RECAP: Hawks Take Down Knicks and Punch Ticket to NBA Cup Semifinals in Massive 107-100 Victory

The Hawks’ ascension through the NBA Cup tournament has been a welcome surprise during the regular season. Despite a tough group that featured the Cavaliers and Celtics, two of the best teams in the league, Atlanta took down both in fantastic showings that proved they have the ability to compete with the league’s upper echelon on any given night.

At this point, it cannot be dismissed as a fluke. The Hawks rebounded from a slow start to put the Knicks away in the clutch and secure their spot in the NBA Cup Semifinals to face off against the Milwaukee Bucks. Atlanta got a star effort from its two best players – Trae Young had 22 points and 10 assists while Jalen Johnson racked up a 21 point-17 rebound statline of his own. Clint Capela had 11 points and 13 rebounds in another double-double outing while Dyson Daniels hounded New York’s star point guard, Jalen Brunson, all evening. He held Brunson to 14 points on 5-15 shooting while contributing 9 points and seven rebounds of his own. However, the win would not have been possible without another fantastic effort from DeAndre Hunter. I think Hunter has established himself as one of the NBA’s best bench players and his 24 points tonight proves that. Onyeka Okongwu also had a 12 point, 11 rebound performance off the bench.

For New York, Josh Hart led the Knicks with 21 points while Karl-Anthony Towns had 19 points and 19 rebounds. Mikal Bridges had 19 points while Jalen Brunson was held to 14 points on poor efficiency. He still had eight assists and the Knicks’ starters all finished with double-digit points, but credit must be given to a much-maligned Atlanta defense for holding one of the NBA’s best offenses in check.

Coming into tonight’s game, the Hawks were 8th in the NBA in PPG, 6in FG%, 19th in 3PA, 24th in 3P%, 6th in FTA, 24th in turnovers, and 6th in rebounding. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is 16th in points per 100 possessions, 21st in effective field goal percentage, 21st in turnover percentage, 6th in offensive rebounding percentage, and 11th in free throw rate.

On defense, Atlanta ranks 28th in PPG allowed, 20th in field goal percentage allowed, 30th in three-point attempts allowed, and 30th in three-point percentage allowed. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is 16th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 26th in effective field goal percentage allowed.

New York is currently 7th in PPG, 2nd in FG%, 18th in 3PA, 2nd 3P%, 27th in free throw attempts, 26th in rebounding, and 4th in turnovers. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Knicks are 1st in points per 100 possessions, 2nd in effective field goal percentage, 3rd in TOV%, 19th in offensive rebounding percentage, and 18th in free throw rate. Their offense has been clicking on all cylinders and showed out against the Raptors in the game prior to tonight’s matchup with Atlanta. Brunson, Bridges and Towns all dropped over 20 points on reasonable efficiency while the Knicks shot 42.5% from deep.

In short, this was never going to be an easy game for either team to win. Fortunately, Atlanta put the game away with a big effort late in the third quarter and carried it over into the fourth to beat a team that many viewed as significantly better on paper.

Let’s recap tonight’s game.

The 1st quarter did not start in Atlanta’s favor. The Knicks went on a 9-2 run to open up the first quarter and the Hawks did not hit a basket for the first 3 minutes. Young got things going for the Hawks with his patented floater on the feed from Jalen Johnson. Still, the Knicks established an early lead and held it throughout the quarter. Johnson stood out as a facilitator with three assists and DeAndre Hunter had a nice catch-and-shoot three, but the rest of Atlanta’s offense stood out for the wrong reasons. Although, the Hawks kept it to a 26-22 deficit at the quarter’s conclusion, they needed to pick things up on offense to keep pace with New York.

Unfortunately, it was more of the same in the second frame. The Hawks had no answer for Towns on the boards as he routinely got to rebounds to give the Knicks life whenever they needed it. Furthermore, Young could not get things going as a scorer and continued to struggle from deep, which has been a theme of the season. He is shooting 31% from three-point range this year on 8.5 attempts and came into the game shooting 11 for 44 from deep in his last five games. Fortunately, Atlanta shot well from inside the paint (32 points compared to the Knicks’ 30) and showed excellent activity on defense. Once again, Dyson Daniels’ defense on the perimeter was critical to Atlanta staying in this game. He did an excellent job on Brunson in the first half, holding the superstar guard to under 10 points in the first half. Regardless, the Hawks finished the half down 54-47 while still thankfully being in it due to a poor showing from New York’s offense. The Hawks shot 18.8% from deep, 36.5% from the field and 54.5% from the charity stripe. However, the Knicks were not much better. They finished the half shooting 47.7% from the field, but 30% from deep and 50% from the free throw line.

Atlanta turned the game around in the second half and specifically outclassed New York in two key metrics – fast break points and points in the paint. They scored 20 points while pushing the pace (compared to the Knicks’ 10) and 66 points in the paint to New York’s 54. It was especially encouraging to see Atlanta find success in the interior despite playing against a true seven-footer in Towns. He finished with 19 points and 19 boards, but Atlanta did not let him carry the Knicks’ offense as he is capable of doing. Instead, Johnson and Young powered the Hawks down the stretch while Hunter and Okongwu chipped in when needed. Things really began to turn around for the Hawks at the start of the third quarter when Johnson hit a three and followed it off with a throw-down dunk, both on feeds from Young. Their chemistry has been spectacular to witness for Atlanta and frankly, the Knicks had no answer for it. Towns answered back with a three-pointer of his own to keep it at 60-52 before Bridges hit a jumper to give New York some breathing room. Fortunately, the Hawks roared back with an 8-0 run. After an OG Anunoby dunk cut into Atlanta’s momentum, Young hit back-to-back threes to give Atlanta its first lead of the night. The Hawks never gave the lead back. Hunter hit two threes of his own late in the quarter and Okongwu tipped a shot in on the rim to power the Hawks’ run and give them an 81-72 lead heading into the fourth.

Even though the Knicks made it a game at the end, the score being 105-94 with 1:36 left in the game effectively made any hopes of a Knicks’ comeback slim. Johnson was unstoppable in the fourth quarter, making his impact felt as both a scorer and facilitator. He opened the quarter up with an alley-oop to Okongwu before getting into the paint and scoring the basket off a pass from Bogdan Bogdanovic. Although Hart and Brunson gave it their all at the end, it wasn’t enough for the Knicks to get back into the game. The figurative clincher came when Hunter threw down a massive dunk with 3.01 left. However, the game really ended in the hands of Capela. Although the Hawks’ center has been the subject of trade rumors, he turned two passes from Daniels and Young respectively into great alley-oops that gave Atlanta enough breathing room. The Knicks cut the deficit to eight points, but it wasn’t enough to matter.

The Hawks will play the Bucks in the semifinal round on Dec. 14 at 4:30 pm in Las Vegas, NV.