Most Knicks fans are younger than 65, meaning most have never seen this team win a championship. If you’re 40 or under, you missed Patrick Ewing. Any fan not yet old enough to vote wasn’t following Linsanity. But any Knick fan of any age who tuned in to last night’s rare bird of a Game 6 in Atlanta left with a brilliant feather in their cap: they witnessed the greatest single-game performance in franchise history — maybe league history.
An in-game graphic said the Knicks/Hawks game was one of 73, 041 NBA games ever, regular-season and postseason. Winnnig in the most dominating fashion ever means accomplishing something that hasn’t happened 99.9999863091% of the time. XXX
There were 14 unanswered points after the Hawks led 11-9, their last lead of the series and the season. That branched into a 17-2 burst by the visitors, who followed that up with with a 20-4 run. Zoom out a little and you’ll see all those separate rivulets of rampage merge into one long river flow, a.k.a. the Knicks outscoring the Hawks 67-14 over 16 first-half minutes.
The first thing Seth told me when I started writing recaps was not to drown them in numbers. Readers don’t go to the recap for stats; the box score’s got that covered. Numbers rarely, if ever, tell the story as truthfully and as colorfully as words.
Comrades: any one of a thousand numbers will tell you the story of last night. A few of the higher-quality gemstones:
Their 47-point halftime lead was the largest in playoff history.Same with their 53-point lead after the third quarter.Their biggest lead was 61, a playoff record in the play-by-play era (1996-97).Their 140 points is a new franchise high.OG Anunoby scored 26 in the first half. Atlanta didn’t score that many until the game was more than 20 minutes in.With his second triple-double this week, Karl-Anthony Towns joined Walt Frazier as the only Knicks with multiple triple-doubles in the same postseason.KAT was so in the groove playmaking that he didn’t score his first field goal until the Knicks were up 60. Not gonna research this, but I’m pretty sure that’s the first time in league history a team went up 60 before one of their future Hall of Famers had made a single basket.The Hawks averaged 14.2 turnovers a game this season, a solid number (10th in the league). They committed 14 in the first half. If you ever wondered how you and your friends would look playing an NBA team, re-watch the first quarter last night. The Hawks didn’t just struggle to score. It was a moral victory when they even got a shot off, with most of their efforts tightly contested and involving way too much east-to-west action. Usually when one team bosses another, I imagine a varsity team schooling the JV squad. This was more like watching the Knicks play the JV.Two players in the entire league averaged two steals a game this season: Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and Detroit’s Ausar Thompson. By halftime, five Knicks already had multiple steals: OG with four, and KAT, Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride and Jose Alvarado each with two.Pacôme Djenon Dadiet score more points in eight minutes than two Atlanta starters (Daniels and Onyeka Okongwu) did all night.15 Knicks scored. None played more than 29 minutes.
I could go on, but there are decency laws.
I stopped cheering about halfway through the second quarter. Joy morphed into awe, and I mean awe in its original, terrified meaning — not scared, but aware that you are in the presence of something you didn’t think was real, or you never expected to encounter. Imagine a friend, a good friend, not a best friend but someone you always enjoyed, knocked on your door today after being dead 10 years. You’d pro’ly feel a kind of elation. But it’d def be stir-fried up with some WTFs.
That’s how I felt last night. I don’t think I thought an NBA team could ever be up 60-19. Or up by 50-plus in the first half. And the effort never flagged. The Knicks were still flying around hustling up 60.
The one and only snag in the evening, or two, really, center on center Mitchell Robinson. He left for the locker room in the first half after landing awkwardly and hurting his ankle. Then he got elbowed in the chest by Daniels, who was wrapped up with Robinson and tried to throw him off, which is like me resenting that oak tree in front of me and trying to shove it out of my way. Mitch handled things well, I thought. Okongwu grabbed him from behind, which Richard Jefferson saw as a noble act of de-escalation; if you wanna turn the temperature down on the room, grab your man. Don’t be grabbing the other team.
Daniels — or maybe Jalen Johnson — must’ve said something, because after the initial shoves and whistles and swarming bodies came and went, Robinson felt the spirit move within him and the spirit was moving him back in the direction of his enemies. Given the league’s newfound (and grudgingly embraced) relaxed attitude in not suspending players for leaving the bench during altercations, one would hope with no punches thrown, both players ejected and no further shenanigans that Mitch will be available (and healthy) come Round 2.
Put a pin in these Hawks. They don’t figure to be going away anytime soon. They probably hit their ceiling this year, and they have reason to expect to keep moving on up next. They own the better of New Orleans and Milwaukee’s lottery pick. Their only rotation player not under contract or a team option next year is CJ McCollum, who Atlanta can likely bring back for closer to $20 million annually than the $30 million he made this year. Jonathan Kuminga, Mouhamed Gueye and Zaccharie Risacher all have team options. Jalen Johnson played all night like his team was down one. There’s something there.
As for what’s next for New York, we blessedly do not know. Won’t know till Saturday night, because somewhere out there some animal saw its shadow, and thus this spring there’s spring in Joel Embiid’s step. The heavily favored Celtics will face the Sixers in Game 7 instead of resting like our ‘bockers. It’s their bad luck to have encountered a foe more rarely seen in this world than the black mamba or the giant squid: a healthy 76ers. Can’t see Philly pulling it off. Then again, I didn’t think they could win Game 5 or 6.
Who would you rather play? What stood out to you last night? Did it change your expectations for the Knicks Quoth DavidLeebound22: “We witnessed Halley’s Comet.” When the solar eclipse hit a few years ago, it was the afternoon where I live. I will never forget the sound of alllllll of nature going silent when the sun disappeared, or the feeling it gave me. I felt the same last night. I may never live to see the Knicks win a ‘chip. But I’ve seen them play the game at the highest level possible, at the highest level possible. Last night was Mozart. It was Monk. It was indescribable.