Official Game Thread: Hawks at Knicks

[Spud2nique]

7 minutes ago, Thomas said:

Something in their favor for the playoffs is the way refs swallow the whistle in general post season. Want to face and upset the Boston fans first round though anyway.

The hatred level for Boston is well, on a whole nother level, between the 4 teams we could face (not counting the Bucks) just looking 4/5 matchups. Most hated to least would be,

1. Schmelts 

2. Heat

3. Knicks

4. Horcats 

[Atlantaholic]

14 minutes ago, marco102 said:

It seems like you agreeing and splitting hairs. If someone is going to say Randle is in the mvp conversation because his team is in 4th, then Trae should be too. The point is they go to extensive lengths not to discuss Trae in high regard. I mean it is also because 70% of national media are Knicks fans, but still you shouldn't have Randle or Trae in a top five mvp.

Through three quarters yesterday, Trae had dominated the Knicks and Randle. It was D. Rose and the backups who kept them in that game. Trae mainly destroyed them with his passing. If Randle isn't scoring, he can't effect  the game like Trae, but we won't hear about that.

Randle leads the team in assists and rebounds, he averages close to 50% more rebounds and assists than the guys that rank #2 on the team, everything they do offensively revolves around Randle. Plus he is a good defender, regardless of what people's subjective opinions might be on this thread, every metric that exists has him as a top 3 defender on the knicks team that ranks #2 on defense in the NBA. To say he only impacts the team in scoring is categorically false. In fact, his scoring is actually not that extraordinary, compared to everything else he is doing for them. 

It's funny to me why so many Hawks fans are so sensitive. Talking about one player being good does not diminish what Trae does. Is Trae underrated? Probably, at times, but, so what? I'd rather he be underrated than overrated imho. There is no advantage for our team for people correctly rating or overrating Young, so it's not something that I worry about in any shape way or form. 

[Thomas]

3 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

The hatred level for Boston is well, on a whole nother level, between the 4 teams we could face (not counting the Bucks) just looking 4/5 matchups. Most hated to least would be,

1. Schmelts 

2. Heat

3. Knicks

4. Horcats 

The Schmelts....their fans....their sports announcers....and my bad playoff memories of yore against them. Think thats four. Oh wait a minute I have a specific bad  memory....Havlichek's set shot banking against the glass at a seemingly 100% rate against us post season as well. Jeepers, I need to stop.

[kg01]

11 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

It's funny to me why so many Hawks fans are so sensitive. Talking about one player being good does not diminish what Trae does. Is Trae underrated? Probably, at times, but, so what? I'd rather he be underrated than overrated imho. There is no advantage for our team for people correctly rating or overrating Young, so it's not something that I worry about in any shape way or form. 

[marco102]

30 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

Randle leads the team in assists and rebounds, he averages close to 50% more rebounds and assists than the guys that rank #2 on the team, everything they do offensively revolves around Randle. Plus he is a good defender, regardless of what people's subjective opinions might be on this thread, every metric that exists has him as a top 3 defender on the knicks team that ranks #2 on defense in the NBA. To say he only impacts the team in scoring is categorically false. In fact, his scoring is actually not that extraordinary, compared to everything else he is doing for them. 

It's funny to me why so many Hawks fans are so sensitive. Talking about one player being good does not diminish what Trae does. Is Trae underrated? Probably, at times, but, so what? I'd rather he be underrated than overrated imho. There is no advantage for our team for people correctly rating or overrating Young, so it's not something that I worry about in any shape way or form. 

I'm specifically talking about last night's game when I was talking about his passing which I didn't make very clear.

So who had a bigger impact on the game through three quarters? Trae Young and his bad defense, as you put it, with 20 points and 14 assists.

I'm not putting Randle down. That is the entire point. He should not be in the MVP conversation. But if you put him in you should at least mention Trae. 

Some of us do care about those things because it would be nice to hear something positive about a team most of the media had in the 8th through 10th spot being 5th at the moment. I listen to nba shows as I work and it is just annoying to hear rarely a peep about the Hawks. 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by marco102

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Quote

“He’s probably our No. 1 option. He’s a guy who creates a lot for this team,” McMillan said of Young. “You will be missing a big part of the team with the things — he’s averaging 34, 35 minutes (a game). He’s got (near) a double-double in scoring and assists. He does a lot of creating and scoring for us. You will be missing a big part of who we are.”

There was still a full quarter to be played after Young went down, but it seemed like the life was sucked out of the Hawks the moment Young was escorted to the locker room. They entered the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead, but the Knicks just chipped away at it before going up seven themselves with under five minutes to play.

The Hawks could have lain down and let this one get away from them; it would be understandable given the loss of their best player and with the Knicks being the hottest team in the league.

Instead, the Hawks fought, just as they have for the past two months. This is a team that changed its identity from a wilting mess late in games in the first half of the season to one of the most dangerous units across the NBA since McMillan’s takeover. This is a team that went from speaking about having a next-man-up mentality to being a team defined by it.

In just over a minute and a half, Atlanta erased New York’s seven-point lead and tied the score at 118 with just over two minutes to go. The Knicks ended up going up three after Julius Randle’s layup with eight seconds to go. Randle was phenomenal for the Knicks Wednesday night, with 40 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and 6-of-8 shooting on 3-pointers. The Hawks had no answers to stop him.

On the other end of the floor, McMillan drew up a beautifully designed sideline out-of-bounds play that got Bogdan Bogdanovic, one of the NBA’s hottest shooters, a wide-open look in the corner that ripped the nets. A lot of credit needs to be given to Capela, who set a perfectly executed pick to allow Bogdanovic to curl to the corner.

 

[RedDawg#8]

14 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Aint no trophies for try-hards. Knicks have swept us this season. I similar fashion each time. It's bigger than last night.

[bleachkit]

If Brandon Goodwin makes both his free throws, Bogi's three could have been a game winner.

[JayBirdHawk]

8 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

If Brandon Goodwin makes both his free throws, Bogi's three could have been a game winner.

He misses too many freethrows, especially in crucial situations. 62% freethrow shooter...yeeech.

Clint is at 57% - have mercy.

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

He misses too many freethrows, especially in crucial situations. 62% freethrow shooter...yeeech.

Clint is at 57% - have mercy.

That's very low for a point guard. Rock bottom in fact.

[Atlantaholic]

 

 

24 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

If Brandon Goodwin makes both his free throws, Bogi's three could have been a game winner.

yes, but no way of knowing if we would actually draw up a three point play. Very possible considering the injury situation, but not a sure thing.

[sturt]

Interesting to me, Goodwin was 60% from the FT line in his two seasons in college... 70% in G-League... and prior to this season, had hit 37 of 41 in NBA for 90%.

Some serious regression going on there.

[kg01]

31 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Aint no trophies for try-hards. Knicks have swept us this season. I similar fashion each time. It's bigger than last night.

Eh, the coaching change and Trae's injury make this a bit more nuanced than that.

In the first two games, there came a point where we ended up being non-competitive.  We had no answers for their relentlessness.

Last night, it started to go that way, but we responded and seized control.  It was a clear change .. until Trae got hurt.

It could be argued that the guys who were left should've still been able to close.  But last night was different than the first two games.

It's hair-splitting but necessary.  We're a different team under McMillan.

[REHawksFan]

21 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Aint no trophies for try-hards. Knicks have swept us this season. I similar fashion each time. It's bigger than last night.

This take seems really........obtuse.  Is that the right word?  I'm not sure, but you can't just ignore the circumstances of this game and say the outcomes are the same so the games must have been lost in the same fashion.  That's unreasonable.  

The Hawks led comfortably this game right up until Trae went down.  That wasn't the case in either of the two previous losses where LP was at the helm.  With Nate, they were the better team until their leader went down and they still forced OT. 

If anything this was a role reversal of the second Knicks games where they led comfortably all game with the Hawks just making runs to get back in it only to see the Knicks pull away late.  That's what was happening last night until Trae got hurt.  

[Atlantaholic]

1 hour ago, marco102 said:

I'm specifically talking about last night's game when I was talking about his passing which I didn't make very clear.

So who had a bigger impact on the game through three quarters? Trae Young and his bad defense, as you put it, with 20 points and 14 assists.

I'm not putting Randle down. That is the entire point. He should not be in the MVP conversation. But if you put him in you should at least mention Trae. 

Some of us do care about those things because it would be nice to hear something positive about a team most of the media had in the 8th through 10th spot being 5th at the moment. I listen to nba shows as I work and it is just annoying to hear rarely a peep about the Hawks. 

 

The Knicks are 3-0 vs the Hawks with Julius Randle averaging an absolutely insane 38-12-7 on 58-50-80 shooting splits for a TS% of 74% against the Hawks, so I have no idea in the world how you could look at head to head and conclude Trae has outplayed Randle. Trae's splits against New York aren't pretty. 

[REHawksFan]

2 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Eh, the coaching change and Trae's injury make this a bit more nuanced than that.

In the first two games, there came a point where we ended up being non-competitive.  We had no answers for their relentlessness.

Last night, it started to go that way, but we responded and seized control.  It was a clear change .. until Trae got hurt.

It could be argued that the guys who were left should've still been able to close.  But last night was different than the first two games.

It's hair-splitting but necessary.  We're a different team under McMillan.

You said it better than I did, but this was the intent behind my post above.  

[marco102]

2 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

The Knicks are 3-0 vs the Hawks with Julius Randle averaging an absolutely insane 38-12-7 on 58-50-80 shooting splits for a TS% of 74% against the Hawks, so I have no idea in the world how you could look at head to head and conclude Trae has outplayed Randle. Trae's splits against New York aren't pretty. 

So Randle should be in a top five MVP conversation because his team swept the Hawks? 

[marco102]

5 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

The Knicks are 3-0 vs the Hawks with Julius Randle averaging an absolutely insane 38-12-7 on 58-50-80 shooting splits for a TS% of 74% against the Hawks, so I have no idea in the world how you could look at head to head and conclude Trae has outplayed Randle. Trae's splits against New York aren't pretty. 

 

5 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

I'm specifically talking about last night's game when I was talking about his passing which I didn't make very clear.

So who had a bigger impact on the game through three quarters? Trae Young and his bad defense, as you put it, with 20 points and 14 assists.

 

[Atlantaholic]

Just now, marco102 said:

So Randle should be in a top five MVP conversation because his team swept the Hawks? 

Would you like to quote me on when I said Randle is a top five MVP candidate? 

[marco102]

1 minute ago, Atlantaholic said:

Would you like to quote me on when I said Randle is a top five MVP candidate? 

That was the entire point of @kg01's original post.  IF you put Randle in an MVP conversation, then you should at a minimum put Trae in too.  Then you came in with your Randle stats, which by the way, he's been fantastic.  He's not MVP worthy nor is Trae. 

I just don't get why you are aren't agreeing with that point. 

Edited April 22, 2021 by marco102