Knicks, Hawks on upswing ahead of last game before break
The Knicks will conclude a three-game stretch against the peers with whom they are most compared on Wednesday, hosting the Atlanta Hawks in the final game for both teams before the week-long hiatus.
The Knicks will be completing a back-to-back set after Karl-Anthony Towns (40 points, 12 rebounds) and Josh Hart (30 points, 10 rebounds) each posted a double-double in a 128-115 win over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
The Hawks last played on Monday, when they edged the host Orlando Magic 112-106.
New York got a bounce-back win following a wire-to-wire 131-104 home loss to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics on Saturday.
The Knicks have been outscored 263-213 by the Celtics in two games this season, so the Tuesday win was the latest evidence that New York is far closer to being the equal of Indiana than Boston.
The Knicks missed a chance to battle the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals last spring when they were eliminated by the Pacers in a seven-game conference semifinal. New York won the rubber match of the three-game regular season series Tuesday even though Jalen Brunson set season lows with eight points in 23 minutes.
Brunson sat for more than 15 minutes after drawing his fifth foul with 8:42 left in the third quarter and the Knicks holding a 74-65 lead. Hart scored 15 points during Brunson's absence to help New York extend the advantage to 116-100 before Brunson returned.
"What Josh did is what we needed to win," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He was everywhere, flying around, doing everything. Good team win, good bounce-back."
The Knicks have done some bouncing back against the Hawks, who eliminated New York in a five-game first-round series in 2021 to end Thibodeau's first season at the helm.
New York is 8-7 against Atlanta since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, though Atlanta won the first two games this season and eliminated the Knicks from the NBA Cup with a 108-100 quarterfinal victory on Dec. 11.
While the Knicks are in third place in the Eastern Conference and nine games clear of the seventh-place Miami Heat, the road back to a potential playoff rematch is thornier for the Hawks, who are in eighth place. Atlanta is two games behind the Detroit Pistons, who occupy the sixth and final guaranteed postseason spot.
The Hawks won their third straight Monday and improved to 4-1 since an eight-game losing streak from Jan. 20-Feb. 1. However, the latest victory was costly. Larry Nance Jr. (knee) and Vit Krejci (back) sustained injuries within 18 seconds of each other in the fourth quarter, though Atlanta outscored the Magic 18-12 following Krejci's exit with 7:43 left.
Both Nance and Krejci will sit out on Wednesday.
Trae Young scored 11 of his 19 points in the game-ending run, which included a combined five points from reserves Terance Mann and Georges Niang.
"We were finishing with a compilation of guys at various times and obviously that was impacted, in some degree, by what happened to Vit and what happened to Larry," Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. "But that aside, that group pulled together."
--Field Level Media
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