Hawks’ New York robbery falls short in overtime loss to Knicks

The Hawks made an almost improbable comeback but ultimately fell short.

The Atlanta Hawks fell short in an overtime loss to the New York Knicks at Maddison Square Garden on Wednesday night, 149-148. Trae Young led the Hawks with 38 points and 19 assists with Dyson Daniels adding 23 points. For the Knicks — on the second night of a back-to-back — Karl-Anthony Towns scored 44 points with Jalen Brunson adding 36 points.

Heading into the game, the Hawks ran the same starting lineup with Mouhamed Gueye starting at power forward but were dealt further injuries blows ahead of the game as Larry Nance Jr. and Vit Krejci were ruled out for a significant period of time. Nance will be re-evaluated in six weeks while Krejci (lower back contusion) will be re-evaluated in three-four weeks.

Nance is officially ruled out with a right knee injury, but if you want to know the exact injury — because it’s one that I’m sure hasn’t been heard of much before — Nance suffered a a non-displaced fracture of his right medial femoral condyle. Both being only re-evaluated in those respective times gives little hope of an actual return in that time. Nance, I’d be surprised if he plays again this season.

Regardless, it’s another pair of absences that the Hawks have to deal with, which is especially bad news for their big man depth with Nance now out, and the Knicks — and Towns — took advantage. Towns bullied the Hawks on drives and muscled his way to the rim in addition to stretching the floor; it was a completely one-sided matchup at times. The Hawks — and Onyeka Okongwu — did a much better job in the second half containing Towns, but the matchup advantage was still very much in Towns’ favor.

Towns’ found his mojo in the second quarter (18 points), but it was teammate Brunson who had a hot start, scoring 16 points as the Knicks opened up a double-digit lead in the first quarter before outscoring the Hawks 38-29. The Knicks built a game-high 18-point lead in the second quarter before a late run in the second quarter brought the visitors back into play, trailing by eight points at the half.

This initially turned into just a six-point deficit, but another Towns ignition (15 points in the third quarter) helped pull the Knicks away again. Again, the Hawks would close the gap by the end of the third quarter only for it to open up again back to double-digits in the fourth quarter…and just like before, the Hawks closed up as the final quarter progressed — however, the Hawks were still chasing the game and had been chasing it all game long, having never led in the game up to this point.

A Trae Young layup cut the Knicks’ lead to two points with just under 56 seconds remaining, and it looked as though the Hawks were going to have a chance to bring the game down to the wire, but the game got away from the Hawks.

Dyson Daniels does a great job defending Brunson and forcing a contested jumpshot, but when this is missed Precious Achiuwa secures the rebound, fakes, and scores at the rim:

Tough basket here for Georges Niang, who initially has Achiuwa boxed out only for the Knicks’ big to win the offensive rebound, and Okongwu is undone by the fake.

In reply, the Hawks are unable to hit on a Young three, and the loose ball is collected by Josh Hart. He is fouled by Niang while in the bonus with Hart heading to the free throw line where he dispatches both free throws:

When Hart hits the second free throw the game, really, is essentially over — a six point deficit with 18 seconds left…most NBA teams just do not recover from scenarios like this where they’re chasing a two possession game with the shotclock off. However, the Hawks would make a minor miracle happen.

It starts with Hawks head coach Quin Snyder not using his last timeout followed by Niang hitting a three-pointer to bring the game to three points. A good shot, as it goes in the Knicks are still in absolute control: inbound the ball, get it to a white jersey, and ice the game at the line.

In a matter of seconds it goes awry. With Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau not using one of his two remaining timeouts, Towns’ inbounds picked off by Daniels before Towns fouls Daniels at the rim for two free throws:

A horror sequence for the Knicks, and even still they’re in control here — even if not by the extent of which they were before. If Daniels had made both free throws, they still lead by a point and the Hawks still forced to foul — not impossible to overturn now but still in New York’s favor, and they can control their own destiny somewhat if they foul before a three is hoisted. Daniels hits the first free throw, misses the second one — not intentionally — and Okongwu beats Towns to the rebound, gets it back to Daniels, who gets the ball to the curling Young, and Young draws the contact and the foul from Hart, giving Young the chance to tie the game at the line:

“Get out of here,” I have to presume is the also sentiment Okongwu felt as he beat Towns to that rebound (a really bad rebound for Towns to lose). Young ties the game at the line, the Knicks call for time, and out of the timeout Brunson is well-guarded by Daniels and the three is missed. To overtime we go:

The title of this piece I called a robbery, which is what this game absolutely would have been had the Hawks managed to win this game. At no point should this game have gone to overtime with any team leading by six points with 19 seconds left — the Hawks scored six points in seven in-game seconds to tie the game. But the Knicks — and the Hawks, to their credit — made it so.

In overtime, the pendulum seemed to finally swing in the Hawks’ favor, taking their first lead of the game and even building a five-point lead. But behind some missed shots — and two costly LeVert misses at the free throw line — the Knicks recovered and took a three point lead with 1:25 remaining after an Achiuwa basket, open underneath the basket after a blunder from Niang:

There’s nothing to add on this one; it’s just a very costly error from Niang at this stage of the game.

The Hawks responded to cut the lead to one, with Young splitting the defense out of the inbounds play before hitting the giant-killer over Achiuwa:

After a missed Mikal Bridges baseline jumper (which, as a quick note, Bridges was guarded/hidden on multiple occasions by Young, and how/why this wasn’t exploited was inexplicable from the Knicks’ side — Bridges was invisible offensively in this game), the Hawks run a good screen action with screens from Okongwu and Daniels, the latter receiving the ball from Young and delivers the bounce pass beyond Towns to Okongwu, who draws the foul at the rim:

Okongwu knocks both down to give the Hawks a 148-147 lead, but the lead is short-lived. Out of the timeout, Brunson is again guarded by Daniels and is well contested but Brunson knocks down what would turn out to be the game-winning basket:

There’s not a ton more the Hawks can do here — Brunson doesn’t turn the corner enough to warrant LeVert rotating over to help — it’s just a good basket from Brunson over firm defense.

Out of the final timeout, Young is well defended by Bridges, who marshals the drive the whole way (and is credited for a block). Young’s missed shot is rebounded, again, by Okongwu, who kicks the ball out to a semi-open Niang, who misses the three as the buzzer expires:

Ultimately, you couldn’t have asked for more a more optimal look for Niang, especially in a second chance opportunity bought by Okongwu — it just didn’t fall and the Hawks fall in overtime.

The final shot you could view as a microcosm of the game itself: it was a good look in a game the Hawks saw a lot of good look. At least, that was the view of Snyder, who believed the Hawks got good shot opportunities for most of the game.

“I think we got pretty good looks the whole game,” said Snyder. “It was really at the rim we were missing some things and missing some free throws. NBA games are long, and part of the challenge is when you get down is understanding that usually that turns at times. As long as we keep defending we give ourselves a chance to do that, and I think that’s what we did. We started to have some good things happen: ball goes in, you get a turnover, and convert and the momentum shifts. That’s something our guys have done a good job of is not getting buried or discouraged when the ball doesn’t go in.”

The Hawks left a number of shots around the rim, particularly in the first half (shooting a below league average 50% at the rim) but it was the free throws that also hurt the Hawks a lot: 24-of-35 for the game, an overtime game, will always sting that bit more. Young shot 12-of-14 from the line and despite hitting those clutch free throws late in the game, Okongwu shot 3-of-8 from the line, while LeVert’s overtime pair of misses were also difficult for the Hawks.

Speaking of LeVert, other than those free throw misses, he played a great game for the Hawks: 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field to go with 10 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks off the bench. With Krejci now sidelined, in those lineups with Young on the bench there’s going to be more expected from LeVert handling the ball now.

There were some good-looking assists from LeVert last night, including this play where he crashes the offensive glass before finding Niang for a three:

On a drive, LeVert beats Hart and finds Niang again in the corner for three:

In transition, LeVert gets his head up and finds the streaking Zaccharie Risacher for an easy basket:

“It’s really stuff we talk about all the time,” said Snyder when asked about LeVert’s contribution. “Throwing the ball ahead, playing with the pass, having your eyes out when you’re in the lane. He’s embraced it really quickly; that’s where you see him crashing the glass. He’s got the ability to generate offense on his own, but he’s also making plays for other people. After a few games for him to be doing that says a lot about his buy-in to the way we’re trying to play.”

LeVert was one of five Hawks who scored 20 or more points; the Hawks enjoying many productive performances across the board. Niang had some foibles (as we looked at) but scored 21 points hitting four threes, including the three that eventually sent the Hawks to overtime. Okongwu stuffed the stat sheet, scoring 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field (his only miss was a three) to go with 14 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals — he was fantastic on both ends, even if he struggled at times with the Towns matchup. Dyson Daniels played well on both ends of the floor, scoring 23 points, coming up with four steals as he did a great defensive job on Brunson (as good as can be done at times, Brunson is a very good player) and annoyed Towns into ripping the ball away from him.

Daniels’ burst of speed has been enjoyable of late too, his work off the dribble improving as this season has progressed:

Trae Young led the Hawks with 38 points on 11-of-29 shooting, 4-of-11 from three, and 12-of-14 from the line to go with 19 assists, but another eight turnovers for Young again marks a difficult spell maintaining the ball. In his four of his last five games Young has committed at least six turnovers, and is leading the league in turnovers per game at 4.5.

Some of these last night weren’t all his fault — a couple of instances where teammates aren’t looking where the ball is when Young passes to them. Still, there were more than enough turnovers where Young was on the hook, and some of these were quite costly in overtime.

Despite that, Young contributed 19 assists, contributing to the Hawks’ whopping 43 assists, marking new milestones:

Young’s scoring may have been inefficient last night, but the points came when they mattered in the fourth quarter: 16 fourth quarter points for Young, but he seemed to run out of steam somewhat as he shot 2-of-6 in overtime. Other than those eight turnovers, overall, I think this was a good game from Young.

Yes, he was inefficient from the field but 19 assists is just rarified air in the NBA. In the entire NBA, Young has five of the top six assist games this season, with last night’s 19 the latest to make the list. Elfrid Payton is the only other player to feature in this territory with 21 assists. Young’s 22 assists against Cleveland in November leads the NBA.

Elsewhere, Risacher played well; an efficient 6-of-11 and 2-of-4 from three as he scored 16 points. Gueye, however, did not play well in a starter’s role in this contest: scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 from three — and there were some ugly threes. Gueye has had good moments recently but I think this game served as perhaps a reality check that, while Gueye has clearly progressed and can make an impact, he struggles for consistency still, and in this matchup he was badly exposed. The Hawks do actually need him to perform somewhat, as their big man rotation has taken a hit with Clint Capela still on the sidelines and Nance now injured for a significant period of time.

Overall, the Hawks played really well on the road against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Sure, the Knicks were on the second night of a back-to-back — that will always help — but the Hawks were chasing the game all game long and recovered each time the Knicks built the lead back to double-digits. To the Knicks’ credit, this was easy for them at times because there were monster games from Towns and Brunson — they were excellent, each taking over at different times as the game progressed to move the Knicks ahead again. But the Hawks responded each time, and somehow managed to take this game to overtime where it took a game-winner from Brunson to seal the deal.

“I thought we executed really well late,” said Snyder when asked about the final second scoring spurt. “The scoreboard doesn’t always show that, but when you go back, if we’re able to execute like that, you’ll be on the right side of the scoreboard more than the wrong. It’s hard to fault that. We had a great look, one of the best shooters on our team who makes clutch shots, and you tip your hat, go to All-Star break, get a little rest. We had three new players, two guys who were playing in College Park — five of our nine guys who have been here for a week or two. I’m pleased with how they’ve competed together, how connected they are.”

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The Hawks, as Snyder alluded to, now enter the All-Star break, which is sorely needed as the team has been hit badly by injuries within the last few weeks. The Hawks (26-29) are next back in action on Thursday February 20th when they take on the Orlando Magic (27-29) at State Farm Arena.

Until next time!