How the Knicks can learn from Game 1 to win Game 2 and beyond vs. the Hawks

The Knicks’ 2021 playoff debut didn’t go quite as fans wanted, with the team narrowly losing down the stretch to the Hawks. What lessons can the team take from the first game to get ready for the second?

What a wonderful basketball game.  Wonderfully entertaining, wonderfully stressful, and ultimately, wonderfully frustrating. Felt your heart pumping in the middle of your esophagus? That’s what playoff basketball is supposed to feel like — cherish it! That’s precisely the feeling that should have Knicks fans saying, proudly and in unison with this lovable team they are rooting for, “we here.” 

“Here” is now a 1-0 series deficit to the Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks had many chances to win Game 1 — the tactics and strategies employed were absolutely good enough to prevail. But the first bout against this explosive Atlanta team should crystallize an essential difference between the Knicks and the Hawks that should inform the Knicks’ style of play on both sides of the ball going forward: Namely, the Knicks have five competent defenders on the floor at all times, while the Hawks do not.  

Defensively, that means the Knicks should switch more actions and prevent Trae Young from running downhill with multiple unpleasant options at his disposal.  Offensively, that means the Knicks should aggressively attempt to engage Atlanta's poor defenders — and, most importantly, Young — into their actions. 

Offense

Any and all analysis surrounding this game should begin with this statement: Julius Randle needs to be better. If Randle, the solo engine of the New York offense all year long, shoots 25% for the series, the Knicks will lose. Full stop. Some of that improvement has to come with simply making more shots. Randle’s midrange game, especially from the baseline, drove his offensive success all year, and he missed every baseline jumper he took Sunday night. However, Randle could also find easier shots in this series by exploiting Young. 

The Hawks hid Young on Reggie Bullock whenever the two starting units squared off, and the Knicks did make a point to utilize Reggie as a screener to take advantage. However, Randle was far too hesitant in those scenarios. He consistently allowed Young to hedge and recover, then attacked his original man: 

Ironically, this was one of Randle’s six total made field goals in the game, but the way he let Young off the hook set the stage for the rest of the contest. One hard dribble at Young would have forced the little guy to actually guard, or the Hawks into all sorts of panicked rotations. The Knicks need to do more of that. 

Here, Immanuel Quickley astutely recognizes that Trae is guarding him, and springs into a spontaneous inverted screen for Julius. But Julius backs away from Trae’s hedge, allowing the defense to reset and forcing the offense to start from scratch. Young certainly deserves some credit for his active hedge, but Randle needs to attack his body and force him to actually defend him, even if for a moment. That may spring IQ open for three, or open up the lane for Julius.

Additionally, Trae-hunting screens need not be set beyond the 3-point line, where Trae has maximum space to attempt to hedge and recover. Watch this play, for example: 

Julius is isolating on John Collins, which during the regular season was more often than not a winning proposition for New York. Here, however, Collins holds his own and forces a difficult midrange attempt. But picture what would occur if Reggie Bullock sprinted into a screen for Julius at the foul line instead. Suddenly, Randle would be attacking Young at the elbow, forcing emergency help from supporting Atlanta defenders. New York needs to find creative ways to force the Hawks’ only offensive engine to guard theirs. 

Young wasn’t the only Hawk Randle failed to exploit in Game 1. On several possessions, Atlanta switched Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter onto Randle, both of whom Randle should view as breakfast. But too often, Randle settled by demanding the ball at or near the 3-point line instead of fighting for deeper position and placing immediate pressure on the Atlanta defense.

Here, if Julius relocates to the right block, or even pushes his way inside the foul line, Atlanta’s help defenders would be forced to react. If they don’t, in the words of Julius himself, “good luck.” 

Of course, Randle isn’t the only Knick player who can exploit Trae’s defensive shortcomings. Nate McMillan had the audacity to stick Young on RJ Barrett in spurts, including down the stretch. RJ was given just two opportunities to feast on that non-matchup in the post, resulting in two of the best looks New York got all night. 

Watch Trae comically (and slightly pathetically) turn his head in desperate search of help the second RJ catches it on the block. He has absolutely no interest in buckling down and guarding, and it springs a series of rotations that leaves Bullock wide open for three. 

Then, late in the game, the second round went to RJ by TKO. 

If the Hawks are going to play around with that matchup, the Knicks need to make them pay. Each and every time. 

Similarly, both Quickley and Alec Burks were extremely aggressive whenever they caught the ball and saw Trae staring back at them.

That’s the type of exploitation the Knicks need to more aggressively pursue. 

Bullock does not possess that ability to break Trae down off the dribble. As such, when Trae is “hiding” on him, Reggie must be active off-ball and make Trae work through actions and bodies. He cannot limit himself to his role as a spot-up shooter. Even the slightest Trae involvement, like RJ’s back screen here, can cause Atlanta to make defensive errors: 

Spain pick-and-rolls (in which Reggie back screens the 1/5 pick-and-roll) are another great way to force Trae to engage: 

(By the way, that’s great effort by Trae to contest — but the action still results in a quality look.)

Forcing Trae to guard on as many possessions as possible can only benefit the Knicks as the series continues.

Defense 

If the emphasis on the offensive end should center around exploiting Atlanta’s weaknesses, the adjustments on the defensive end should focus on weakening their strengths. As rock-solid as the Knicks’ base defense was all season, Young’s pick-and-roll wizardry exposed some cracks in the foundation, especially in the fourth quarter. According to Second Spectrum, the Hawks scored 1.35 points per possession out of Young pick-and-rolls. In short, Young dominated the Knicks. In my series preview, I posited that the point of attack of each Trae screen-and-roll would prove the decisive battleground of the series. However, New York’s current batch of point-of-attack defenders proved too weak to contain the action without forcing difficult help rotations, resulting in too many uncontested floaters, lobs, and kick-out threes. 

When Clint Capela screens for Young, there may be no better strategic option. You could trap Trae up top, rotate behind, and force Capela to be a playmaker, but that will require the same difficult rotations the Knicks should be trying to avoid. You could switch, but that plays away from the strength of New York’s centers. The Knicks’ guards may just have to do better. Playing Frank Ntilikina would help, as would occasionally guarding Trae with Bullock and Barrett instead of defensively-deficient point guards. 

The easier fix comes when Collins screens for Young. As I predicted in my series preview, switching Randle onto Young proved to be an effective tactic, stalling Atlanta’s offense.

But New York barely went that route, instead dooming Randle to attempt to contain Trae in drop coverage, a role for which — considering his limited wingspan and verticality — he is plainly ill-suited. 

Randle repeatedly appeared uncomfortable in that role, conceding the lane to Young far too easily. 

It will be fascinating to see if Thibs empowers Randle by letting him play to his defensive strength — i.e. switching aggressively onto ball handlers. The Hawks barely scored any points Sunday night via isolation — that just isn’t how they want to play. By switching more, thereby encouraging one-on-one play, New York can force Atlanta out of the comfort zone they clearly found in the fourth quarter. Switching the Spain pick-and-roll properly will also help.

One last potential adjustment, also to encourage more switching, would be for the Knicks to play small with Julius at the 5 when Capela is on the bench. The Hawks played their backup center, Onyeka Okongwu, a total of three minutes. Otherwise, John Collins manned the middle when Capela sat. During those minutes, New York’s centers struggled mightily to contain penetration and recover to Collins.

Or worse, they found themselves on an island trying to guard Danilo Gallinari, also known (by Jack Huntley) as the decrepit rooster.

Per Cleaning the Glass, when Capela is off the floor, Atlanta takes 4% fewer attempts at the rim, a decrease that ranks in the 88th percentile of all players in the NBA. In other words, rim protection is significantly less critical with Capela on the bench.  It would serve New York well to take advantage of those minutes by removing their own centers from the floor, thereby simultaneously increasing defensive switchability and offensive spacing.

On to Game 2.