 (22nd)
Opponent PITP: 43.4 (3rd)
Opponent 3pt%: 36.2% (20th lowest)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +11.7 (1st)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 21-13, +20.5
Trends:
Knicks since 1/20: 118.5 ORtg (6th), 108.2 DRtg (2nd), +10.3 net rating (3rd)
Hawks since 3/1: 120.1 ORtg (6th), 109.9 DRtg (3rd), +10.2 net rating (4th)
Coaching Breakdown
Mike Brown (NYK):
Season with team: 1st
Season as head coach: 12th
Career teams coached: CLE, LAL, SAC, NYK
Career record: 507-333 (.604)
Career playoff record: 50-40 (.556)
Best finish: 2007 Cavaliers (Finals appearance)
Mike Brown is entering the postseason as the head coach of a third different team. He’s never won a game past the Eastern Conference Finals, but he’s certainly experienced deep playoff runs as an assistant under Gregg Popovich from 2001-03 and an assistant under Steve Kerr from 2017-22, winning four championships as an assistant coach.
Brown’s philosophy is a stylistic change from former head coach Tom Thibodeau, in that he prioritizes ball movement, spacing, and a drive-and-kick to open shooters (which he calls “sprays”). He was mostly unsuccessful in increasing the Knicks’ pace, showing that the team’s slow play is rooted in the way their captain operates in the offense, rather than the scheme. His biggest success has been increasing three-point attempts, but those have slowly decreased as the season has gone on.
Defensively, Brown has been flexible in his scheme. While Thibodeau always required a true rim protector on the floor, Brown has been more willing to mix up lineups in certain areas. After starting the season with a scheme that funneled the ball towards the middle of the floor into the help, Brown switched the scheme to look to send the ball towards the sidelines after the Knicks endured a month-plus stretch of abhorrent defense, powered by other teams driving and kicking to open shooters.
Quin Snyder (ATL):
Season with team: 4th
Season as head coach: 12th
Career teams coached: UTAH, ATL
Career record: 504-399 (.558)
Career playoff record: 23-34 (.404)
Best finish: 2021 Jazz (Second Round berth)
Snyder has been an active head coach since 2014-15 and is finally back in the playoffs after the Hawks flamed out in the play-in in back-to-back years. His tenure with the Jazz was defined by playoff disappointment, as he never reached the Western Conference Finals in six years. While most of that was because the pairing of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert was the No. 5 seed on five different occasions, the biggest disappointment came in 2020-21, when the Jazz had the No. 1 seed and lost in six games to the Clippers in the second round.
Under Snyder, the Hawks have been about ball movement and pace. That was a key tenet with Young in tow, but they’ve kept it in place despite trading their pass-first point guard. McCollum and Alexander-Walker predominantly run the offense, with Johnson in a point-forward role. They want to grab the ball and run down the floor, and will look to push the pace whenever and however. They have more than enough shooting to be matchup nightmares in transition, and the versatility defensively to match up with everyone.
Projected Rotations
Knicks:
Jalen Brunson
Mikal Bridges
Josh Hart
OG Anunoby
Karl-Anthony Towns
–
Deuce McBride
Jordan Clarkson
Landry Shamet
Mitchell Robinson
Situational: Mo Diawara, Jose Alvarado, Tyler Kolek, Ariel Hukporti
Hawks:
Nickeil Alexander-Walker
CJ McCollum
Dyson Daniels
Jalen Johnson
Onyeka Okongwu
–
Gabe Vincent
Corey Kispert
Jonathan Kuminga
Tony Bradley/Mo Gueye
Situational: Buddy Hield, Zaccharie Risacher, Keaton Wallace
Injury Report
For the Knicks, they have a clean bill of health entering the postseason with one major question mark (and, for once, it’s not Mitchell Robinson). It’s OG Anunoby, who left Friday’s win over Toronto with an ankle sprain. All reporting so far makes us believe that it isn’t major and he should be able to heal in the eight-day span between games. It’s something to watch, though.
For the Hawks, it’s also one player: Jock Landale. Their backup center, acquired from Memphis at the trade deadline, has missed the last two weeks with an ankle injury, and he will be re-evaluated before the series begins. It seems like a stretch that he’ll be available for Game 1, but he could return at some point in the series to bolster Atlanta’s center rotation.
Broadcast Schedule
(The full schedule has yet to be released, this will be updated)
Game 1: Sat, April 18, 6 pm (Prime Video)
Game 2: TBA
Game 3: TBA
Game 4: TBA
Game 5*: TBA
Game 6*: TBA
Game 7*: TBA
