Knicks nail 20 Three Pointers and Spoil Hawks Home Opener 126-120
It is time for another night of Hawks basketball!
Atlanta had their home opener for the 2023-2024 season and they welcomed in the New York Knicks. The Hawks and the Knicks have had some memorable moments and games over the past few seasons and tonight promised to be another good matchup between these teams.
The Hawks and Knicks split the regular season series 2-2 last season, with the Hawks securing a victory in Madison Square Garden on 11/2, 112-99, and a 139-124 win on 1/20 in State Farm Arena (Per Hawks PR).
One thing that did not change is the starting lineup for the Hawks tonight. Atlanta went with the same starting lineup of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De'Andre Hunter, Saddiq Bey, and Clint Capela tonight.
The Knicks' starting lineup was Jalen Brunson, Quentin Grimes, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson.
Let's recap the game between the Hawks and the Knicks.
1st Half
After a pair of misses from both teams, the scoring got going when RJ Barrett blew by Young and got a big dunk to start the game. The Hawks began the game with Murray guarding Brunson and Bey guarding Randle.
In the first three minutes of the game, it was tough for either offense to get going. The Hawks still could not hit an outside shot, but a pair of dunks from Capela and Hunter had the game tied 4-4 with 8:37 left in the quarter.
After the Hawks took a 6-5 lead, Brunson connected with Robinson for al alley-oop and then Grimes hit a three to take a 10-6 and with 6:52, Snyder elected to take his first timeout of the game. The Hawks were shooting 27% from the field and having a hard time getting anything going. The other issue was that Hunter already picked up two fouls.
Bogdanovic was the first sub of the game for Young after the timeout.
Hunter would be the one that would get the Hawks offense going in the first quarter, with the help of Murray, who was much more assertive tonight than he was against Charlotte and looked good in the early going.
Brunson had a great first quarter and Snyder called his second timeout of the quarter after Isaiah Hartenstein stole the ball and dunked it to extend the lead to 26-16. Atlanta was shooting 41% from the field and was 1-7 from three, similar to the struggles on Wednesday night. The Knicks were shooting 53% from the field and 50% from three and were getting what they wanted to in this quarter. Brunson and Barrett accounted for 16 of the Knick's first 26 points.
The Hawks would have a big finish to the quarter though.
It started with Jalen Johnson posterizing not one, but two Knicks defenders on a big dunk and then three three-pointers in one minute. Griffin and Bogi hit two and then Young hit one from the logo to cut the lead to 30-29.
The Knicks just kept hitting shots though and led 35-31 after the first.
At the end of the first quarter, Atlanta was shooting 48% from the field and 40% from three. Hunter led the team with nine points.
New York shot 52% from the field and 50% from three.
The teams continued their back-and-forth game early in the second quarter. Neither team could get stops, but it was the Hawks in particular that could not.
Snyder took a timeout with 7:25 left in the first half after an RJ Barrett bucket. The Knicks were shooting 61% from the field and 55% from three. The team just could not get stops, despite the offense picking up after a lackluster start to the game.
The Hawks were carried by Bogdanovic and Johnson in this quarter and they hit a pair of buckets to cut the lead to five. Bogi hit three of his first five threes and Johnson continued to make highlight plays.
Hunter laid it in after a New York turnover to cut the lead to one, but Robinson came back with an easy bucket to get the lead back to four, and then Quickley hit a bucket to get it to six.
The Knicks continued to hit shots and led by eight and the end of the first half, 69-61.
Hunter led all scorers with 16, Bogdanovic had 11 points on 4-7 shooting and 3-6 from three. Young struggled to make shots in the first half, shooting 1-9 from the field and 1-3 from three. The Hawks were shooting 52% in the first half and 44% from three.
The Knicks were led by Brunson and Barrett, who each had 14 points. New York shot 53% from the field and 50 from three in the first half.
To get a win in the second half, Atlanta was going to need to play better on the defensive end and find a way to get Young's shot going.
2nd Half
Hunter tried to continue his hot shooting in the second half with a pullup three, but it was a miss. The first made basket of the second half for either team would be after a Murray miss and a Capela putback to make it 69-64.
The Knicks extended the lead to nine again after a pair of threes from Brunson and Barrett, but Bey made it a six-point game with a three of his own and it was 75-69 with 9:06 left to go in the third. The defense was still not playing well and the Knicks offense had a 131 offensive rating, which is really good.
After the timeout, the Hawks saw a very good sight and that was a logo three from Young to make it 75-72. The bad news was that Barrett hit a three to respond and get the lead back to six.
A missed floater from Young led to a transition three from Brunson to make it 81-74 with 7:25. Every time it looked like the Hawks might make a run, either Brunson or Barrett seemed to have an answer.
Back-to-back buckets from Murray and Capela cut the lead to three and then a Brunson miss allowed Young to get out and running on offense and draw a foul. He would hit both free throws.
But it was the Jalen Brunson show.
Brunson continued to make shots and was 8-12 from three with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Still, the Hawks only were down three.
The Hawks finally tied with an AJ Griffin three-pointer to make it 90-90, but in typical fashion, the Hawks gave up a three and the Knicks had the lead back 93-90 and they were then 18-34 from three.
At the end of the 3rd: the Hawks trailed 100-92. Every time they cut into the lead, the Knicks strike back with three. NYK are 19-35 from three. Hawks shooting 50% from the field and 44% from three, but were not getting enough stops. It was a 10-2 run for the Knicks after the Hawks tied the game 90-90.
Atlanta started the fourth quarter on a small 8-5 run to cut the lead to five. Young hit a long two and a poor shot from Quickley let the Hawks get out in transition and Johnson laid it in. Thibodeau called a timeout with 9:03 to go and the Hawks were down five.
Murray found Okongwu for a floater shortly after the timeout to cut it to three and then a miss gave the Hawks possession Hartenstein fouled Hunter and he had a chance to cut the game to one.
He hit both, but Josh Hart got a bucket on the other end to extend the lead back to three with 7:15 to go.
Hunter got back to the line after a foul from Quickley and had a chance to cut it to one. He hit both and it was once again a one-point game.
Brunson and Murray then exchanged buckets and it remained a one-point game with 6:15 left. A miss from the Knicks led to a transition three-point attempt for Hunter to take the lead, but he missed it, Quickley got the rebound and DiVencenzo got fouled on the other end.
He split his free throws and the Hawks trailed by two with under six to go.
The Hawks called a timeout with 4:21 to go, trailing 110-108. Despite all of the shotmaking for the Knicks, Atlanta had a shot to get a win in their home opener.
A missed three from Young after the timeout led to a bucket for Barrett, but Murray responded on the other end to keep it within two.
The two teams exchanged buckets again before a Knicks miss that led to Young finding Hunter for a leek out in transition to cut it to two.
Once again though, Brunson found Barrett for basket to get the lead back to four with 2:15 to go in the final quarter. Snyder called a timeout to get his team together for a final run at a win.
The Knicks had a chance to wind the clock down, but Grimes lost the ball and Young took it away and was fouled. He hit both of them and it was a two-point game with under thirty seconds left.
Atlanta had a chance to win or take the lead after Barrett lost the ball out of bounds. Young looked like he had Capela for an easy dunk, but Capela mishandled the ball and lost it and that was the game. Atlanta now drops to 0-2 ahead of a road trip to Milwaukee on Sunday.
Hunter finished the game with 27 points on 8-13 shooting, including 3-7 from three. Young had 18 points and 12 assists on 4-16 shooting and 2-5 from three. The Hawks shot 48.3% from the field and 37.5 from three.
The Knicks finished the game shooting 47.8% from the field and 45.5% from three. Brunson had 31 points and Barrett had 26. New York finished with a 118.5 offensive rating. They finished the game with 20 threes and that was the difference. The Capela misses were frustrating, but the defense is what cost the Hawks tonight.
It was a frustrating night defensively for the Hawks and another frustrating shooting night for Young. It is not time to hit the panic button just yet, but things need to improve rapidly because 0-2 is not a good place to be at the start of the season.
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