S16Knicks Caption:
Atlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum and New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby, facing each other on April 6, will meet again in opening round of NBA playoffs. (Credit: AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Knicks’ quest for title must first go through the Hawks
By JAIME C. HARRIS
AmNews Sports Editor
On Jan. 5, James Dolan, executive chair and CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, issued what can plausibly be construed as an implicit edict.
During an interview on New York City-based radio station WFAN, the principal owner of the New York Knicks articulated his expectations for the team. “I’d say we want to get to the finals and we should win the finals,” the 70-year-old Dolan firmly asserted. “This is sports. Anything can happen. Getting to the finals, we absolutely have to do. Winning the finals, we should do.”
Ironically, the Knicks haven’t played in the finals since 1999, the year Dolan assumed management of the franchise. One of the central reasons former head coach Tom Thibodeau was fired last June after taking the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Indiana Pacers 4-2, was that he fell short of taking them to the NBA’s finish line.
Now the onus is on his replacement, Mike Brown, who guided the Knicks to a 53-29 record, their most regular-season wins since 2013, and the most by a Knicks head coach in his first season leading the team, exceeding Pat Riley, who won 51 games in his debut 1991-1992 campaign.
If the Knicks are to meet Dolan’s standard, they first must get past the Atlanta Hawks, who they will face in the opening round of the playoffs in a best-of-seven series beginning with Game 1 this Saturday (6 p.m.) at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are the No. 3 seed, finishing third in the East behind the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons (60-22) and No. 2 seed Boston Celtics. The Hawks (46-36), winners of the Southeast Division, enter the playoffs as the No. 6 seed.
Statistically, the two squads are evenly matched. The Hawks average 118.5 points per game compared to the Knicks’ 116.5 rebounds. The Knicks have 45.6, the Hawks 43.5. Atlanta knocks down 14.6 3-pointers at a 37.1% clip and New York is 14.2 on 37.3% shooting.
Defensively, the Knicks concluded the regular season seventh in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 113.3 and the Hawks ninth in the 30-team NBA, giving up 113.7, a razor-thin differential.
These metrics portend a tightly contested series. Brown, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year (2009, 2023), will be countered by the vastly experienced Hawks head coach Quinn Snyder, who steered the Utah Jazz to the playoffs six times as their head coach from 2014–2022.
Collectively, the Knicks are playoff battle-tested, with veteran stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns the ascribed force multipliers, charged with ensuring everyone is pulling in the same direction while on the court. With this current group’s championship window ostensibly becoming narrower, there is a palpable sense of urgency for the Knicks to reach the finals.
Conversely, the Hawks have a young core, centered around 24-year-old Jalen Johnson, an emerging superstar who spent one year at Duke before being drafted by the Hawks as 20th overall in 2021. He has considerably outperformed his draft position, playing more like a No.1 overall selection than a bottom-third first-rounder. The 6’8” point-forward in the mold of the Pistons, Cade Cunningham, averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 7.9 assists this season and was named a first-time All-Star.
However, the Knicks’ homecourt advantage — four games to three — and Brunson’s mastery of late-game situations should be enough to get them by the Hawks 4-2.