Eventually, the talent discrepancy revealed itself. Eventually, the experience discrepancy revealed itself.
When they did, the game became a mismatch, and the Knicks blew it wide open.
The Hawks were mostly as advertised — young, athletic, full of confidence. And this wasn’t necessarily a vintage Knicks showing — there were a few areas of concern. Their defense, for starters, was porous until a dramatic second-half turnaround.
They were made to sweat a bit. But in the second half, they dragged the Hawks into the deep end and watched Atlanta sink en route to a 113-102 Game 1 win Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
But these Knicks don’t often make anything easy. They led by 19 with 3:14 left in the game before the Hawks ripped off an 11-0 run to cut their deficit to eight with 1:39 left and make it interesting. The Knicks stabilized and avoided catastrophe.
“We had a 7-to-11 [point] lead for the majority of the second half,” Jalen Brunson said. “And then be able to push it to 16, 18, [but] then just finished the fourth not as well as I would like, as well as we would like.
“We know they’re going to be ready for Game 2.”
Brunson came out firing and had 19 points — on 8-for-11 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 shooting from 3-point range — in the first quarter. But it was actually the start of the fourth quarter — with Brunson on the bench — that the Knicks had their best stretch. They outscored the Hawks by seven points — to take a 16-point lead — before Brunson checked back in with 5:07 left in the game. Brunson only went 1-for-11 from the field after the first quarter and finished with 28 points.
The Knicks led by as many as 11 early in the second quarter, but the Hawks used a 19-8 run to tie the game. They outscored the Knicks by four points in the second quarter and, after Onyeka Okongwu’s buzzer-beater 3-pointer, only trailed by two at halftime.
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The Knicks, though, tightened up defensively and shut down the Hawks coming out of the break. They held Atlanta to 8-for-23 shooting from the field in the third quarter as they rebuilt their lead.
And that’s golden territory for the Knicks. They are the best fourth-quarter team in the NBA and entered Saturday 46-2 when leading to start the fourth quarter. Now, they’re 47-2 — and 1-0 in the postseason.
“Our transition defense was better,” coach Mike Brown said. “Our ability to defend their small-small pick-and-rolls was better. And then our ability to keep them off the glass during that time was a lot better.
“It allowed us to get out and run and attack them in transition. That’s something we have to do while communicating for as close to 48 minutes as possible.”
It was a bit of a roller coaster for Karl-Anthony Towns, who did not score his first points until 4:50 left in the second quarter or hit his first field goal until the 2:53 mark. Towns averaged 28.5 points in the two regular-season games he played against the Hawks — his most against any opponent. For most of the first half, though, Okongwu won that matchup.
But Towns came alive for 19 points in the second half and finished with 25 points and eight rebounds.
OG Anunoby added 18 points and eight rebounds for a mostly balanced Knicks scoring attack. He briefly came out of the game in the third quarter after rolling his left ankle — the same one that forced him to exit the Knicks’ penultimate game — but avoided the locker room and quickly returned.
Josh Hart quietly had 11 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.
Brunson set the tone, Anunoby and Hart were steady presences throughout and Towns finished the job. The scoring was extremely starters heavy with little production from the Knicks bench.
“That’s the thing about having [Brunson] and amazing teammates, we got to get them going early and facilitate,” Towns said. “I thought that opened the game for us, especially in the second half and we did a great job fighting and continuing to score and also impact winning.”
For all that’s been made about the Hawks’ youth, it was actually the veteran CJ McCollum who most hurt the Knicks. With Brunson mainly guarding him, McCollum finished with 26 points. Jalen Johnson added 23 points for the Hawks.
After taking the lead with 2:29 left in the first quarter, the Knicks never trailed again.
The Hawks asked a few questions of the Knicks, but they had plenty of answers.