This tie gave the feeling of being one of the most even before starting the playoffs and is being true to that belief. Without reaching the point of the first game, which was resolved with a basket in the last second, the following games have been distributed one for each team and tonight it was the Hawks’ turn to win. It was the return to Atlanta from a playoff game since 2017 and more than 16,000 people watched it live. which created a very hot atmosphere that exploded at the end of the second quarter, at which point the match broke down.
Until that moment the Knicks were not being worse than their rival and the scoreboard reflected a total equality, but then it came the deadly partial of 22-5 for those of the Big Apple, who saw (as in the first meeting) how the same person ended up with them. That time Trae Young hit a basket within a second and silenced Madison. In the second he took the spit of an amateur. In the third, accompanied by everyone around him and long before the end of the meeting, the point guard executed the Knicks again.
Although he finished with 21 points, some of them scored during that set, what really tipped the balance were his assists (14 in total). The series of plays was tremendous. Pass to John Collins (who had been at 0 points with foul problems in the second and reached 14 points today) for a monstrous mate; another pass to Collins for a released triple; another alley-oop, in this case with Clint Capella, celebrated uproariously by both; tremendous assist for another triple from Bogdan Bogdanovic; and finally one last pass for a basket from De’Andre Hunter.
In front, Julius Randle once again had a night to forget, chanted with cries of “overrated” by the stands every time he touched the ball. The pivot stayed at 14 points with 2/15 in field goals and He has only hit 13 of the 54 pitches he has attempted in the series. It’s a 24.1% accuracy rate, the worst percentage in history for any player in his first three playoff games. Derrick Rose carried the offensive weight for the Knicks, reaching 30 points. Insufficient in any case to turn around a game that returned to equality after the break … But already with a 14-point difference in the New York team’s backpack. Tomorrow, game four, with a lot at stake for the Knicks. A 3-1 would be difficult to overcome.
