What is going on in New York. After much media hype the Knicks town 3 to 1 to the Hawks. Not to mention Trae Young has become a villain in New York City. I wanna start off by saying there is no reason that the series should have as much hype as it does. Although due to mainly ESPN it does. Now Stephen A can’t be the entire reason that this is occurring but he is a large part. Now they are down 3 to 1 in the media is a lot more quiet than it used to be. I know the NBA is in a lot better situation from a finical standpoint. Although I still can’t believe the amount of hype that the Knicks got before the series even started. No one thought the Hawks are going to win and that is shocking to me. They have had a great season despite having a head-coaching change in the middle of the year. Yet no one really believed in them. Let’s Rewind That Tape on this series.
The Knicks are supposedly supposed to out power the Hawks in the series. And despite the loud home crowd they have yet to do so. The only reason the series isn’t a sweep is because the hawks blew a giant lead game to two. While MSG enjoyed the win the Hawks got back to work in Atlanta and took 3 and 4. This puts everything into perspective for New York. Sure they had a great year after much misery, but the Knicks were not ready for this. Now they have a chance to go back home and lose a series 4-1. The most important take away from this whole thing is that the Knicks haven’t had an answer for the Hawks offense. Seven of the Hawks players are averaging nine or more points a game. That is just unbelievable to even look at. This is with Clint Capela struggling with the lowest in that stat with just nine points. Now I know Trae Young has been criticized by the Knicks and their fans but he is dominated this series by far. Averaging 27.5 points per game along with 10 assist per game.
I know I said Clint Capela had been struggling to get points up but he has had plenty of rebounds per game with 13. But the most important piece of information is that the Hawks are simply knocking down everything from beyond the arc. Trae Young’s ability to kick it out has been working terrifically against the Knicks defense. In New York has had no response to it throughout the series. The Hawks are shooting 38.2% from beyond the arc in the postseason. The worst part about this is that the Hawks aren’t even out of scoring the Knicks they’re just beating them.
Throughout the four games the Hawks have only average 104.3 points in the postseason. On the other side the Knicks are averaging 99 points. This compared to the regular season where the next average 107. The question really comes whether this team was really ever that great. Sure there are some anomalies that you would think would get better as the series keeps going. But the Hawks offense of side no signs of slowing down and the next offense simply can’t keep up. This is supposed to be a sound defense of team and they’ve done their part to stop the Hawks from scoring as much as they did in the regular season. So how did they even win?
Well first off the Atlanta Hawks coach took out Trae Young for a solid amount of time giving New York a lot of momentum. They then held on to the lead despite the Hawks coming close to getting back in the game a few times. To credit to the Knicks offense for staying with it despite the Hawks having a lot of momentum down the stretch. The most important part about this win is how great of a game that Derrick Rose had. Randall only had 15 in this game and somebody else had to step up. Every single player that played for the next at night scored at least one point. Rose had 26 and was especially clutch down the stretch. The biggest thing about this wind is that the Hawks only had 92 points in the game. Looking at the other games in the series if the Hawks had their normal amount of points this probably would not have been in New York win.
In conclusion on paper this might’ve been a closer series and many people would’ve thought. While the media went all the way in on the New York Knicks due to the long absence from the playoffs the Hawks stayed steady. They kept fighting and they played their game. The Knicks will now be fighting for their lives at home and I would not expect a win. The Hawks take this series and 5 and move on into the next round of the playoffs.
Top Picture by Getty Images.