Both sides of a "moral victory" have valid arguments.
On one hand, why should a team celebrate if they weren't able to get the job done? It's not the right mentality to have when all teams share the exact same goal. There's a degree in which a ball club has no other choice than to accept a moral victory.
The New York Knicks are officially NBA Champions, and after they got through Atlanta in six games in the first-round, they were never challenged as hard again. The Hawks aren't celebrating, by any means, but they now have reason to be somewhat satisfied with how their inexperience translated to the postseason.
The Hawks were the only team to steal two games from the Knicks
It's actually pretty crazy to think about. A team that won 53 games in the regular season went 16-3 in the playoffs. Two of those three losses, however, came during a single series. Their first-round meeting with the Atlanta Hawks had them on the ropes - trailing 2-1 through three games.
They eventually adjusted, running most of their offense through Karl-Anthony Towns rather than Jalen Brunson, and it ended up being the deciding factor. They won three straight games after falling down two games to one, and swept their way to the NBA Finals.
CJ McCollum, weirdly enough, is starting to get a ton of praise from Knicks fans. In both games Atlanta took from New York, McCollum sinked the game-winning shot, seemingly lighting a true fire under them.
They hated him at the time, but since he might've been the guy to spark their run, they've got no choice but to give him his well-deserved credit. He gave Atlanta hope, too, and Hawks fans will always appreciate his confidence and clutch shot-making.
This was an incredibly valuable learning experience for the young Hawks, as well as some of their key veterans.
There's clearly something special being built in Atlanta
The national media can ignore it all they want, but people who have been paying close attention to this squad's upbringing know it best - they're going to be a true threat in the Eastern Conference for quite some time.
This first-round exit at the hands of the New York Knicks was only the start. They'll take time to breathe, understand what went wrong, and apply it to their offseason training. There shouldn't be doubt in anyone's minds about the work ethic this team possesses.
While moral victories aren't often celebrated, they can show real promise in certain situations, with this current iteration of the Hawks being one.
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