Atlanta Hawks: 6 Takeaways from Solid Knicks Win

THJ Stifled, Knox Ascendant

For the first time this season, the Atlanta Hawks managed to contain the high-scoring exploits of Tim Hardaway Jr. If you remember the first two times these two teams faced off, Hardaway erupted for impressive scoring explosions against the team that let him walk in free agency.

Tonight, Timmy only scored 15 points, but he did manage to get to the charity stripe 9 times – a far cry from his career-high 20 free-throw attempts last game.

In Hardaway’s stead, rookie Kevin Knox exploded for 17 points in the 1st quarter, but the Knicks never really went back to him and he only ended the game with 24.

Knox looked like a rookie in the first few games these two teams played, but he has grown considerably since then and this performance certainly typified that. One turning point in this game might’ve been a missed alley-oop dunk from Knox that would’ve brought the house down, but instead he smashed it off the back iron and the Hawks came down and got an alley-oop of their own.

Strong Defensive Effort in Second Half

This game was mostly won on the back of the Atlanta Hawks’ defense, and Lloyd Pierce’s men limited the Knicks offense to 38 points in the second half – outscoring New York by 16 points. The Knicks offense was looking pretty potent, but the Hawks trotted a strong defensive unit of Kent Bazemore, DeAndre’ Bembry, Jeremy Lin, John Collins and Dewayne Dedmon in the second half that gave New York’s offense (that was looking quite potent) fits.