The Knicks will try to ride a tone-setting first quarter from Game 4 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks into Game 5 on Tuesday in New York.
The Knicks responded to consecutive one-point losses by securing a seven-point lead after the end of the first quarter in Game 4. They doubled the advantage by halftime and extended the lead to as many as 24 points en route to a 114-98 victory on Saturday.
The best-of-seven series is tied at two wins apiece.
“You can’t be satisfied with this performance,” Josh Hart said after his team regained home-court advantage in the series. “You can’t go into Game 5 thinking we had a great game, and they’re just going to lay down, ‘cause they’re not.
“They’re going to come out with a sense of urgency, a sense of physicality that they probably haven’t shown yet. We’ve got to be ready to weather that storm and have our own physicality.”
Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder credited New York’s defensive intensity — and the play of Hart — for contributing to his team’s stumble out of the gate.
“More than anything, the start of the game, their physicality bothered us,” Snyder said.
It’s safe to say Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby bothered the Hawks as well.
Towns recorded his first postseason triple-double after finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He is the fourth player in franchise history to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Hall of Famers Walt Frazier and Dick McGuire as well as Hart.
“I thought we did a great job coming out with more tenacity. More desperation I think is the proper word,” Towns said.
Anunoby finished with 22 points while making 9 of 16 shots from the floor for the second straight game. He also collected 10 rebounds and All-Star guard Jalen Brunson had 19 points to continue his team’s strong play since the fourth quarter of Game 3.
“The way we’ve been able to (play on both sides of the ball) these past five quarters is how we’ve got to play,” Brunson said.
New York scored 21 points off 19 turnovers in Game 4, much to the chagrin of Atlanta’s CJ McCollum.
“They played better than us. They played harder than us,” said McCollum, who was limited to just 17 points after averaging 27.0 over the first three games.
“We would have liked to go up 3-1, but if you would have told us we’d be 2-2 going back to the Garden, life’s not so bad.”
Jalen Johnson made just 4 of 12 shots to finish with 14 points in Game 4. He averaged 21.3 points over the previous three games.
Like Johnson, the rest of the Hawks struggled to find their range. They shot 41.0% from the floor and 24.4% from 3-point range.
The Hawks, who rely heavily on the transition game, didn’t record a fastbreak point until the fourth quarter in Game 4.
“There’s no transition when you’re turning the ball over and bringing it up out of the net,” Snyder said.
