NEW YORK \u2014 Teams can spend months, years, lifetimes searching for that one perfect possession: the play where everything the front office envisioned in the offseason, everything the coaches drew up on the whiteboard, and everything the players run through in the install comes together to create the high-percentage scoring chance that everybody\u2019s hunting for at this time of year.<\/p>\n
For a New York Knicks<\/a> team that has moved heaven and earth \u2014 not to mention Julius Randle<\/a>, Donte DiVincenzo<\/a>, Immanuel Quickley<\/a>, RJ Barrett<\/a>, a handful of first-round draft picks and about $820 million<\/a> \u2014 over the past two years, the wait ended about five minutes into Saturday\u2019s Game 1.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n With the Knicks leading the visiting Atlanta Hawks<\/a> 14-13 in the early going, Jalen Brunson<\/a> dribbled across half-court and around a high ball screen from Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>. Two Atlanta Hawks defenders \u2014 Dyson Daniels<\/a> and Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> \u2014 tracked Brunson as he dribbled to his left, unwilling to give the All-NBA point guard any daylight after he\u2019d already made his first five shots of the 2026 NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n That left Towns, who had slid to his right after setting the screen, wide open above the break of the 3-point arc \u2014 an area where the 7-foot marksman has routinely knocked down more than 40% of his attempts over the course of his career<\/a>. The Hawks didn\u2019t want to give him any daylight, either; when Brunson calmly made a behind-the-back pass to Towns, Atlanta guard CJ McCollum<\/a>, the nearest defender, quickly shifted over, closing out to prevent a clean 3-point look.<\/p>\n \u201cThose closeout situations \u2014 if they’re long, you know, you think you’re on him, and he\u2019s 7 feet tall, and you\u2019re not,\u201d Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said before Game 1. \u201cThen, you think you’ve done a good job of that, and he makes a quick read.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n On this play, Towns read McCollum, who was guarding Josh Hart<\/a>, who was reading everything.<\/p>\n As soon as Brunson threw that behind-the-back pass, Hart saw the dominoes falling; knowing that McCollum\u2019s going to have to rotate to KAT, he began to cut from the slot. With only one Hawks defender left on the weak side of the floor, Hart knew his cut would force center Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> into a choice: stay at home on Mikal Bridges<\/a> in the corner and potentially give Hart an open layup, or rotate to pick up Hart and leave Bridges \u2014 who made the third-most corner 3s in the NBA this season<\/a> \u2014 wide open to catch and shoot.<\/p>\n McCollum shifted. Hart cut. Towns passed. Okongwu rotated. Hart immediately kicked it to the corner. And Bridges cashed out.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something close to the Platonic ideal of an offensive possession for these Knicks: one that leverages the threat of the offensive firepower and collective playmaking IQ they bring to bear across the starting lineup to create a no-muss, no-fuss three points. And it all started with the Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll \u2014 an action that looked devastating in the early stages of their partnership<\/a> last season, and that wound up largely mothballed as defenses shifted their coverages<\/a> to put their centers on Hart and wings on Towns.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n As the Knicks neared the end of their first regular season under Brown, they started placing a greater emphasis on reviving the Brunson-Towns two-man game. Sometimes, that\u2019s meant Towns operating from the top of the floor while Brunson runs off the ball, like a quarterback waiting for his receiver to get open; the Knicks got several buckets<\/a> out of that look in Game 1, but also committed several turnovers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Primarily, though, it\u2019s meant Brunson more frequently looking for Towns<\/a>. With a renewed focus on finding him, and the big man shooting a scorching 62.5% on those feeds<\/a> after the All-Star break, their pick-and-roll pairing became one of the NBA\u2019s most potent offensive actions over the final two months of the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situations that [Towns is] in are a little different \u2014 especially pick-and-roll with Brunson,\u201d Snyder said after the game. \u201cThat’s a layer that you really \u2026 it\u2019s hard to deal with, when you have two players that are that gifted individually, and, then, you know, when they’re connected, as well. It presents more problems.<\/p>\n The Hawks had their fair share of problems with it in Game 1, as the Knicks scored 1.46 points per possession on 15 possessions that saw Towns set a screen for Brunson, according to Second Spectrum tracking data \u2014\u00a0a monster number that helped propel New York to a 113-102 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said this before, but the longer, obviously, we\u2019re on the court together, our\u00a0chemistry is better,\u201d Brunson said after the win. \u201cI think we\u2019ve grown as teammates, we\u2019ve grown as friends, and it\u2019s contributing to the way we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n (At this, Towns joked that he\u2019s \u201cnot at the Josh [Hart] level [of friend] yet, but we\u2019re working.\u201d To which Brunson quickly deadpanned, \u201cJosh is not a friend.\u201d)<\/p>\n Brunson said<\/a> at Knicks practice on Sunday that, after nearly two full seasons together, finding his flow with Towns has \u201cjust become easier.\u201d One thing that made it easier in Game 1: the Hawks continuing their regular-season trend<\/a> of spending the bulk of the game defending Towns with their centers, Okongwu and Mouhamed Gueye<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the final four minutes of Game 1, though, Snyder dialed up an adjustment we covered in our series preview<\/a>, switching the matchups by putting Daniels on Towns, sliding Okongwu over to Hart, and having Alexander-Walker check Brunson. The cross-match paid immediate dividends.<\/p>\n Brunson mostly chose to bring Hart and Bridges into the action to set the screen while Towns spaced the floor. The result was a hail of missed jumpers, as the Knicks scored just seven points on 1-for-5 shooting with a turnover over those final four minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those misses allowed the Hawks to push the pace in transition, make some 3-pointers and rip off an 11-0 run to make it an eight-point game heading into the final minute.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The main benefit of the cross-match? New York didn\u2019t run a single Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll down the stretch, and Towns did not attempt a shot when Daniels was guarding him, according to NBA Advanced Stats matchup data<\/a>. Until a runout layup after New York broke an Atlanta press with 48 seconds left<\/a>, he barely touched the ball down the stretch.<\/p>\n \u201cI liked the way that we came back at the end of the game,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cWe were resilient in that situation. It was just, you know, too little, too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Expect Snyder to flip that particular switch a lot earlier in Game 2, given how successfully New York generated scoring chances when Towns was guarded by a big man and how much Atlanta was able to gum up the Knicks\u2019 offense late.<\/p>\n Two other things to keep an eye on in Monday\u2019s Game 2:<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Can Atlanta get its offense on track?<\/p>\n During their 20-6 sprint from the All-Star break through the end of the regular season, the Hawks averaged 118.3 points per 100 possessions, tied for 10th-best in the NBA in that span<\/a>. In the second half of Game 1, though, the Hawks scored just 47 points in 49 possessions \u2014 a 95.9 offensive rating<\/a>, the equivalent of a league-worst attack, and nowhere near effective enough to get the job done against a team capable of scoring like New York.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can play better offensively,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cI think the physicality of the game, Game 1, just kind of \u2026 I thought we responded well to that. There\u2019s points when we need to \u2014 the formula for us, and our identity, has been to run and move the ball. It\u2019s not like we didn\u2019t do that. But we need to do more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n After reorienting its team in January<\/a> by trading away former franchise centerpiece Trae Young<\/a>, Atlanta pivoted toward an attack predicated on speed and movement. In Game 1, particularly after halftime, New York grounded the Hawks, who threw fewer passes<\/a>, dished fewer assists<\/a>, moved at a slower average speed<\/a> and went deeper into their possessions before taking a shot<\/a> than they did during<\/a> the<\/a> regular<\/a> season<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Snyder attributed some of those drop-offs to the Hawks needing to stay committed to hunting opportunities for the kind of hit-ahead passes that can get them into early offense and get the Knicks defense scrambling. Some of it, though, was the Knicks doing a good job of being intentional about limiting those runouts and of preventing Atlanta from generating second chances on the offensive glass.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see it on the tape \u2014 they want to play fast,\u201d Brown said<\/a> Sunday. \u201cYou can see it. As soon as the ball goes through the net, you can see Nickeil Alexander-Walker and CJ McCollum, they\u2019re going like, \u2018Get it in, get it in, get it in.\u2019 So we have to do a better job in transition, and you see it on tape again that they\u2019re crashing [for offensive rebounds]. They\u2019re crashing. They\u2019re coming. And we\u2019ve got to keep putting bodies on bodies, and not allow them to be able to impact the game in those two areas.\u201d<\/p>\n After the Young trade, the Hawks were 11th in the NBA in offensive rebounding rate<\/a>, pulling in nearly 31% of their own misses; in Game 1, that rate dropped to 23.2%<\/a>, which would\u2019ve been dead last in the NBA during the regular season. Nearly 17% of Atlanta\u2019s offensive plays came in transition during the regular season, fourth most in the NBA, producing a mammoth 1.34 points per possession on those transition plays, according to Cleaning the Glass<\/a>. In Game 1, though, the Hawks ran on just 13.4% of their offensive plays<\/a> and scored only 1.18 points per possession on them \u2014 bottom-of-the-league-level stuff \u2014 as the much more plodding Knicks outscored them 22-13 on the fast break.<\/p>\n If the Hawks don\u2019t generate easy buckets on the break or extra possessions on the glass, they\u2019re going to find themselves in a grind-it-out contest where they\u2019ll need to execute at a high level in a matchup where the Knicks can put Bridges\u2019 length on Alexander-Walker, task the burly Hart with making life uncomfortable on Jalen Johnson<\/a> and cross-match OG Anunoby<\/a> onto Okongwu while Towns sags off the non-shooting Daniels. That makes for tough sledding for Atlanta, who, as NBA.com\u2019s John Schuhmann noted<\/a>, \u201cshot below 50% (21-for-43) in the paint [in Game 1] for just the 15th time this season. The last two occasions have come against the Knicks.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Atlanta can generate good looks against this New York defense. Multiple Knicks referenced the need for New York to be more attentive, physical and connected on Atlanta\u2019s guard-guard screening actions, which led to a number of open shots in Game 1:<\/p>\n The Hawks will need to continue stress-testing the Knicks\u2019 communication on coverages, the cleanliness of their switches and the physicality of their on- and off-ball defense to get off on the right foot in Game 2 and build the confidence that they can stay connected against the favored hosts.<\/p>\n \u201cDefining what a good shot is is really difficult, especially in a playoff situation,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cGuys need to have the confidence that they can attack and make plays, and not every shot you\u2019re going to get is going to be wide open. That makes it easy. What you can do is continue to work to get the best shots you can. And we know how to do that, and we\u2019ve got to keep doing it, and do everything a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n How healthy is Onyeka Okongwu?<\/p>\n The 25-year-old Okongwu is a critical piece for Atlanta on both ends of the floor \u2014 the Hawks\u2019 biggest interior defender, closest like-sized defensive matchup for Towns and Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, best weak-side shot-blocker and best pick-and-pop big. After a Game 1 that saw him chip in 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot and four 3-pointers, Snyder called Okongwu\u2019s aggressiveness on shooting trail and pick-and-pop triples \u201cimportant for us,\u201d especially given how quickly New York can close space on the defensive end.<\/p>\n So it was notable when the Hawks announced Sunday<\/a> that Okongwu had been downgraded to questionable for Game 2 with right knee inflammation.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n While Atlanta lost Okongwu\u2019s 37 minutes by 12 points in Game 1, the most important part of that figure is the 37 minutes. With backup center Jock Landale<\/a> sidelined by a right high ankle sprain<\/a>, the Hawks\u2019 only other healthy big men are Gueye, an active and athletic but thin and reedy 210-pound power forward masquerading as a 5, and Tony Bradley<\/a>, whom Atlanta signed in the final week of the season after Landale went down, and in whose limited floor time the Hawks have been outscored by a point per minute<\/a>.<\/p>\n If Okongwu can\u2019t go, a Hawks team relying on its starting five for heavy minutes gets even thinner. Without him to battle Towns and Robinson, those reserve bigs figure to have their hands full replicating the defensive effort that limited the Knicks to just six offensive rebounds in Game 1 \u2014 one of just seven times this season they\u2019d had that few<\/a> \u2014 and holding the glass-eating Robinson without an offensive board for just the third time all season<\/a>. And without a stretch big to space the floor, the already tough task of creating clean looks against this Knicks defense would likely get even tougher \u2014 potentially prompting Snyder to need to downsize all the way to putting Johnson at the 5 to goose the offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Teams can spend months, years, lifetimes searching for that one perfect possession: the play where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3063,208,7,7046,372,206,3715,288,2990,3692,327,376,563,304,1260,1247,6449,6,11,1136,379,741,493,2986,1041,14218,494],"class_list":{"0":"post-716450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-all-nba","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-cj-mccollum","12":"tag-donte-divincenzo","13":"tag-dyson-daniels","14":"tag-immanuel-quickley","15":"tag-jalen-brunson","16":"tag-jalen-johnson","17":"tag-jock-landale","18":"tag-josh-hart","19":"tag-julius-randle","20":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","21":"tag-knicks","22":"tag-mikal-bridges","23":"tag-mitchell-robinson","24":"tag-mouhamed-gueye","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-nba-playoffs","27":"tag-new-york","28":"tag-nickeil-alexander-walker","29":"tag-og-anunoby","30":"tag-onyeka-okongwu","31":"tag-quin-snyder","32":"tag-rj-barrett","33":"tag-tony-bradley","34":"tag-trae-young"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116452432636269683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716450","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=716450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}