3 things to expect in Game 6: Knicks will have a closing attitude
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts in the second quarter during Game 5 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff matchup at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: J. Conrad Williams Jr.
After five games of adjustments and chess moves, the Knicks have a chance to close out the opening-round series in Atlanta on Thursday and finally appear to have figured out the answers.
1. Closing time
The Knicks repeatedly pointed out — same as they had after Game 4 — that the Hawks will come back with all they have Thursday in a potential season-ending game. Over the first four games, the Knicks have seemed to show that they are the better team — winning their three games by 11, 16 and 29 while Atlanta dodged last-second bullets to post a pair of one-point wins. If the Knicks can close it out and Philadelphia can extend Boston to a seventh game, that would give the Knicks a chance to get a few days off.
“Confidence is built with work,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “For us, we understand what the situation is, toughest game to win is the one that ends a team’s season.”
"Yeah, that's the best thing,” Dyson Daniels said. “We come in here and we got smashed tonight but we still got a chance. It's 3-2, we're going home to protect home court. We got to be better.”
2. And the closer has arrived
Jalen Brunson was blanketed by the Hawks' defense throughout much of the first four games, limiting him in a way that no other team has seemed to do. But Tuesday night it was vintage Brunson — 39 points and 17 in the fourth quarter. If he’s figured out the answers to what the Hawks are trying to do to slow him, this might be over. And it’s not just because he was the unstoppable offensive force again, but when the Hawks have to try to focus all of their attention on him again, unlike some of the teams that have struggled in the postseason, Brunson has a lot of options to take over the offense.
3 Medical check
The Knicks have had a clean injury report for this series, but Josh Hart left the game and went to the locker room during the game after taking a hard fall on what appeared to be his back. The Knicks did not have any update on his condition and he was gone from the locker room before the media entered.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
