Atlanta Hawks crave better effort in bid to tie NBA series with New York Knicks
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Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks taking a shot over the Atlanta Hawks' Nickeil Alexander-Walker during Game 1 of their NBA play-off series on April 18, when the Knicks won 113-102.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK – There was no secret to what the New York Knicks were going to do on April 18 in the opening game of their National Basketball Association (NBA) Eastern Conference play-off first-round series.
Nor do the Atlanta Hawks expect there to be any mystery on April 20 (April 21 morning, Singapore time).
The Knicks will be hoping to take a commanding lead as they host the Hawks in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.
New York did not trail in the final three quarters of Game 1, where they held off a late surge by the visitors to earn a 113-102 victory.
Jalen Brunson scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the first quarter for the Knicks, who improved to 6-2 in series openers over these past four seasons.
Fellow starters OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges then combined for 54 points on 17-of-32 shooting in the last 36 minutes.
The balanced attack is nothing new for New York, whose starters all finished in double figures on April 18.
“We feel like the team is deep and anybody can get going at any time,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. “For us, it’s about sacrificing and not worrying about shots, minutes or anything like that.”
New York, who allowed the fifth-fewest points per game in the league at 110.1 while also limiting opponents to 46 per cent shooting during the regular season, recovered from a slow start to clamp down defensively on the Hawks in the second half.
“We kind of expected the Knicks to just play their style of basketball,” Hawks forward Jalen Johnson said as he looked ahead to Game 2.
“I think we did a good job of coming out prepared for that (in Game 1).
“And then I think in the second half, we’ve just got to continue to play our brand of basketball, continue to play how we play.”
Atlanta – sixth in the NBA with 118.5 points per game and fifth in three-point shooting at 37.1 per cent in the regular season – trailed 57-55 at half-time after shooting 45.5 per cent, including 50 per cent (eight of 16) from beyond the arc.
But the Hawks scored just 19 points in the third quarter and shot 28.6 per cent (six of 21) on three-pointers in the second half, and this is something which they need to improve on.
“Our level of physicality without fouling was really good in the second half,” Brown added of his Knicks side.
The Hawks did not heat up until the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, when they hit a trio of three-pointers during an 11-0 run that cut a 19-point deficit to 106-98.
“The formula for us and our identity has been to run and move the ball,” Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. “And it’s not like we didn’t do that, but we need to do more of it.”
In other news, reigning NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander headlines the finalists announced on April 19 for the 2026 award alongside San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama and the Denver Nuggets’ three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who beat Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo to the accolade in 2025 and was also named NBA Finals MVP after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to the championship, has averaged more than 30 points per game this season.
Wembanyama has been the driving force of San Antonio’s first run to the play-offs since 2019, averaging a career-high 25 points per game and a league-best 3.1 blocks per game.
Jokic averaged a triple-double and became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both rebounds and assists in the same season. He averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game. REUTERS, AFP
