Hawks Humiliate the Knicks at MSG

Over the 50+ games remaining this season, the highs will be there, but New York needs to find ways to limit the lows...

Final Score: Kicks 100 - Hawks 108
Record: 15-10

Some important big-picture Knicks stuff before we zoom in on Wednesday's disappointing and humbling loss to the Hawks.

Back in October, we assumed there would be plenty of ups and downs over the first few months of the 2024-25 season as New York was incorporating two new starters acquired via massive blockbuster trades and dealing with injuries to key reserves.

Well, 25 games into the season, the Knicks are five games above .500. It's worth noting that's a better record than last year's team, which was 14-11 at this particular mile marker, yet went on to win 50 games and finish with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Speaking with reporters last night, Karl Anthony Towns mentioned how long it took The Big 3 in Miami to get on the same page after a certain someone took his talents to South Beach.

"The Miami Heat, years ago with LeBron, it took a whole year for them before they figured it out and put a banner up," Towns said of the ballyhooed Heat club that was 9-8 through 17 games in LBJ's first MIA season. "Other teams, it took 75 percent of the season, and they figured it out. You don't know. I don't have a crystal ball in front of me to tell you how long before things are fully clicking at a consistent level, but I think, for us, we've shown spurts of consistency and what we can be when things are clicking at a high level, and everything is going smooth. I can't tell you an exact time, but I can tell you that every day, we work on being the best version of ourselves and how we can show that to our fans and the city."

And there have been flashes of brilliance from New York, as evidenced by their recent four-game winning streak and their victory in Toronto earlier this week.

Some of the most publicized issues plaguing the team last month, such as Mikal Bridges' woeful shooting slump, are no longer as worrisome. Despite the many bumps in the road thus far, as of this morning, New York still ranks second in the NBA in Offensive Efficiency, their defense has been trending in the right direction (top-10 over the last month), and they sit just outside the top 5 in Net Rating this season.

Another reason for optimism is that the Knicks will get some much-needed time off. After losing to Atlanta, New York won't travel to Sin City this weekend for a showdown with the Bucks in Saturday's NBA Cup semifinals. Instead, they will play a banged-up Orlando team missing their two best players on Sunday. And New York's ensuing game isn't until next Thursday.

That's just one contest over seven days. A team that uses a short rotation and has little time to practice will greatly benefit from this easing of the schedule.

This is not to suggest there aren't legitimate causes for concern; there are, but let's try to keep everything in perspective.

Circling back to last night, let's start with the obvious: The Hawks are a tough matchup for New York. As we've seen several times this season, teams with the length and athleticism required to switch comfortably on the perimeter tend to give the Knicks fits. More importantly, Atlanta has arguably the NBA's best young point-of-attack defender in Dyson Daniels, who was in Jalen Brunson's airspace nearly every second JB had the ball in his hands.

For as much as the Knicks restructured their roster this summer, they still will likely go only as far as Brunson takes them. New York is a perfect 11-0 when Brunson posts a positive plus-minus this season. They are 0-8 when he is a -5 or worse.