The playoffs are finally upon us, and the Atlanta Hawks are in! The Atlanta Hawks making it to the postseason in 2021 was always the goal for them, but I'm not sure anybody expected them to get there the way that they did. A nice 3-0 start to the season created some early hype around the Hawks, but after that injuries mixed with bad coaching had the Hawks at a rock bottom record of 14-20. However, a mid-season coaching change saw Nate McMillan take over the reigns, and even though he dealt with a multitude of injuries as well he turned a 14-20 team into a 5th seeded 41-31 team that is now healthy and clicking on all cylinders heading into their first round matchup with the New York Knicks. Again, making it to the playoffs was always the goal, but at some point a first round series was enough, and would still be enough now but would honestly feel like a disappointment at this point. This first round matchup will be a tough one with the Knicks, but it is a very winnable series. This is everything you need to know before Sunday’s Game 1 between the New York Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks.
First, yes the Knicks swept the season series, but that shouldn’t hold much weight. Lloyd Peirce coached the first two games, which no disrespect to Lloyd but this is a different team under interim head coach McMillan, and coach McMillan had this team up late in the third game of the season series, but Trae Young got hurt late and that injury deflated the team and sparked a Knicks comeback. The Hawks did force an overtime period in that game, but seemed to run out of gas. Second, here are some numbers that you need to know. The first number is 37. 37 is how many points Julius Randle averaged against the Hawks in the regular season. Atlanta will have to find a way to neutralize him, and make other guys beat them besides Randle. John Collins, De’Andre Hunter, and Clint Capela will all be huge on the defensive end for the Hawks, and it will take a full team effort to slow down Randle. The next number is 36. 36 is Trae Young’s shooting percentage against the Knicks in the regular season, and the Hawks will obviously need that number to be a lot better. Trae Young is the engine to this offense, if he is going and has his shot and floater on then I will have no doubt in my mind the Hawks will have major success in this series. However, Trae did average 12 assists against the Knicks this season, and that will need to continue for the Hawks to be successful in this series because those assists will mean other guys are producing for the Hawks, and that is a must. The next number is 17. 17 is the number of points and rebounds Clint Capela averaged against the Knicks in the regular season. This is important because we will need huge efforts from Clint on both ends, and it is promising for the Hawks that Clint had some of his best games against Nerlens Noel and the New York Knicks. The final number is 10. 10 is how deep this rotation could be for the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks didn’t have Danilo Gallinari in Game one, there was no Bogdan Bogdanovic for the Hawks in Game two, De’Andre Hunter missed games two and three for the Hawks, and of course the Hawks hadn’t acquired Lou Williams via trade until after the first two games. All that is said to say the New York Knicks have not seen the best version of the Hawks this season, and they still won’t with Cam Reddish likely to miss this series, but this will be the first time the Knicks are facing a relatively healthy Hawks team and when healthy this is a ten deep Hawks squad and their depth is a huge advantage over the Knicks.
If the Hawks can stay healthy the depth will be the biggest advantage they have over the Knicks. Tom Thibodeau always prioritizes defense, but even though the Knicks have been a solid defensive team this year the Hawks scored over one hundred points in all three regular season games, so as long as they can slow down Randle and the Knicks on offense this is a very winnable series for the Atlanta Hawks. It has been a roller coaster ride to get to this point, but we are finally here, and Atlanta Hawks fans have waited a long time to see their team back in the playoffs and they could be in for a treat this season as the Hawks are set to start a hopeful extended postseason run on Sunday.