Atlanta Hawks: 3 keys to winning the first round against the New York Knicks

Atlanta Hawks key No. 2) Slow down Julius Randle

The offense of the New York Knicks runs through Julius Randle. When he is scoring or creating for the Knicks, he is then enabling his secondary offensive players, Derrick Rose and RJ Barrett. The problem is, that outside of Rose, not many Knicks have playoff experience.

By slowing down Randle, the Hawks will then be forcing other players to make plays. To highlight Randle’s importance, he has been averaging 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists for the regular season. One of his biggest growth areas was his shooting from deep. Randle, a career 34.2 percent 3-point shooter, shot them at 41.1 percent this season.

Outside of Rose, the Knicks only have Alec Burks who has some experience. Barrett and rookie Immanuel Quickley have been good all year but the playoffs are a totally different brand of basketball. They are unproven and this could lead to disaster for the Knicks.

The Hawks will be hoping that De’Andre Hunter will be back to his defensive prowess for this series. He is going to make life a lot more difficult for the Knicks’ star forward and will hopefully not give up many wide-open 3-point shots because Randle is money with those.