Unbalanced logo

Hawks take game 1

Game 1 recap, Game 2 preview

By Jack SchottPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
Like
Taking Knicks fans' SOUL

Game 1

Hawks: 107

Knicks: 105

This is good.

There couldn't be a more difficult environment to play in than the first game of the playoffs in Madison Square Garden. The Hawks were thrown into the wolves with this game and it couldn't have gone better. 15,000 Knicks fans showed up to the Mecca to watch the Knicks in the playoffs for the first time since 2013, Spike Lee going ballistic after every made basket, even the TNT announcers were on the Knicks side. I'll admit, it was good to see a full arena again with actual fans making the noise. But it was even better to see those fans absolutely silenced when Trae Young shoved the game winning floater down their throat. I also admit, his presentation of shushing the crowd needs work. Instead of putting his finger over his mouth he put a little extra muscle into it and had his index finger hovering over his unibrow. I don't blame him though, the man put on an absolute clinic in his playoff debut and proved that he can lead this team on a legit run. I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself, but watching this game was as promising as could be and the confidence I have in the Hawks is on a steady rise.

The game started relatively slow. For the first few minutes neither team could really do much, but the Hawks controlled the tempo and pace of the game which got us out to an early 10 point lead in the first quarter. John Collins and Clint Capella both did a great job on the defensive side of the ball limiting Julius Randle to just 15 points in 36 minutes of play.

What really gets under my skin though, is the TNT announcers being absolute superfans of the Knicks. They may as well put Spike Lee in the booth for game 2 because these were guys going OFF after every Knicks basket. It even got to a point in the second quarter when the Hawks were on a 8-0 run and the announcer said "The Knicks are down but they are controlling this game".....Like what does that mean?? They played okay, but if it weren't for the fans in MSG I genuinely believe that this game would not have been nearly as close.

Getting this road win to open the series was so important for the Hawks but they cant get too comfortable. It was a hard fought game. They need to limit that Alec Burks guy to far less points than he did in game 1. But they don't need to take any attention off of Julius Randle. We held him down on Sunday, but that just means he's coming out with more of a chip on his shoulder in game 2. Julius Randle is not a guy we want to see get any momentum, so as long as we continue the pressure on Randle we will be fine on the defensive side of the ball.

The offense looked really good on Sunday, but that performance was by far not their best. When the Hawks are really playing their best offensively, Trae Young doesn't have to carry the team as much as he did in game 1. Bogdan hit some clutch threes, and Lou Will did a good job providing some bench scoring. But in game 2, we will need Gallinari to shoot much smarter shots, we need to get Kevin Huerter the ball more, and we gotta draw more fouls. Sundays game was promising because of the fact that we were able to come together to get the win, while not even playing at our full potential.

So I'm feeling good about the start of this series. My original prediction was for the Knicks to take game 2, and Im going to stick by that just for the sake of my predictions being right, but deep down I think the Hawks can come out with another hard fought win to take a 2-0 series lead back home.

This is gonna be a fun series. Go Hawks

peacenlove

basketball
Like

About the Creator

Jack Schott

Pretty much just whatever is on my mind:

lil bit of everything!

peacenlove

https://www.instagram.com/jackschott/

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.