Game 5 wasn’t a Knicks escape. It was a Knicks takeover.
The Knicks had controlled stretches of this series before. Tuesday night, they did it for long enough to leave very little doubt. The Atlanta Hawks kept searching for answers and never found one that changed the game, and the Knicks won 126-97 at Madison Square Garden to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.
Game 6 is Thursday night at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, with the Knicks one win from the second round.
Jalen Brunson finished with 39 points and eight assists, Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, and OG Anunoby added 17 points and 10 rebounds on a night the Knicks shot 57% from the field and committed just 11 turnovers.
Atlanta got 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists from Jalen Johnson, while CJ McCollum, who had shaped too much of this series already, was limited to six points on 3-for-10 shooting.
McCollum’s line was a big part of the story. The Knicks made life difficult for him in the halfcourt, and once that happened, Atlanta’s offense kept running into dead ends. Knicks head coach Mike Brown said before the game that he wanted pace, spacing, paint touches and quick decisions from his offense. The Knicks gave him all of it. Just as important, they never let the Hawks find the comfort level that turned Game 2 and much of Game 3 against them.
Dyson Daniels opened on Towns. Nickeil Alexander-Walker opened on Brunson. Early on, it had some effect. The Knicks’ halfcourt rhythm was a little slower. Actions took longer to develop. Towns had to work through extra traffic, and Atlanta’s off-ball defense was sharp enough to make the first few possessions look a little cramped. But the Hawks never cashed in on that stretch. They threw away possessions with odd turnovers, missed open 3s and gave the Knicks time to settle before the adjustment could do any real damage.
Once the Knicks settled, the game changed quickly. Brunson scored eight points in his first 12 minutes and looked comfortable almost immediately. Anunoby had seven rebounds by the end of the first quarter. Mitchell Robinson, once again, changed the feel of the game with his activity and force. By the time the quarter ended, the Knicks had 35 points on 65% shooting and a 13-point lead, while Atlanta already looked unsure of itself in the halfcourt.
Brown opened the second quarter with Towns and didn’t use any non-Brunson-and-Towns minutes in the first half, which told you how tightly he wanted this game controlled. Towns rewarded that trust. Daniels got a turn. Jonathan Kuminga got a turn. Onyeka Okongwu got a turn. None of it worked. The Knicks kept running offense through Towns, just as they had in Game 4, and he kept rewarding them with the same kind of sharp, uncomplicated decision-making that has changed the feel of this series.
Layup. Kickout. Another quick read. Another touch in the paint. Midway through the second, he already had 12 points, three rebounds and three assists, and the Knicks were up 43-27. He’s picked a good time to play his best basketball of the season.
By the time the Knicks pushed the lead to 59-37 with 3:08 left in the half, Brunson had 16 points, Towns had 14, and the Hawks looked like a team running out of workable options. Atlanta cleaned up the final few minutes of the half better than it had the rest of the quarter, and the Knicks got a little sloppy before the break, but they still took a 64-48 lead into halftime.
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder tried something with Daniels on Towns. It stalled the Knicks briefly, then stopped working. McCollum still couldn’t get loose the way he had earlier in the series. Even when the Knicks opened the second half a little unevenly, Anunoby drilled two 3s and kept Atlanta at arm’s length.
When the Knicks carried a 90-72 lead into the fourth quarter, the result already felt settled. It was.
The Knicks didn’t need heroics this time. They just played like the better team.