Knicks Can’t Get Past Atlanta

The New York Knicks were up and down and ultimately fell behind in the last few minutes of the game ending in a 117-111 loss to the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday evening at Madison Square Garden.

Energy came in spurts for the Knicks throughout the game, but the team started upbeat with crafty passes to Obi Toppin, team steals, and explosive dunks by Toppin and center Mitchell Robinson.  New York, however, did not maintain defense, and that in addition to missing necessary free throws and key players as they faced Trae Young led to the loss of their fourth and final matchup of the season against Atlanta. 

“I like the way we started the game, I didn’t like our second quarter, I didn’t like the finish of the quarter,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. “Thought the third quarter we played really well, fourth quarter we didn’t finish.”

The Knicks rose to the excitement in the arena early in the game. A full house turned out to watch the battle against the Hawks, who defeated the Knicks in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs. The crowd was also buzzing as New York recognized historically black colleges, for their first-ever HBCU night, which featured sounds from Raashaun Casey, better known as DJ Envy, an alumnus of Hampton University and a performance by the Delaware State University marching band at half time. 

Knicks started with quick passes to Toppin who scored, points from Barrett driving to the rim and Knicks making 3-pointers. The Knicks were ahead 34-30 at the end of the first quarter as Barrett led the team with 12 points and four total rebounds. He had one assist. Alec Burks had made 11 points and one steal. He led with the team with two assists. Knicks had made 45.5% of their attempted 3-pointers in the first quarter. The Hawks only made 25% of their attempted 3-pointers by that point. Knicks trailed 58-64 at half time, but came back in the third quarter.  New York led 89-87 to start the fourth quarter and kept up the energy. Burks and Robinson each had a steal in the fourth quarter. However, Atlanta tied the score at 105 with less than three minutes remaining in the game. The Hawks outscored the Knicks 30-22 in the fourth quarter to push them ahead to win the game.

Knicks only made 53.8% of attempted free throws in the game. 

“I feel like we kind of broke down defensively and they executed their offense and played really good defense,” Toppin said about what the team lacked in the fourth quarter.

Toppin had 10 total points, three assist, one steal and seven total rebounds for the game.

RJ Barrett led the Knicks with 30 total points and 13 total rebounds. He had three assists and two steals.

The help of Julius Randle was needed to match skills from Young.  Knicks PR tweeted Julius Randle was out due to a “sore right quadriceps tendon”. 

“I mean the thing is we are shorthanded,” Coach Thibodeau said. “Obviously it’s not only Julius [Randle] but its Derrick [Rose], its Nerlens[Noel] but it also gives other guys an opportunity and so I thought we got some production from a lot of guys and I thought they played well.”

Young led the Hawks with 45 points and eight assists.

“We put two on the ball,” Thibodeau said about defense against Young. “We gave him [Trae Young] second shots we missed a rotation to get out into the corner. His ability is going to command two on the ball and we didn’t finish our defense.”

New York remains at 12th place in the Eastern Conference standings, tied with the Washington Wizards at 30 wins. The Hawks team in 10th place with 36 wins.