Hawks' first-round playoff opponent revealed after Eastern Conference stunner

The regular season is over. After a rollercoaster year that saw a depleted team rise into contention, the Atlanta Hawks have finished with a record of 46-36. They're now focused on one thing and one thing only: the postseason. Shortly after their final game in Miami, they found out who they would face in round one.

The New York Knicks. These organizations just can't escape each other, huh? When they met in 2021, the Hawks were coming off an electric late-season turnaround after firing Lloyd Pierce. Five years later, Atlanta didn't fire Quin Snyder, but they made an even better turnaround.

This is the series nobody expected...

Nobody. A Hawks/Cavaliers round one meeting felt inevitable. Entering Sunday's full slate of matchups, all the Hawks needed to do was defeat Miami, and they would lock up the five-seed to face the Cavaliers.

That wasn't the only way to finalize it, either. Even if the Hawks lost, an Orlando Magic victory over the Boston Celtics would result in a three-way tie for fifth place, with the tiebreaker going to Atlanta due to them winning the Southeast Division. If the Magic won the game they were heavily favored to, the Hawks would be on a plane to Cleveland.

Of course, the Magic lost. A fitting conclusion to their underwhelming 2025-26 campaign, no doubt, but this had significant implications for their division rivals. Since the Raptors also won, this moved the Hawks down to the sixth-seed. This confirmed that they'd be taking on the third-seeded Knicks.

This wasn't necessarily the outcome many Hawks fans had dreamed of, either. Both Cleveland and New York would be tough opponents, but having faced the Cavaliers more recently, they got a better look at what a potential series would bring. The results were a mixed bag.

A rematch for the ages could provide a much more intriguing storyline.

It's almost nostalgic. Everyone knows exactly where they were the last time the Hawks ran into the Knicks in the postseason. In the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs, the Trae Young-led Atlanta squad stunned New York in just five games.

That series truly kicked off the Young era, and while he's no longer a part of the team, they'll need to channel the energy he brought in that series if they want to knock off this talented group. It's certainly a better Knicks team than they faced five years ago.

Atlanta made it clear they didn't care who they ran into when they made the decision to rest the bulk of the rotation on Sunday. Could that decision come back to bite them? Sure, but if history is any indicator, they might just stun the Knicks once more.

Next weekend can't arrive soon enough.