On Tuesday night, the Knicks and Hawks returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time since Atlanta’s stunning comeback win in Game 2 of the series. This time, it seemed like the Knicks had learned from their previous mistakes. Riding a strong defensive performance, a tremendous all-around game from Karl Anthony Towns, and a vintage Jalen Brunson shooting game, the Knicks controlled Game 5 from start to finish, winning 126-97 and taking a 3-2 series lead back to Atlanta.
Saying the Knicks controlled this game from start to finish may actually be an understatement. Atlanta’s last lead of the game was at 4-2, and the last time they had the game within single digits, the score was 29-20. The Hawks were able to cut it to 10 points a couple of times in the first half, but that was it, and then both teams emptied the benches with four minutes left in the game.
Much like in the last game in New York, the Knicks came out with obvious defensive intensity. They were flying to their closeouts, rotating on their help assignments, and making it hard for the Hawks to get off clean looks. In the first quarter, the Knicks forced four turnovers and blocked two shots, while scoring four points off those turnovers and taking a 35-22 lead.
Both teams made key tactical changes on defense. The Hawks tried to throw Dyson Daniels, who had primarily guarded Brunson, on Towns and then use Nickeil Alexander-Walker on Brunson. The Knicks tried to be more aggressive in sending help-side defense to get the ball out of CJ McCollum’s hands. While the Knicks’ adjustment was more successful on Tuesday night, there will undoubtedly be other adjustments to come.
“It’s like a chess match,” said Brunson after the shifts in the series. “Someone makes a move, you’ve got to make another move. You’ve got to wait to see what they’re going to do. But I think, the way we prepare, we’ve got to be ready for anything.”
While Brunson still guarded McCollum when he was in the game, the Knicks were more aggressive in helping off the other Hawks players. Towns or Mitchell Robinson were almost always lurking in the paint, and then the Knicks had the nearest help defender shading more intentionally towards McCollum. If McCollum tried to drive or had a step on Brunson, the help defender was there to cut off the lane and force McCollum to give up the ball. When he did, the Knicks were flying to close out on the perimeter and forcing the Hawks to swing the ball multiple times to find the open man.
Oftentimes, that open man was Dyson Daniels, who it seemed like the Knicks were intentionally forcing the ball to. Daniels shot 51.7% from the field in the regular season, but he only attempted 10.2 shots per game and is not the main point of attack for Atlanta’s offense. The Knicks made him one often on Tuesday, and he scored 17 points on 7-of-11 from the field despite not playing much in the second half.
Even though he shot the ball well, that took the ball out of McCollum and Jalen Johnson’s hands more than Atlanta would have liked. Johnson did lead the Hawks with 18 points, while adding 10 rebounds and six assists, but he took just nine shots in the first half when the game was still in any kind of doubt. McCollum was held to just six points on 3-of-10 from the field. Five other Hawks players took as many shots as he did, and he failed to knock down a single three-point shot in the game.
The Knicks also boxed on much better in Game 5, holding Atlanta to just five offensive rebounds. That helped to keep Atlanta out of fast-break situations, and they had just four fast-break points.
“One of the things I said we had to do better, we had to box out,” said Knicks head coach Mike Brown after the win. “Our guys did an unbelievable job on the glass. OG [Anunoby] and KAT were monsters. Between the two of them, there were 22 defensive rebounds. They both had a double-double. They were phenomenal. It’s huge for us to keep these guys off the glass. It’s huge for us to keep them out of transition.
Coach Brown also talked about how Atlanta adjusted to take away the Knicks’ “sprays,” when they drive into the paint to draw defenders and then kick out to an open three-point shooter. On Tuesday, the Knicks were held to just 26 three-point attempts, but they adjusted their offensive approach to attack the weakness the Hawks presented by not collapsing from the wings on defense.
“It means there’s more room to drive and finish, and that’s what we have to do,” explained Coach Brown. “If the spray is not available, we gotta finish. We had 60 points in the paint, and we probably posted up KAT a couple of times, so a lot of those points in the paint came on drives because they’re staying home on our shooters, and we’re not able to get up the 40 threes that we wanted to get up. So we have to take what the defense gives us.”
Another adjustment the Knicks made was with their rotations.
These adjustments started over the last two games in Atlanta, but were an even more stark contrast now that the teams were back on the Garden floor. In Game 2, after the Knicks were up 32-23 at the end of the first quarter, Coach Brown started the second quarter with a lineup of one starter, OG Anunoby, and four bench players: Jordan Clarkson, Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet, and Miles McBride. The Knicks’ offense lacked rhythm and a floor general and were outscored 13-3 to give the Hawks a one-point lead.
On Tuesday, the Knicks had a commanding lead at the end of the first quarter, but, unlike in Game 2, the Knicks came out with a lineup that featured three starters - Towns, Anunoby, and Mikail Bridges - with Jose Alvarado at the point. That lineup outscored Atlanta 8-5 before subs came in. In fact, there were no minutes in the game (until the final four) without either Brunson or Towns on the floor, and Coach Brown did a good job of staggering minutes for both of them, allowing both players turns as the hub of the offense.
Early in the game, it seemed that Coach Brown was trying to take some pressure off Brunson since the Knicks’ captain is playing through a foot injury.
“You have to be smart,” said Coach Brown about prioritizing rest for his players in the playoffs. “Rest is a big deal, and you’re playing against really good teams. On top of that, the physicality of the game is at another level, and so trying to get your guys the ability to recoup, not just their minds, but their bodies as well, is something to be really lean on and take a look after every game.”
Brunson had not been himself for much of the series. Coming into tonight’s game, the All-Star guard was averaging 25.5 points on 41.6% shooting with 5.3 assists and 3.5 turnovers. In the regular season, he averaged 26 points, but that came on 46.7% shooting with 6.8 assists and just 2.4 turnovers per game. There were times in the series, specifically near the end of each of the Knicks’ losses, where Brunson’s decision-making was questionable at best.
None of that was the case tonight. After a modest eight points in the first quarter, Brunson stayed on the bench for a bit longer than usual, not checking into the game in the second quarter until six minutes remained. When he did come back in, Brunson was more assertive, attacking the basket on the fast break and finishing through contact. He had nine points in the quarter and then took another extended rest in the middle of the third quarter, scoring just five points in the period.
With Towns on the bench to start the fourth quarter, Brunson took the opportunity to unleash a vintage performance. The diminutive guard attacked the basket with his usual confidence and had Hawks defenders off-balance with jab steps, hesitations, and unusual attack angles. If defenders fell off of him around the perimeter, he pulled up from three. By the end of the quarter, he scored 17 points in the quarter and finished with 39 points on 15-of-23 from the field with eight assists, three rebounds, and just one turnover.
“There’s a lot of players who are taller, faster, stronger than me,” said Brunson about his success with shifting his pace and speed when he attacks the rim. “I gotta keep them off-balance somehow.”
Up until that fourth-quarter barrage, Towns had really been the engine driving the Knicks. Much like they did in Game 4, the Knicks continued to run a lot of offense through the big man. Much of it came from the perimeter with Towns driving when guys like Tony Bradley guarded him, kicking to players curling off pin screens from the opposite corner, and pulling up from three when he had the open look.
“Kat’s making great decisions,” said Brunson after the game. “I think us playing off-ball, the screens that we’re setting, the pace that we’re cutting is helping with that. Also, KAT has the ability to go by as a defender, so there’s a lot of things we can do off that.”
Towns seemed to play with supreme confidence and energy all night, including on the defensive end. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-7 from the field, with 14 rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and two steals.
“I feel like passing was one of my things when I came into the league,” said Towns, who has 16 assists in his last two games. “Sometimes the scoring gets more noticed than the passing, but I’m glad that I’m able to have the opportunity to show what I can do passing-wise with my teammates cutting, so I just got to continue to stay disciplined, continue to make the right play, regardless of this scoring play or the hockey assist...It just gives us life, gives energy to the basketball, and I think it translates to our defense. You know, getting a good possession like that, ball movement brings energy to our game.”
The Knicks also got great work off the bench from Jose Alvarado, who had 12 points in 12 minutes, and Jordan Clarkson, who had nine points in 16 minutes and was a +14 on the day. In total, the Knicks’ bench outscored the Hawks’ bench 38-24, with Jonathan Kuminga being the only real contributor off the bench for Atlanta.
At the end of the day, it was another emphatic win for the Knicks, who have positioned themselves as the better team despite leading the series just 3-2. The Hawks’ two wins have been by a combined two points. After tonight, the Knicks’ three wins have been by a combined 56 points, with the last two wins, after they went down 2-1 in the series, being the biggest wins so far.
“They’re resilient,” said Coach Brown of his team. “We talked about it throughout the course of the year. You’ve got to go through some adversity throughout the course of the year and see what you’re made of, see how you’re gonna respond. You just got to keep fighting. Our guys have been through a lot so far this year, but they’ve been through it, this group, and there’s nothing that will deter the group. They’re a veteran group that knows what they want and how to go get it, no matter what’s in front of them.”
While that may give the Knicks confidence heading into the final two games of the series, it hardly means things are finished. It only takes outscoring your opponent by one to win a basketball game, and the Hawks have shown they aren’t going to back down from the fight.
“The toughest game to win is the one that ends someone’s season,” said Towns. “We’ve got to be super disciplined. We’ve got to execute at the highest level that we have in this series, and we’ve got to be ready for a really tough game.”
On Thursday night in Atlanta, we’ll see if the Hawks have another adjustment up their sleeves that can help extend this series and send it back to New York for Game 7.
