{"id":712774,"date":"2026-04-17T23:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:06:35","slug":"the-posts-knicks-hawks-first-round-playoff-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712774\/","title":{"rendered":"The Post&#8217;s Knicks-Hawks first-round playoff predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Post\u2019s experts give their Knicks-Hawks predications:<\/p>\n<p>Stefan Bondy<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks have playoff unknowns in Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu and Dyson Daniels, so their reaction to the pressure \u2014 and to the intense atmosphere of Game 1 at MSG \u2014 is a wild card. They could rise to the occasion. They could shrink. Either way, the Knicks are more talented and that will carry them to victory. <\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Knicks in 6<\/p>\n<p>Zach Braziller<\/p>\n<p>This won\u2019t be easy. Like the Pistons in the first round a year ago, the on-the-rise Hawks will give the Knicks problems, stealing Game 2 at MSG and forcing a winner-take-all Game 7. In the end, Jalen Brunson and Co. do just enough to advance. <\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Knicks in 7<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.25030525;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39122536\" width=\"738\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-125600519.jpg\" alt=\"Nickeil Alexander-Walker #7 of the Atlanta Hawks and Josh Hart #3 of the New York Knicks go after a loose ball during the game on April 6, 2026 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.\" class=\"wp-image-39122536\"  \/>Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Atlanta Hawks and Josh Hart of the New York Knicks go after a loose ball during the game on April 6, 2026 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Jared Schwartz<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks almost certainly got a harder matchup with the surging, upstart Hawks than they would\u2019ve with the Raptors. The Hawks are athletic, long, fast and full of belief. But much of their rise came against lowly opposition. And the Knicks should be far more talented with far more experience.\u00a0The Hawks can hang around, but the Knicks should put them away with relative ease. <\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Knicks in 5<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Mike Vaccaro<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I\u2019ll be proven wrong but I don\u2019t buy the Hawks\u2019 late-season surge as anything much more than the byproduct of fortunate scheduling. I try to find an area that I\u2019d give the Hawks the advantage. I don\u2019t see one.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Knicks in 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Post\u2019s experts give their Knicks-Hawks predications: Stefan Bondy The Hawks have playoff unknowns in Jalen Johnson, Onyeka&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[208,7,304,6,11,56381,1136,191,3810,3806,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-712774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-nba-playoffs-2026","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkknicks","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116422560796723638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712774","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=712774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}