Having lost the previous two games to the Atlanta Hawks to go down 2-1 in the series, the Knicks were in must-win territory on Saturday night.
If not, New York would’ve been on the precipice of ending its season prematurely and in danger of wholesale changes rocking the organization after a fourth consecutive postseason that didn’t lead to the NBA Finals.
Instead, the Knicks, with the same starting five head coach Mike Brown has used all season, came out ready and took care of business from beginning to end with a compelling 114-98 win to even up the series and take things back to Madison Square Garden all knotted up.
“I thought we did a great job of coming out with more tenacity, more desperation I think is the proper word and our team did a great job of just weathering the storm and being the ones to initiate physicality today,” said Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns was right at the center of New York’s Game 4 win, recording his fifth career triple-double (first in the playoffs) and leading the team with a playoff career-high 10 assists.
Towns is the fourth player in franchise history to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Walt Frazier, Dick McGuire and Josh Hart, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“That’s a great team over there, a very well-coached team so we understood in a pivotal game like tonight we needed to be our best,” Towns said. “I thought we not only met the challenge, but we exceeded the expectation and the moment and that’s what you expect a team that has experience like us do.”
It’s true, the Knicks played one of their better games of the season in Game 4. They limited the Hawks to 65 points through three quarters, had a lead as large as 24 points, held Atlanta to 24.4 percent from deep and kept CJ McCollum in check.
The start of the game was also completely different than Game 3 where the Hawks led by 12 in the first quarter which forced New York to play from behind all night. It was also different from Game 2 where the Knicks saw a big lead disappear in the fourth quarter resulting in a stunning loss.
Hart said after the win that New York gave away both of those games (both one-point losses) and so the urgency on Saturday had to be there from the start. Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson thought the way they battled back in Game 3 set the table for the team’s performance in Game 4.
“I think the way we fought back in Game 3 helped us in this game,” Brunson said. “Obviously we didn’t win Game 3 but the way we played in that second half as a team propelled us to play the way we did tonight and we just gotta continue to push that forward.”
Then, of course, comes the topic of the Knicks’ starting five which was ultimately untouched after Brown said it would be a game-time decision.
Mikal Bridges, who had struggled mightily over the last two games, got things going back in the right direction on Saturday but he still only scored eight points on 3-of-4 from the floor and logged just 19 minutes, barely seeing the court in the second half and giving way to Miles McBride.
Brown discussed what went into those decisions after the game.
“We’ve won a lot of games with the starting group and so I didn’t want to panic and just change anything,” he said. “Obviously we changed some stuff strategy-wise, but I didn’t want to change anything with the starting group because I didn’t feel the need to.
“And then at the end of the day I just felt that Deuce had it rolling and they were gonna double Jalen and when they did Deuce hit some big threes so if a guy has it rolling he may have a chance to stay out on the floor, that’s all that was.”
As for Bridges’ impact on the game, Towns credits him for setting the tone early.
“I think everybody was special and honestly shout out to Mikal too, he did a great job of getting us going early and bringing that energy and that spark that was needed,” Towns said. “Who knows where our team would be tonight if it wasn’t for him bringing that kind of spark early in the game.”