Knicks tame Hawks in final road game
Knicks win a thriller in State Farm Arena (aka MSG South)
Game 27 of 29
The Knicks (50-28, 3rd in the East), coming off two easy wins against weaker teams (Memphis, Chicago) after three straight losses to stronger teams (Oklahoma City, Houston, Charlotte), traveled to Atlanta to face another strong team, the Atlanta Hawks (44-32, 5th in the East), as both teams prepare for the playoffs.
While the Knicks have been up and down, the Hawks have been one of the hottest teams in the entire league for over a month, having won 13 straight games at State Farm Arena and 18 of their previous 20 games overall.
Game Night
This game was the 399th matchup between these two old foes in the regular season, with the Hawks holding a 204 - 194 advantage all-time. The Knicks had won four straight before their last game vs the Hawks, on January 2nd.
Oddly enough, that 111-99 loss was a harbinger of things to come. It was the second loss1 in an 11-game stretch where the Knicks went 2-9, easily their lowest point of the season.
Trae Young did not play in that game due to injury. Several days later, the Hawks traded Trae Young to the Wizards. That didn't stop Hawks fans from sporting the Trae Young jersey at the game last night, which was evenly split between Hawks and Knicks fans.
Seating Chart
After going to the Friday night game at MSG to witness the Knicks' utter takedown of the Bulls, my wife and I flew to Atlanta over the weekend, spending time with family in Georgia, before the game on Monday evening.
Monday was our day to explore Atlanta. We walked the Atlanta Beltline (similar to NYC’s Highline) and ended up in Centennial Olympic Park, a large public space in downtown Atlanta, a legacy of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, just steps from State Farm Arena.
We sat in the park an hour before tip-off, scrolling through ticket options until landing on Club seats in the lower bowl, in section 107. The seats were $250 each before Ticketmaster tacked on their $80 fee per ticket. We didn't realize until we got to our section that these seats came with unlimited free food and 🍹 in the club lounge, which we made sure to take advantage of to offset the fees.
The seats themselves were also worth the face value, getting us as close to the court as we’ve been all season.
Injury Report
The Knicks were fully healthy. The Hawks were without backup Center Jock Landale.
Arena Experience
The game had a playoff-like atmosphere. Although Knick fans made up a pretty decent portion of the crowd, everyone in our immediate vicinity was a Hawks fan. Seated to our immediate right were some self-avowed Pacers fans who were in town for The Masters (a golfing tournament). They struck up a conversation with us, claiming they had “no skin in the game” (yeah, ok), funny how they became Hawks fans when it came down to crunch time.
Game Notes
The Knicks led 32-31 after one. Jalen Brunson struggled, shooting just 1-5 from the field, but the sharpshooting of Mikal Bridges (11 points on 5-7 shooting) made up for it, and led both teams in scoring. OG Anunoby also kept up his excellent three-point shooting, going 2-4 from deep. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 10 to lead the Hawks, and Jalen Johnson chipped in 7.
The Knicks were up 43-36 midway through the second quarter when the bottom fell out. The Hawks went on a 12-0 run to take the lead 48-43 with 5:01 to play. The Hawks maintained that advantage the rest of the quarter and led at halftime 57-53.
The Club level seats gave us access to the Harrah’s Club, which is on the floor level of the lower bowl. Just being on the floor, especially with the game happening just a few yards away, left me awestruck. Entering the Club is like peering behind the curtain, entering a world the privileged few get to experience. The food and drink were all well and good, but the change in perspective was psychedelic. Seeing basketball players as you would on a playground, standing at eye level with them, was eerie, in a good way. I don’t think I can go back to the upper bowl anymore.
When it was time to go back to my seat for the start of the second half, I was basically at eye level with Jalen Brunson and the rest of the starters on the court. There I was, leaving the Club, carrying a drink and a box of popcorn in my hand that I just grabbed off a shelf without having to ask anyone’s permission, “this was the moment everything changed” is what the narrator (Morgan Freeman, naturally) would say in the movie based on my life.
Towns and Brunson got to work to start the second half, but the Hawks kept answering and even building on their lead to take a 10-point advantage, 71-61, behind a huge dunk from Jalen Johnson where he seemed to take off from just below the free throw line that fired up the Atlanta backers in the crowd with under 8 minutes remaining in the period.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored the Knicks next ten points to cut the lead to three, 74-71, with 4 minutes left in the quarter. During that time, Coach Brown used a lineup of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, Jalen Brunson, and Mikal Bridges. Two bigs (Towns and Robinson), two ball handlers (Deuce and Brunson), and one swiss army knife do-everything guy, Mikal Bridges. I love the double-big, double ball-handler lineups Brown can throw out there. He could swap Bridges with OG or Hart depending on the matchups.
With two minutes left in the quarter, the Knicks retook the lead when Brunson drove and found Robinson in the lane with a bounce pass for an easy two points; 75-74, New York. The teams traded three pointers until OG Anunoby’s three-pointer with time running out gave the Knicks an 81-79 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth began, and the Knicks' defense immediately made an impact as Robinson and Anunoby teamed to steal the ball, leading to an OG dunk. But the Hawks tied the game and later retook the lead, forcing the Knicks to come back and tie it, in a pattern that repeated several times, as often happens in one-possession games. The game stayed within one possession for either team until, with the Hawks up by two, 94-92, Josh Hart turned the ball over, leading to a three-pointer by Nickeil Alexander-Walker, making it 97-92 Hawks with 3:45 remaining. Timeout New York. During the timeout, the Atlanta mascot, Harry the Hawk, began taunting the Knicks fans in the front row.
Brunson scored on the next play and was fouled. He converted the and-1 opportunity to bring the Knicks within a possession, but another three by Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who led all scores with 36, put the Atlanta Hawks ahead 100-95 with 3:15 to go. I was so busy having fun all game that I didn't feel concerned until this moment. The entire crowd seemed to sense the same concern / anticipatory elation, depending on who you were rooting for, and EVERYONE stood up on their feet in anticipation. Everyone except the Pacers fans to our right, who, for some reason, were bothering people in front of them to sit down rather than just stand like everyone else. “If I sit, then I can’t see,” the poor Hawks fan said, trying to appease the Pacer gaze.
If everyone was standing to see something, what they got to see was stifling Knicks Defense and Jalen Brunson clutch-mogging everybody. Brunson scored on a layup, the Knicks forced a 24-second violation, and Brunson made a three from the wing to tie the game with Nickeil Alexander-Walker falling down in front of him. This is where I lost it emotionally, having bottled it in for nearly four quarters amidst Hawks fans I started screaming “OHH!” when Walker fell and a louder “OOOHHHHH!!” when Brunson’s three went in. My wife grabbed my arm, signaling me to keep calm. Then CJ McCollum being guarded by Brunson dribbled the ball off his foot, Brunson picked up the steal and scored a layup on the other end to put the Knicks up 102-100 with 2 minutes left. Timeout Hawks. By then, I was shouting so hard I could feel my voice inflect like a built-in auto-tuner. My wife pleaded with me not to get ahead of myself, but I was far beyond reason.
After the timeout McCollum tied the game at 102, the Knicks get multiple chances to take the lead but failing to do so allowed Alexander-Walker to get off a three that could’ve changed the outcome, but OG rebounded the miss, Brunson made a pull up jumpshot over McCollum that bounced on the front rin then bounced in, giving the Knicks the lead for good, 104-102 with 30 second to play. After some Knicks free throws and a three from McCollum makes the score Knicks 108 Hawks 105 the Hawks inbounded the ball with 2 seconds to play and CJ McCollum shot a prayer from beyond half court that somehow banked in off the glass as time ran out. Replays would show that the ball was still on his fingertips as the buzzer sounded and the clock struck zeroes. The shot would not count. The Knicks won, 108-105.
When we climbed the stairs to exit the section, we found ourselves in impromptu conversations with Hawks and Knicks fans alike. Hawks fans were saying “Good game” and things like “If there were 0.1 more seconds on the clock, who knows what would have happened.”
Knicks fans were giddy. Dapping everyone up. We high-fived and fist-bumped dozens of fans. One guy from Queens put his arm around me as we walked, preaching how “this was a home game for the Knicks, you see all the jerseys.”
We didn’t want to leave the arena. We walked the lower level of State Farm Arena singing GO-NEW YORK, GO-NEW YORK, GO! with fellow fans. It was a vibe that my wife hadn't felt before. After seeing the Knicks lose in Miami, Orlando, and twice in LA, it was only fitting that she saw the Knicks win in their final road game of the regular season.
Road Warriors
Jalen Brunson didn't have a good shooting night, but he scored 30 points and made them when it mattered most. 3 points in the first quarter, 3 more points in the second quarter, seven more in the third, and finally a 17-point outburst in the fourth quarter to send the Hawks fans home unsatisfied. Mr Clutch proved himself worthy of the moniker.
Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 21 points, 12 rebounds, and an impressive 6 assists, to go with an even more impressive 2 steals and a block. Towns had fourteen points in the third period, including ten straight for New York when the Hawks were rolling. Without him, the Knicks don’t win this game.
The unflappable OG Anunoby was 4-10 from 3Pt range, 3-4 from 2Pt range, and 4-4 from 1Pt range. His clutch free throws sealed the game. My wife never doubted him.
Final Thoughts
Last season, the Knicks’ road record was 24-17. This season, the Knicks finished 22-19 away from Madison Square Garden. Narrowing the scope to just the 14 road games that I attended, the Knicks went 5-9.2 This was not what I was hoping for, but this is what I got.3
Wins:
Brooklyn, Portland, Philadelphia, Washington, and Atlanta.
Losses:
Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, Golden State, Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles (twice)
Up Next
The Knicks return home to face the Boston Celtics at MSG on Thursday night. Technically, the Knicks still have a chance at the #2 seed, but Boston must lose all its remaining games, and New York need to win every one of theirs. I still haven’t seen the Celtics this year, so I’ll be at MSG as well!
Their first L was a thriller in San Antonio on New Year’s Eve, so the Atlanta game was the first one in that stretch where they kind of let go of the rope.
My plan was to go to 15 road games this season, and I would have, but Delta had mechanical issues with their plane, which resulted in us missing the Boston game, which turned out to be a win.
A fitting epitaph for the Knicks’ record with me in attendance.
Always coming Cam!