{"id":703131,"date":"2026-04-07T11:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:08:17","slug":"playoff-ready-by-jonathan-macri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703131\/","title":{"rendered":"Playoff Ready – by Jonathan Macri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning! Atlanta\u2019s 13-game home winning streak is officially over, although with as many Knick fans in attendance as there were, perhaps the streak should continue in spirit.<\/p>\n

51-28 (W3); 23-19 on the road\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t pass out immediately after the final buzzer, kudos to you. <\/p>\n

Your heart is in better shape than mine.<\/p>\n

In what was a fitting end to one of the best games of the year, CJ McCollum held onto the ball for a fingernail too long before his miracle heave at the buzzer went through the net. Had it counted, there\u2019s not a fan alive who would have been shocked. Forget expecting the unexpected. The sky is blue, water is wet, and crazy shit just happens at the end of games. Such is life rooting for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

Alas, New York not only managed to escape Atlanta with a win in regulation, but managed to answer several important questions in the process.<\/p>\n

On that note, here are my top three takeaways from a game that was oozing with playoff intensity\u2026<\/p>\n

Early on in this game, well before the madness began, the Hawks rallied back from a seven-point hole with a 12-0 run to go up by five. Timeout Mike Brown.<\/p>\n

After the timeout, the play call involved New York\u2019s two best players, with KAT screening for JB before Jalen passed it to Towns on the move:<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the fourth quarter. It\u2019s clutch time. A bad Josh Hart turnover led to Nickeil Alexander-Walker\u2019s (\u2026checks notes\u2026) 28th made 3-pointer of the game, putting the Hawks up by five with under four to play. Once again, timeout Mike Brown.<\/p>\n

Out of this timeout, we got a beautiful play call for KAT to execute a dribble handoff to Brunson, who gained the step he needed and scored a bucket at the rim, plus the contact for an and-one. After yet another NAW three at the other end (his last, thank the Lord), we got another opportunity for Jalen and Karl to make music together:<\/p>\n

Normally, a series of key plays involving the two best players on an NBA team would not be newsworthy, let alone be the first item of business after a game as exciting as this.<\/p>\n

But the Knicks are not a normal team, and Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are not a normal superstar duo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning! Atlanta\u2019s 13-game home winning streak is officially over, although with as many Knick fans in attendance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-703131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}