The Atlanta Hawks fought until the final whistle but ultimately didn’t do enough to pull out a victory in game one of their first round series against the New York Knicks, losing on Saturday night by a final score of 113-102.
How It Happened
Jalen Brunson poured in 19 points in the first quarter alone and finished with 28 points to lead all scorers. Karl-Anthony Towns was vital down the stretch for New York and finished with 25 points to go along with eight boards and three blocks.
Meanwhile for Atlanta, CJ McCollum
scored a team-high 26 points on 11-for-20 shooting from the floor (4-for-9 from three), although he did commit a team-high 5 turnovers as well. Jalen Johnson tallied 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists, but shot 8-for-19 from the field including just 4-for-10 in the paint. Dyson Daniels had a tough time scoring the ball but was excellent everywhere else, finishing with nine rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and four points. Onyeka Okongwu had 19 points and shot 4-for-6 from downtown.
This one was a tale of two halves. Atlanta shot the ball well in the first half, and only trailed by two at the break. New York had a slight edge on the boards, but the Hawks had a slight edge in the turnover battle, and had to be feeling good about holding serve in their first playoff half on the road at MSG.
Then the third quarter happened. Atlanta’s offense went ice cold, scoring just 19 points on a miserable 39.8% true shooting clip while coughing the ball up five times. While New York didn’t shoot it spectacularly in the third (7-for-16 from the floor, 2-for-4 from three), they were a +9 at the free-throw stripe, which was a significant difference between the two teams in the period.
With the Hawks trailing by nine at the start of the final frame, it was imperative for them to cut into the lead at the start of the quarter against New York’s bench lineup, but two big threes from Miles McBride kept the Knicks bench afloat, before Towns sparked a 15-3 run to stretch New York’s lead to 19 with 4:36 to play.
Atlanta didn’t go down without a fight, responding with an 11-0 run of their own to cut the lead to eight with 1:39 left. But it was too little, too late, with the Knicks seeing out the game at the free throw line. As a result, the Hawks now face a 1-0 series deficit heading into Monday’s game two.
Here are a few things that stood out from game one.
New York Flips the Script in Transition
In case you aren’t familiar with this year’s Atlanta Hawks, this is a team that likes to play fast and beat you in transition, ranking fifth in pace and second in transition efficiency (per cleaningtheglass) during the regular season. However, in game one, it was New York who won the fastbreak points battle, outscoring Atlanta 22-13 in this area – an uncharacteristic showing for the Hawks, and a trend that cannot continue if they are to pull off a first-round upset.
Said Quin Snyder after the game:
“The formula for us, and our identity has been to run and move the ball. It’s not that we didn’t do that, but we need to do more of it. We’re obviously playing a really good team, and it’s [only] game one. So you take it, you watch it, and we’ll see some of the things more specifically that we need to better.”
New York is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league but only grabbed six offensive rebounds last night. I believe part of the reason that number was so low* was because they were prioritizing transition defense over the offensive glass, and after seeing how game one played out, it’s hard to argue with this strategy from Mike Brown.
*in addition to Atlanta’s ‘hack-a-Mitch’ strategy paying off, with Robinson playing just 5:00 and shooting 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the second half
Another thing that hurt Atlanta is that they only forced 11 Knicks turnovers last night – well below their regular-season average – which limited their opportunities to get out and run in transition. Atlanta ranked sixth in opponent turnover rate (15.6%) and 3rd in points off turnovers (20.7) during the regular season and will need to play up to that standard in the postseason, especially if they’re having a difficult time generating transition opportunities off of New York’s misses.
Said CJ McCollum after the game:
“It’s just about getting stops. When we get stops, we’re very hard to guard, we can get threes, layups, dunks, ball moves a little bit better. So, [we have to] do a better job defensively. We gave up 112 [points], lots of free throws, Brunson had 19 in the first quarter, so there’s things we can tighten up collectively. But it starts with being better defensively for longer periods of time, and that’ll help our offense too.”
I’d expect Atlanta to be more aggressive on defense and take the pace up a notch on Monday night.
Outside Shooting Sinks Atlanta in the Second Half
The Hawks are a good outside shooting team, ranking eighth in three-point percentage (37.4%) since the All-Star break, but last night, after an 8-for-16 showing from deep in the first half, they shot just 6-for-21 (28.6%) in the second half – including a stretch from the 8:42 mark of the third quarter to the 8:28 mark of the fourth where they went 0-for-9.
Despite Atlanta’s impressive regular season three-point percentage, they have been prone to cold spells and interestingly enough, were a bottom 10 three-point shooting team in third quarters this season. Needless to say, they’ll need to put it together for all four quarters in order to win in the postseason, as last night was evidence of just how detrimental a cold shooting spell can be.
Said McCollum after the game:
“It’s a make or miss league, when [shots] go down everything is great and you’re flowing, and when you miss ‘em, it can kind’ve snowball and create runs so it’s just about knocking down shots. I had some open looks I missed in the second half. But overall, I think we’ll take the quality of looks we got, we’ll generate better looks, we’ll generate more looks and we’ll have more possessions to score with less turnovers.”
Dyson Daniels Does It All (But Score)
On a positive note, though he only finished with four points on 2-for-7 shooting, I thought last night was the quintessential Dyson Daniels game – aside from the fact that it ended in a defeat. Daniels led the team in rebounds (9), assists (11), screen assists (6), steals (3), and deflections (7) and was simply just a ball of energy on the court. He spent time hounding Jalen Brunson and even picked up KAT for a few possessions towards the end of the game. Offensively, his transition playmaking prowess was on full display, and he did a good job operating as a ‘DHO’ hub in the halfcourt.
Daniels has gotten a lot of flack for his poor outside shooting this season, but last night was a great example of how valuable of a player he is – even without a jumpshot.
‘NAW’t His Best
On a less positive note, MIP candidate Nickeil Alexander-Walker had a rough shooting night in his Hawks playoff debut, finishing with 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting (3-for-8 from three) against New York. While you might be thinking, “well, that’s not that bad”, keep in mind that over the last 24 games of the regular season, Alexander-Walker averaged 22.5 points on a ridiculous 52.2% shooting clip from the floor and 46% from three (7.9 attempts per game). Call me spoiled, but I had gotten used to that version of NAW, and the Hawks are going to need him to show up if they want a shot at advancing past the first round.
One thing to note is that NAW has been one of the league’s most efficient transition scorers this season (shameless plug), so if Atlanta can turn up the defensive aggression, play with more pace and generate some more transition opportunities going forwards, perhaps they can get him some more comfortable looks, and unlock the best version of him in the playoffs.
Looking Ahead to Game 2…
Game two of Hawks Knicks is on Monday at 8 PM EST on Peacock. While the game one result is obviously disappointing, it was hardly unexpected, with New York favored by 5.5 points before tip-off. The Hawks have Sunday to regroup, analyze the film and prepare to come out firing in game two.
On what he and the team need to improve upon in game two, CJ McCollum said:
“Turnovers, I had five turnovers, there’s things that we can do better from a spacing standpoint. Moving the ball a bit more, being more intentional with ball and player movement, but I have to watch the film… sometimes it’s just missing shots, transition, but I have to watch the film.”
“I don’t think there’s anything that we didn’t expect. It’s a hostile environment, great fans, great arena. This is a very good team, so you knew they were going to come out with energy and be aggressive and [be] very intentional with their player movement and ball movement. I think it’s all about responding, so I look forward to responding on Monday.”
Jalen Johnson echoed that sentiment, saying:
“It’s the first game, obviously there’s a ton of room for improvement. But I gotta go back and watch film. See other ways I can continue to be effective, continue to get my teammates involved. Yeah, just let the game come to me, not try to force anything, continue to trust my teammates… I feel like it was solid, and like CJ said, we’ll be ready for Monday.”
There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played in this series – but Atlanta will need a response on Monday night.
