The Atlanta Hawks wrapped up a three-game homestand with a victory against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, 121-116.
Zaccharie Risacher led the Hawks with a breakout game of 33 points, Jalen Johnson and Trae Young both added 23 points — each adding 15 rebounds and 10 assists respectively. For the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns scored 34 points to go with 16 rebounds, and Jalen Brunson added 21 points.
For the game itself: Hawks rally late to wrestle control
The Hawks and Knicks have taken part in many enthralling encounters of the years (I was going through some old screenshots and found this scoring breakdown for the thrilling 4OT game from 2017), and last night was another to add to the list.
Neither team led by more than eight points all night long, trading blows back and forth. Long story short, the Knicks held a five-point lead with under two and a half minutes remaining in the fourth, and, while not dominant by any means, they would have been expected to see this one out.
The Hawks cut the lead to three points as Young and Dyson Daniels engage in the guard pick-and-roll, and Daniels makes a nice read to find Johnson in the corner for a three-pointer:
A complete overplay from OG Anunoby here: Daniels was 3-of-16 from the field and could not get anything to go near the rim all night. Anunoby’s length gives him a decent chance to contest, but Johnson converts the play.
Johnson does an excellent job defensively on this next possession. Towns comes to set the screen which would have freed up Anunoby, but Johnson’s activity means that Brunson can’t immediately get off the ball to take advantage of the good Towns screen, and Johnson is able to get around and contest the shot:
