The Official 2021 N.Y Knicks 1st Round NBA Playoffs Game(s) Thread vs. Atlanta Hawks:

[Defense Wins Championships]

Go NY go NY go!

 

4th seed (NYK) vs. 5th seed (Hawks). 

New York Knicks: 41-31. 

vs. 

Atlanta Hawks (41-31). 

2021 Regular Season Series = Knicks 3-0; Swept Atlanta by scores of 113-108, 123-112 and 137-127 (overtime). 

 

 

The 1999 Playoffs - Eastern Conference Semifinals - Knicks vs. Hawks was the last time these two teams have marched up against each other during the postseason (4-0 N.Y Knicks sweep). 

All-Time Knicks Playoff Record vs. ATL? 8-1. 

https://youtu.be/ZGGHLCR_QzQ

 

[slimjasi]

Go Knicks! 
 

Should be a very fun series 

[Defense Wins Championships]

We swept these guys 3-0 during the regular season and in order to kill the body of a snake you must first cut off it's head; so I'm really looking forward to our NBA's #1 Defense swarming all over Trae Young. 

I can not WAIT for 7:00 I'm so excited to finally see our NY Knicks in the playoffs again. 

[Defense Wins Championships]

Our ROOKIES are balling!

Obi Toppin is playing awesome and Quickley is absolutely exciting!

[More Cowbell]

Young is having his way so far. Knicks need to rebound better. Too many second shots.  

[Defense Wins Championships]

35 minutes ago, More Cowbell said:

Young is having his way so far. Knicks need to rebound better. Too many second shots.  

Yes but 9/20 shooting under 50% our Defense is swarming him!

[Dcat]

Nice to hear that Garden crowd.

Knicks got this.

[Dcat]

bodanovich with a ridiculous 3.  Bad luck here.  Later.

[RutgersJetFan]

Randle just would not accept he was off tonight. Really strange thing for him to do. When he can’t find his shot he usually kills it on assists.  Have to lay a lot of this on him. He went borderline Starks tonight.

I’m happy never seeing Ntilkina’s ass again on the court. He is by far the most useless offensive player in the league and if he can’t defend in that moment then just keep Rose in. 

[T0mShane]

Trae Gawd is my favorite athlete

[More Cowbell]

The loss is on TT. He got cute putting Frank N on Young in the clutch and Young broke his ankles.  

[RutgersJetFan]

12 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Trae Gawd is my favorite athlete

He's no Pumped Up Drew Gooden, that's for sure. 

[RutgersJetFan]

17 minutes ago, More Cowbell said:

The loss is on TT. He got cute putting Frank N on Young in the clutch and Young broke his ankles.  

I'm not so sure that it was a cute move as Ntilkina had guarded Young a bunch in the past and had done well against him. He'd also been playing a bunch lately in defensive situations and looked just fine, it made sense and I get the logic. Can't say I wouldn't have made the same call. Ntilkina just folded.

[EM31]

That guy is a bigger flop artist than Spanish professional soccer players.

Defense needs to adjust but I also think we need to start working the refs and get at least some of the calls.

[RutgersJetFan]

Just now, EM31 said:

That guy is a bigger flop artist than Spanish professional soccer players.

Defense needs to adjust but I also think we need to start working the refs and get at least some of the calls.

I really can't believe they upheld that foul. If that's the state of what the NBA is going to be calling in the playoffs going forward, I mean come on. It's the ******* playoffs. 

[More Cowbell]

7 minutes ago, RutgersJetFan said:

I'm not so sure that it was a cute move as Ntilkina had guarded Young a bunch in the past and had done well against him. He'd also been playing a bunch lately in defensive situations and looked just fine, it made sense and I get the logic. Can't say I wouldn't have made the same call. Ntilkina just folded.

There was no reason not to have Rose on him at that point. I know Rose has not done well against him but you dance with the one that brought you.

[More Cowbell]

And that late foul they gave Young against Barrett was BS. 

[RutgersJetFan]

So here's the play at :53, this is actually brilliantly run by Young. They ran Bogdanovich away from Gibson anticipating the trap, which puts Bullock in a position to choose between triple teaming Young and leaving Bogdanovich wide open, which you can't do with how he was shooting, or counting on Frank to keep up with Young. Bullock and Gibson do their jobs fine. You can see Frank just completely chokes and gets beat on the feet. Knicks had their pieces set up right and so did Atlanta, and Young just beats everyone to the punch. Have to give him a ton of credit that was A+ ballhandling in the clutch and he read the whole thing like a savvy vet. 

 

[Icer]

Trae Young is good, sometimes you got to give it up to them. Would have liked to see RJ take some shots down the stretch as he seemed kind of the loop at the end.

[Maynard13]

3 hours ago, RutgersJetFan said:

So here's the play at :53, this is actually brilliantly run by Young. They ran Bogdanovich away from Gibson anticipating the trap, which puts Bullock in a position to choose between triple teaming Young and leaving Bogdanovich wide open, which you can't do with how he was shooting, or counting on Frank to keep up with Young. Bullock and Gibson do their jobs fine. You can see Frank just completely chokes and gets beat on the feet. Knicks had their pieces set up right and so did Atlanta, and Young just beats everyone to the punch. Have to give him a ton of credit that was A+ ballhandling in the clutch and he read the whole thing like a savvy vet. 

 

#11 screwed that up. They had him double teamed and he still got free. That would never have happened to me. I was an outstanding defender and defense is just a lost art in the game today.  His body was out of position and he allowed Trey to go around him with ease.  Just TERRIBLE defense. 

[More Cowbell]

9 hours ago, RutgersJetFan said:

So here's the play at :53, this is actually brilliantly run by Young. They ran Bogdanovich away from Gibson anticipating the trap, which puts Bullock in a position to choose between triple teaming Young and leaving Bogdanovich wide open, which you can't do with how he was shooting, or counting on Frank to keep up with Young. Bullock and Gibson do their jobs fine. You can see Frank just completely chokes and gets beat on the feet. Knicks had their pieces set up right and so did Atlanta, and Young just beats everyone to the punch. Have to give him a ton of credit that was A+ ballhandling in the clutch and he read the whole thing like a savvy vet. 

 

The problem on that play was Noel was on the bench. 

[More Cowbell]

5 hours ago, Icer said:

Trae Young is good, sometimes you got to give it up to them. Would have liked to see RJ take some shots down the stretch as he seemed kind of the loop at the end.

Sorry, you gave up an easy shot to Young. You should  minimally make Young go to the left which is less comfortable for him.

[More Cowbell]

5 hours ago, Maynard13 said:

#11 screwed that up. They had him double teamed and he still got free. That would never have happened to me. I was an outstanding defender and defense is just a lost art in the game today.  His body was out of position and he allowed Trey to go around him with ease.  Just TERRIBLE defense. 

The Knicks are the #1 ranked defensive team in the league. 

[Matt39]

Randle killed them yesterday. 

[PS17]

Why does Payton start over Rose? 

[Maynard13]

5 hours ago, More Cowbell said:

The Knicks are the #1 ranked defensive team in the league. 

And when it counts, they SUCKED.  I don't know anyways. I haven't seen a Knicks game in full since Ewing retired.   And probably wont for awhile. My TV is too expensive. It's bad enough having to watch the Jets over the past 5 years and then have to compound this with watching the NY Stinks.

[PS17]

16 hours ago, Defense Wins Championships said:

Yes but 9/20 shooting under 50% our Defense is swarming him!

What? He seemingly got whatever shot he wanted, completely uncontested, down the stretch. And got to the free throw line at will with his flailing.

[Defense Wins Championships]

We lost but Randle had a nightmare game and we still only lost by a bucket; that's an awesome sign. 

Randle will bounce back and so will our Knicks. 

Can't blame Randle or coach T. We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the both of them; Randle was an MVP imo and Thibs coach of the year imo. 

[Defense Wins Championships]

Where is @Philc1 where has he been?

He was posting about the Knicks all year with us and ever since clinching the playoffs he hasn't posted?

Hope he's ok. 

[RutgersJetFan]

3 hours ago, PS17 said:

Why does Payton start over Rose? 

That's the way it's been since they acquired him, it's so he can lead some of the bench players and also get extended time with Gibson so they can run the pick and roll. Rose usually comes in transitionally and plays with the 1's and then he can also keep the offense going a little bit if Randle or Barrett have to sit. Knicks have had one of the most inefficient offenses all year and Rose has been a huge key to keeping them somewhat on the level. Even at their current ages, when Rose and Gibson find a groove together they are really something to watch.

[slimjasi]

The garden crowd was awesome. It was such a bummer that we couldn’t close that game out with a win. Randle had a nightmare shooting the ball.
 

You could argue that losing on a last second shot with your best player playing as badly as Randle played bodes well for our chances in the series. You could also argue that Atlanta has more talent. 

[RutgersJetFan]

11 hours ago, slimjasi said:

The garden crowd was awesome. It was such a bummer that we couldn’t close that game out with a win. Randle had a nightmare shooting the ball.
 

You could argue that losing on a last second shot with your best player playing as badly as Randle played bodes well for our chances in the series. You could also argue that Atlanta has more talent. 

Atlanta has the best player on the court but the Knicks have the better team. I still think NY takes this series. Young had the game of his life and that’s not going to happen every night, but they have to find a way to smother Bogdanovich from start to finish, especially from 3. Young is going to get his shots and that’s fine but 9 looks from 3 for Bogdanovich is unacceptable. 

[JustInFudge]

On 5/23/2021 at 9:56 PM, More Cowbell said:

There was no reason not to have Rose on him at that point. I know Rose has not done well against him but you dance with the one that brought you.

100%.  Terrible coaching decision.  Made no sense.  Rose had made a ton of defensive plays, sticking with the play, deflecting balls and/or challenging shots and you bring the mega-bust fresh off the bench to get made a fool?  I love TT and dont knock but man, that was dumb

[JustInFudge]

12 hours ago, slimjasi said:

The garden crowd was awesome. It was such a bummer that we couldn’t close that game out with a win. Randle had a nightmare shooting the ball.
 

You could argue that losing on a last second shot with your best player playing as badly as Randle played bodes well for our chances in the series. You could also argue that Atlanta has more talent. 

MSG during the playoffs, man has the league missed that energy.  Unrivaled. 

I agree, you could argue that but you're also not getting 30 from Burks every night.  If that can get flipped, that's a good thing.  I also dont think Atlanta played well and I do think they are the better team.  Capela and Hunter were absolutely atrocious and their bench play sucked.  The bench was like 4/14 from 3pt and only added like 5 boards on the night.  They're a different team when they're getting contributions from their expected.

That said, it was a great game and I think we're going to see nail bitters no matter which way this goes but what makes me nervous, is nobody wanted it for NY and when the other team has a guy like Young, that is a massive advantage.  Massive.

 

[More Cowbell]

35 minutes ago, JiFapono said:

MSG during the playoffs, man has the league missed that energy.  Unrivaled. 

I agree, you could argue that but you're also not getting 30 from Burks every night.  If that can get flipped, that's a good thing.  I also dont think Atlanta played well and I do think they are the better team.  Capela and Hunter were absolutely atrocious and their bench play sucked.  The bench was like 4/14 from 3pt and only added like 5 boards on the night.  They're a different team when they're getting contributions from their expected.

That said, it was a great game and I think we're going to see nail bitters no matter which way this goes but what makes me nervous, is nobody wanted it for NY and when the other team has a guy like Young, that is a massive advantage.  Massive.

 

Both teams did not play to their potential. It's a shame because Burks was playing out of his mind and we wasted it. Randle and Barret better step up and I hope Noel can play. Bulock also needs to play better. Can't believe I typed that but he is a key ingredient to Knick wins.