When breaking down a playoff series, one can occasionally overthink things. They may look at matchups, schemes, depth, injuries, past matchups, and analytics. I’m guilty of that myself, and even did that for the Knicks’ current series against the Hawks. But Games Four and Five served as a friendly, but very loud, reminder that in basketball, sometimes it just comes down to who has the best player.
That isn’t always the case—ask Detroit. But, more often than not, the team with the best player on the court
tends to prevail. And in the Knicks’ case, they have the best player, the second-best player, and they even have a strong argument for having the third-best player in the series. However you want to rank them, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby have cases, to varying degrees, for being the top three players in the series.
For New York, while it took a couple of games longer than fans would have liked, this realization—that they not only have more depth and experience, but also possess much more talent up top—has resulted in back-to-back convincing wins. For Atlanta, though, this has resulted in a challenge they don’t seem to quite have the answers for.
In Game Four, the Hawks started out putting Dyson Daniels on Brunson again and made life for the captain difficult. But unlike the past couple of games, the Knicks finally took what the defense was giving them. Instead of Brunson having to initiate everything, he was delegated to playing off the ball more. We saw him set more screens, use his gravity for the betterment of the team, and act as a decoy at times. And the team finally leaned on Towns to be the catalyst of their offense.
The big man was patient and deliberate, and the team greatly benefited from his offensive process—one that saw him score at ease while also racking up 10 assists. The other beneficiary was the other undoubted top-three player in the series. Anunoby picked apart a good Hawks defense by masterfully timing backdoor cuts, hitting open threes, and attacking closeouts by imposing his physicality.
And as many had preached, playing through Towns not only helped the team, it made Brunson’s job easier in the long run. The Hawks, who were out of answers for Towns, started Game Five with Daniels now on him. And that allowed Brunson to get back into a groove early. When the point guard went on his fourth-quarter rampage, Daniels was back on him, but it’s difficult for a defender, no matter how good they are, to stop an offensive force like Brunson when he is in the kind of rhythm he was in.
Now, Quinn Snyder and the Hawks, with their season on the line, are tasked with the difficult challenge of trying to slow down more than just one of these guys. It’s plausible that any of them could just have a bad game. But if those three continue to trust the process and trust each other, all they will need to do is take what the defense gives them and attack.
If the Hawks want to put Daniels on Brunson again, New York should gladly play through Towns, look for cuts, and then clear out for him to attack the paint if the initial actions don’t work out. Not a single player on the Hawks roster can stop Towns consistently, and they’ll be forced to give up a big scoring effort or get in foul trouble trying to stop him from doing so.
Conversely, if the Hawks decide to put Daniels back on Towns, their best bet might as well be to just pray that Brunson has an off game. And as somebody who has seen Brunson heat up late in playoff series and send teams home with big games, that might not be a plausible strategy either.
Regardless of what the Hawks do, though, the Knicks should have all of the answers and counters. All they need to do is be smart and execute.
