Knicks strike back against the Hawks: ‘They wanted it more’

The Hawks were feeling good. They beat the Knicks twice in a row by a margin of one point to take control of the best-of-seven playoff series.

State Farm Arena was a party for Game 3. Anticipation was high for a repeat in Game 4.

Yet Hawks coach Quin Snyder called for caution.

“It’s good to remember we were fortunate (in Game 3), too,” Snyder said. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with acknowledging that. You can be fortunate and make some plays.”

The Hawks didn’t make enough plays in Game 4 to let luck have a say. The Knicks ran them out of their building for a 114-98 victory on Saturday. The Hawks trailed for the final 42 minutes and were hopelessly behind after three quarters.

The best-of-seven series is tied at 2-2. This time, the Knicks made sure the Hawks wouldn’t be close enough at the end to have a chance.

“They just upped their intensity, their aggression,” Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “They wanted it more. They played harder.”

The Hawks will have to win another game at Madison Square Garden to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. Game 5 is there on Tuesday.

The Hawks will spend the time between now and then figuring out how to score when the flow of the game doesn’t favor them.

The Knicks got the kind of contest they wanted in Game 4. The pace slowed. The physical play increased. The game officials let them play.

The Hawks tried answering in kind but couldn’t.

“More than anything, from the start of the game, their physicality bothered us,” Snyder said. “We didn’t do the things we needed to do to counter that.”

It was a letdown for the Hawks after the two dramatic victories. They overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win 107-106 in New York. They made winning plays at the end to win 109-108 here on Thursday.

The Knicks struck back in Game 4. They were up 77-58 in the third quarter when the first robust chants of “Let’s go Knicks!” broke out.

Hawks supporters had no real answer, just like their team.

“They played better than us,” Hawks guard CJ McCollum said. “They played harder. They were more physical. They got to loose balls.”

It was more than just better effort from the Knicks. They also tightened up their execution at both ends.

The Hawks hurt the Knicks with pick-and-roll plays in Game 3. Knicks defenders dropped when the moment called for cutting off the ballhandler. They didn’t switch when they should have. The Knicks didn’t communicate when the Hawks ran or simply failed to sprint back.

All of that changed in Game 3. The Knicks were sharp with their half-court defense. The Hawks had to make tough shots to score. They couldn’t run like they wanted. The Hawks scored zero fast-break points through three quarters and generated just four shots.

The Hawks missed 31 of 41 3-point tries.

“Making shots is always a big part of the game, but I don’t think we were precise or forceful enough offensively to give yourself a greater probability of making those shots,” Snyder said.

It’s been hard for the Hawks to score against the Knicks. They struggled to do it during a late-season loss to New York here on April 6. The Hawks scored efficiently in Game 2, but it’s been a grind in the other three games of the series.

They won Game 3 with a strong defensive effort. The Knicks had little trouble generating good shots in Game 4. They simply bullied their way to the basket.

Big men Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby combined for 42 points on just 26 shots and 20 rebounds. The Knicks scored nearly half their points in the paint (42) through three quarters.

McCollum, the hero of Games 2 and 3, couldn’t save the Hawks this time.

He made his usual assortment of shifty moves, but Knicks defenders stuck closer to him than they did in Games 2 and 3. McCollum scored 17 points on 15 shots and missed all four of his 3-point attempts.

After Hawks All-Star Jalen Johnson finally got going in Game 3, the Knicks locked him down again. Johnson scored 14 points while missing eight of 12 shots. He tried forcing his way to the basket, but that style of play just doesn’t suit him.

That’s true for the Hawks as a team. They need to run to score. They couldn’t do it in Game 4 because New York kept scoring and they kept giving the ball away (19 turnovers).

“It wasn’t a game of adjustments as much as it was the team that got after it (more),” Snyder said. “It’s not like we didn’t compete, but we didn’t compete in the areas where we needed to.”

The Hawks need to learn from this loss while not letting it linger. They’ve proved that they win at MSG. They’ve shown that they can handle New York’s physical play.

But, as Snyder warned, his team needed some luck to win Game 3. The Knicks took chance out of the equation in Game 4. The Hawks didn’t make enough plays.

They have until Tuesday to figure out how to be better.