The Atlanta Hawks’ wings led them to victory at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. Jalen Johnson and De’Andre Hunter were aggressive all night to silence the large crowd. Injuries plagued both squads in this contest. The Hawks were missing Trae Young, Onyeka Okongwu and Kobe Bufkin, while Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson missed this contest for New York.
Johnson aggressively attacked the rim right from tip-off scoring the first six points of the game. Atlanta’s defense forced the Knicks to start 0-8 from the field. New York could not generate quality looks in the paint and relied exclusively on outside looks. Johnson and Dejounte Murray knocked down back-to-back threes to give the Hawks a 16-8 lead. When Hunter entered off the bench, he scored a quick five points to extend the advantage to 24-10. Donte DiVincenzo was not bashful, shooting 1-8 from beyond the arc midway through the opening frame. After a timeout, Head Coach Quin Snyder drew up a magnificent play resulting in a Bruno Fernando powerful throwdown to put an exclamation point on Atlanta’s dominant first quarter. The Knicks only scored eight points in the paint and trailed 33-15 after 12 minutes. New York shot 3-16 from deep and 7-28 from the field.
Hunter continued his microwave performance off the bench, converting on five of his first six shots, including two from distance. When Bojan Bogdanović guarded him or Johnson, the Hawks knew they had a matchup advantage and did not shy away from it. Atlanta converted six early offensive rebounds into 11 second-chance points, keeping New York in the rearview mirror. The Knicks shot a whopping 24 threes with three minutes left to go in the second quarter, further emphasizing Atlanta’s lockdown paint defense. However, after struggling from downtown to this point, some of those looks started to see the bottom of the net for New York. They went on a 15-4 four run to cut the deficit to 56-46. Before halftime, Johnson had two consecutive twos and Murray converted on a triple, giving the Hawks a 61-50 lead. Johnson and Hunter scored 17 and 14 points, respectively, and Atlanta led the battle of the boards 26-18.
The Hawks started the third quarter strong with Johnson driving to the rim and making a nice read for a Saddiq Bey corner three. Shortly after, a wild sequence, including three consecutive live-ball turnovers, led to a DiVincenzo triple. The Knicks followed with a 7-0 run behind Miles McBride’s emphatic driving dunk, cutting the Hawks’ lead to 75-69. Atlanta turned the ball over four times in the whole first half but committed five through the first eight minutes of the second half. Many of these led to Knicks’ fastbreak points, giving them easy looks to climb back into the game. When New York tied the game at 76 with a 17-1 run, Madison Square Garden was rocking, and it seemed the Hawks lost their momentum. However, Trent Forrest’s tough layup and Bogdan Bogdanović’s only three of the night gave Atlanta an 83-78 advantage heading into the final frame.
Johnson found Hunter for an alley-oop slam to start the fourth quarter. Alec Burks and Jericho Sims gave New York a boost off the bench with scoring and offensive rebounds, respectively, to keep the game close. The Hawks gained momentum when Hunter aggressively attacked a closeout and threw down a posterizing dunk over Sims. When Josh Hart hit his third triple of the second half, Murray countered with his own three to bring the Hawks’ lead to 98-91. Clint Capela was key down the stretch, deflecting passes and denying easy layups at the rim. Atlanta put together a 16-7 run to go up 113-110 with a minute left to seal the victory.
Murray totaled 21 points, six assists and nine rebounds, while Capela put up 13 points and nine boards. Johnson led the Hawks with 26 points, seven dimes and nine rebounds, and Hunter scored 22 on 9-14 shooting. Bey added 17 points and nine boards. The Hawks won the rebounding battle 51-40.
For New York, DiVincenzo finished with 21 points but shot 5-17 from deep and 7-24 from the field. Without Brunson, he took the lion’s share of the usage. Precious Achiuwa scored 15 (7-8) points, while McBride dropped 11 points and nine dimes on 4-15 from the field. Off the bench, Bojan Bogdanović totaled 19 points, and Burks put up 11 points. Hart collected 14 points, six assists and eight rebounds. McBride, Hart and DiVincenzo played 46, 43 and 39 minutes, respectively.
The Hawks avoided the New York sweep and now set their sights on a victory at home on the second night of a back-to-back against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
