Knicks vs. Hawks playoff preview: Atlanta must decide how to slow Julius Randle; can New York stop Trae Young?

Welcome to the “it’s an honor simply to be nominated” sequence of the primary spherical. Neither the New York Knicks nor the Atlanta Hawks have severe championship aspirations this season, so making it even this far needs to be thought of a hit for each. 

The Hawks have missed the previous 5 postseasons throughout an sometimes ugly rebuild, they splurged on various costly free brokers this offseason in an effort to crack the highest eight, and when that seemingly failed early within the season, they fired head coach Lloyd Pierce and changed him with assistant Nate McMillan. The Hawks have been on a tear since then, and by reaching this sequence, they’ve not solely achieved their purpose of creating the playoffs, however have prevented the highest three contenders within the Japanese Convention. After falling so far as eleventh within the Japanese Convention on March 10, they’re now in place to doubtlessly win a playoff sequence.

To take action, they’ll should beat a Knicks staff coming off of a fair longer drought. The Knicks haven’t made the postseason because the 2012-13 season. By advantage of their No. 4 seed, the Knicks could have home-court benefit in solely their third playoff sequence since 2002. Town of New York has waited years for a Knicks staff this good, and even when a championship is out of the image proper now, a win over the Hawks would legitimize their turnaround. Each groups need to take the leap into title rivalry subsequent season, and that begins with this sequence. Right here’s all the things you must find out about Knicks-Hawks

(4) New York Knicks vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks 

Hawks lead sequence 2-1

• Recreation 1: Hawks 107, Knicks 105
• Recreation 2: Knicks 101, Hawks 92
• Recreation 3: Hawks 105, Knicks 94
• Recreation 4: Sunday, Could 30, 1 p.m. | TV: ABC
• Recreation 5: Wednesday, June 2, TBD | TV: TBD
• Recreation 6*: Friday, June 4, TBD | TV: TBD
• Recreation 7*: Sunday, June 6, TBD | TV: TBD

*If obligatory

Storylines

1. Wrangling Randle

The precise outcomes on this season sequence are principally meaningless. The Knicks swept the Hawks, however possible would have misplaced the ultimate recreation had Trae Younger not gotten damage, and Atlanta was lacking a number of key gamers within the second matchup. The method that led to these Knicks wins ought to terrify the Hawks, although. Julius Randle averaged a staggering 37.3 factors on 58/50/82 capturing splits to associate with 12.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists per recreation in these three battles with Atlanta. If he does so right here, the Knicks win the sequence simply.

John Collins took on the Randle task for many of these regular-season battles. Randle shot 61.9 % from the sphere in opposition to him in these video games. If the Hawks need to transfer away from that matchup, they’ve two viable choices, and every comes with its personal drawbacks. 

The plain transfer can be to flip their front-court matchups. Let Clint Capela guard Randle whereas Collins hides on New York’s heart, which can often be Nerlens Noel. That is most likely one of the best total possibility, but it surely dangers foul hassle for Capela and sure ends with the Knicks forcing Collins and Younger to defend loads of pick-and-rolls collectively. Atlanta must scheme round that as a result of these two aren’t stopping anybody alone. Capela can deal with Randle, however taking him off of Noel sacrifices rim safety in opposition to everyone else.

The much less apparent alternative can be to let De’Andre Hunter strive his luck in opposition to Randle. Hunter is coming off of an damage and provides up almost 25 kilos in opposition to Randle, however no Hawk would do a greater job of denying him the ball, and Atlanta may at all times rotate assist into the paint for his post-ups. The query right here turns into if Hunter is guarding Randle, who guards RJ Barrett? Actually not Collins, however the place does he conceal if Capela is on Noel? A sneaky possibility right here may be to let him nominally guard Elfrid Payton, however sag off of him and play free security. That stops Younger from doing the identical, although. There isn’t an apparent configuration for Atlanta right here. On the subject of the Randle matchup, they’re going to have to choose their poison.

2. Attacking Trae

Talking of Atlanta’s protection, the opposite elephant within the room right here is how Younger will maintain up within the playoffs. There are viable questions on each ends of the ground right here. Will Younger get the identical calls on offense he does within the common season? Is he sturdy sufficient at his dimension to play greater than 40 minutes if wanted? Finally Younger remains to be a star, and the solutions right here actually don’t worsen than “he’ll be effective.”

However the defensive flaws are extra evident, and the postseason is the place they’re going to be attacked. The one query is whether or not or not the Knicks are outfitted to assault them. Groups with star offensive gamers on the perimeter would hunt for Younger in switches as opponents have performed to Stephen Curry for years, however are Barrett and Derrick Rose ok to justify such matchup jiggering? When Payton is on the ground, Younger has a readymade hiding spot. The identical is true for Frank Ntilikina, who will possible get respectable minutes particularly to defend Younger. 

The ancillary advantage of attempting to find Younger defensively is that the extra vitality he has to expend enjoying on-ball protection, the much less he has for offense. That will have been extra of an issue prior to now, however now that Atlanta has Bogdan Bogdanovic as a succesful secondary shot-creator, the Hawks can handle Younger’s load extra successfully, particularly because the Knicks don’t have a fringe stopper to throw on both. As we progress deeper into the playoffs, there may be groups able to exploiting Younger’s dimension and defensive weaknesses, however the Knicks don’t have the offensive firepower to win a sequence off of that alone.

3. The world’s most well-known enviornment

The absence of followers in most arenas was one of many largest tales of the season primarily because of its impression on offenses. The seven most effective offenses in NBA historical past all performed this season. Capturing information had been damaged across the league. But when this scoring increase was in any respect because of the absence of followers, offenses may be in for a impolite awakening as an increasing number of buildings improve capability for the postseason. 

The Knicks are probably the most excessive instance. They ended the common season with a stadium capability of 1,980 followers. They’ll enable 15,000 followers to attend video games this sequence, and keep in mind, these are rabid New York followers having fun with their first playoff basketball in nearly a decade. They will be loud. 

In idea, this impacts Atlanta way over New York. The Hawks rely much more on offense than the Knicks do, and the Knicks take so few 3-pointers that variance in that space isn’t significantly detrimental to them relative to different groups. 4 of the seven video games on this sequence will probably be performed in New York, and now that followers are returning to the constructing, home-court benefit means greater than ever.