The New York Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks are facing each other yet again in the playoffs, but this time the Hawks are without Knicks kryptonite Trae Young, and the Knicks have Karl-Anthony Towns instead of Julius Randle. Only time will tell how this series will play out, but the Knicks have the better team on paper.
The Knicks finished the season with a 53-29 record and the Hawks finished with a record of 46-36, with the latter significantly improving after the trading of Trae Young.
The first game in this series was played in New York and went to the Knicks with a score of 113-102. Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson scored 25 points and 28 points respectively while CJ McCollum of the Hawks scored 26 points and stood out as the main driving force of this Hawks offense, a trend that continued in Games 2 and 3.
Games 2 and 3 both went to the Hawks with scores of 107-106 and 109-108. Both one point games! CJ McCollum has stood out as an integral piece of this Hawks offense, a title he was not given during the season(even though he has had a solid career).
Game 4 was a landslide win by the Knicks, and the reason why the Hawks lost was due to the Knicks offense coming back to fruition, but also due to McCollum only scoring 17 points and failing to capture the spark he has had these past two games which led to Hawks wins.
Game 5 was yet another landslide win by the Knicks, 126-97. Jalen Brunson had an outstanding game, dropping a whopping 39 points. It also didn´t help that McCollum only dropped 6 points somehow.
Game 6 was an absolute one sided match the whole way through. The Knicks finished the win tonight and the series win with a score of 140-89. New York also broke the record for largest lead by halftime in NBA Playoff history. The Knicks are now set to face either the Celtics or the 76ers and honestly, after tonight, the Knicks have a legitimate chance of beating either team and making it far in the playoffs.
