Peachtree Hoops: Hawks handle business in victory over shorthanded Knicks

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Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

With the Knicks’ offensive threats sidelined, the Hawks took care of business on Tuesday night.

The Atlanta Hawks returned to winning ways after securing a wire-to-wire victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, 116-100.

Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, with De’Andre Hunter adding 22 points off the bench. For the Knicks, Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 points, and Bojan Bogdanovic added 19 points.

The contrasting win/loss records for these teams this season would have suggested that the Knicks should roll through pretty comfortably, and perhaps under normal circumstances this may have been the case. Alas, these were not normal circumstances — for either team. No Trae Young meant the Knick faithful weren’t quite as vociferous, while the absence of Onyeka Okongwu continues to impair the Hawks’ backup center play. For the Knicks, they were missing just about everyone significant to their offense at the moment with Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, OG Anunoby all sidelined and Mitchell Robinson also out for this fixture.

Nevertheless, the show goes on, though ‘show’ may be a generous description for pretty ugly basketball at times, especially on the Knicks’ side in the first quarter as they launched three after three but to little avail, shooting 2-of-15 from three and 6-of-27 from two, 22%, for just 15 points.

The Hawks did get some good contests up on some of these threes, such as Bogdan Bogdanovic’s recovery to contest DiVincenzo after the Isaiah Hartenstein screen:

They also had good challenges inside the arc, such as the opening play of the game as Clint Capela blocks Hartenstein’s drive:

Capela again gets in a good contest this time on the drive from DiVincenzo:

But ultimately the Knicks missed so many open threes of their own accord.

An open transition three is missed by DiVincenzo:

Garrison Mathews is pulled by the rolling Jericho Sims and leaves DiVincenzo open for three, but Mathews is let off the hook on this occasion as DiVincenzo misses the three:

DiVincenzo would get two bites at the cherry on this possession, failing to convert either of them:

The hedge on the screen is not exactly executed well by Bruno Fernando and it allows another open three for DiVincenzo, who misses, and the second chance for Bogdanovic is also missed beyond the arc:

DiVincenzo shot 2-of-11 from the field and 1-of-9 from three in the first quarter alone. The Hawks, conversely, shot 54% and scored 33 points, the play of Johnson (11 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field) helping elevate the Hawks in the first quarter.

Johnson was smooth and in control, the finesse his game has developed this season shining through as he finishes in transition at the rim:

From the corner, Johnson gets into the paint, spins and hits the fadeaway jumper:

On the offensive rebound, Johnson composes himself with the dribble before rising, hanging and hitting inside:

Between the Knicks’ struggles and the Hawks having a good first quarter, the visitors quickly stretched their lead to double digits and to 18 points before the end of the first quarter. In the second, this grew to its largest of the game of 22 before the Knicks made a gradual comeback, slicing it in half before the first half came to an end.

A tough start to a tough shooting third quarter for the Hawks (31%) helped the Knicks reduce the gap further and they tied the game with just under two minutes remaining, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder believing the Knicks’ transition and second chances keeping them in the game.

“I think their runs came on the offensive glass — we know that’s something they do very well — and then in transition,” said Snyder.

The Knicks scored 25 fastbreak points and 15 second chance points, a shade below their 16.5 average per game, second in the NBA.

The Hawks fought to take a five-point lead into the final quarter, and from there they kept the Knicks at arm’s length for the most part (the leading dropping below five on just a couple of occasions) before the Knicks’ heavy minutes and Dejounte Murray’s nine point fourth quarter helped contribute to a 33-22 fourth quarter in favor of the Hawks. For the Knicks later on, their heavy minutes began to finally catch up with their eight man rotation and the Hawks got the stops they needed — with the Knicks shooting 29% and 5-of-18 from three.

Snyder was pleased with the Hawks’ offensive efficiency and that the Hawks making shots — as Snyder has often preached when this has gone in the opposite direction — helped set their defense. He was also pleased with the Hawks’ contesting threes, a focus for his side.

“I thought we were efficient offensively and that helped our defense as well,” said Snyder postgame. “We really executed well down the stretch on both ends. We did give up a couple of threes but they were contested, and that has been a point of emphasis for us.”

“We didn’t lose our composure when they were making runs and when the crowd got into it,” added De’Andre Hunter. “We continued to make plays and down the stretch we made a lot of defensive plays.”

The Hawks keeping the Knicks under their average for offensive rebounding/second chance scoring was an important factor in this game. The two league leaders in offensive rebounding came together — both missing personnel in that department — and it was the Hawks who came off the better of the two sides last night, turning 13 offensive rebounds into 19 second chance points while the Knicks’ 16 offensive rebounds only translated to 15 points. Snyder was pleased with the Hawks’ decision-making to either crash the offensive glass or focus on transition defense.

“They’re hard to keep off the glass because they’re physical,” said Snyder. “Whatever we’re going to do: either crash with everything you’ve got or get back. We talk about not getting caught in purgatory. Either one of those are good because if you crash you impact the play and eventually, people have to account for you as well.”

Another area of disparity in the Hawks’ favor was not just field goal percentage (50% to the Knicks’ 38%) but also free throws, the Hawks shooting 18-of-23 from the line, the Knicks just 8-of-11. This perhaps isn’t too surprising, and it’s not that the Hawks didn’t attack but the Knicks are just so short-handed offensively they almost didn’t stand a realistic chance. They needed a big offensive night from one of DiVincenzo (who ended up shooting 7-of-24 and 5-of-17 from three), Miles McBride (4-of-15 from the field) or Bogdanovic (6-of-18 shooting) and didn’t get it from any of them.

For the Hawks, Jalen Johnson was the star man with 26 points on 12-of-17, 2-of-3 from three to go along with nine rebounds and seven assists. Johnson was just in control, he looked poised and as Snyder described postgame he didn’t hesitate.

“I thought tonight maybe the biggest thing early was he didn’t hesitate,” said Snyder of Johnson. “The second part of the season, recognizing how people are closing out on him and not hesitating for a second and then shooting, just taking your shot. We have confidence in him in that. If he doesn’t shoot it that’s OK too but make a quick decision to do something and make a play for someone else and he’s capable of doing something.”

De’Andre Hunter produced another strong game off the bench, scoring 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field. Snyder praised Hunter postgame for his offensive readiness coming off the bench as he discussed both Hunter’s and Johnson’s contributions last night as the pair combined for an efficient night together.

“Hunt, he came in just ready to shoot if he had some space,” said Snyder. “He’s big, he can rise up and get that shot off. He mixed it up really well on the drive, the one play where he went to the rim late in the game out of the timeout was a really big play for us. Jalen across the board, his defensive rebounding is really important for us. His ability to playmake as well, just got to keep his feet in the lane a little bit but he’s a good enough passer that he finds people too. Excited with how both of those guys play.”

They also combined for a highlight play in the second half with Johnson finding Hunter for the alley-oop:

The Hawks didn’t need massive contributions elsewhere but got certainly meaningful contributions from Murray (21 points), Saddiq Bey (17 points) and Clint Capela (13 points). It was an off night for Bogdan Bogdanovic, who scored just five points, while Bruno Fernando somehow committed seven turnovers last night.

All in all, there’s not a huge amount to read into with this victory against such an offensively depleted Knicks side, but the continued strong play of Hunter off the bench is good to see. Atlanta took care of business against a shorthanded opponent, and move on to a much more trying test tonight in Cleveland, though Donovan Mitchell will not feature due to injury.

With the victory, Hawks gain half a game on the Nets on account of their loss against Memphis on Monday, nudging their margin to 2.5 games in the race for the final Play-In berth.

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The Hawks (27-34) are back in action tonight as they return to Atlanta to face the Cleveland Cavaliers (40-21), who were also in action on Tuesday as they snapped the Celtics’ 11-game win streak in a game that went to the wire.

Until next time...

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