{"id":200416,"date":"2026-04-17T06:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:24:07","slug":"new-york-hosts-atlanta-to-begin-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200416\/","title":{"rendered":"New York hosts Atlanta to begin playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta Hawks (46-36, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks (53-29, third in the Eastern Conference)<\/p>\n<p>New York; Saturday, 6 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n<p>LINE: Knicks -5.5; over\/under is 216.5<\/p>\n<p>EASTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Knicks host first series matchup<\/p>\n<p>BOTTOM LINE: The New York Knicks host the Atlanta Hawks to open the Eastern Conference first round. New York went 2-1 against Atlanta during the regular season. The Knicks won the last regular season meeting 108-105 on Monday, April 6 led by 30 points from Jalen Brunson, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 36 points for the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks are 35-17 against conference opponents. New York averages 116.5 points while outscoring opponents by 6.4 points per game.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks are 27-25 in conference play. Atlanta is 7-8 in one-possession games.<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks average 116.5 points per game, 0.5 more points than the 116.0 the Hawks give up. The Hawks are shooting 47.4% from the field, 1.4% higher than the 46.0% the Knicks\u2019 opponents have shot this season.<\/p>\n<p>TOP PERFORMERS: Mikal Bridges is scoring 14.4 points per game and averaging 3.8 rebounds for the Knicks. Brunson is averaging 20.3 points and 2.2 rebounds over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p>Jalen Johnson is scoring 22.5 points per game and averaging 10.3 rebounds for the Hawks. Alexander-Walker is averaging 3.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p>LAST 10 GAMES: Knicks: 6-4, averaging 111.2 points, 40.3 rebounds, 26.9 assists, 8.2 steals and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting 49.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 108.3 points per game.<\/p>\n<p>Hawks: 6-4, averaging 120.0 points, 44.5 rebounds, 28.3 assists, 8.7 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.6 points.<\/p>\n<p>INJURIES: Knicks: Tyler Kolek: day to day (oblique), OG Anunoby: day to day (ankle), Josh Hart: day to day (ankle), Mitchell Robinson: day to day (ankle), Karl-Anthony Towns: day to day (elbow), Jalen Brunson: day to day (ankle).<\/p>\n<p>Hawks: Onyeka Okongwu: day to day (finger), Nickeil Alexander-Walker: day to day (toe), Jalen Johnson: day to day (rest), CJ McCollum: day to day (rest), Jonathan Kuminga: day to day (knee), Dyson Daniels: day to day (toe), Jock Landale: out (ankle).<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dataskrive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Data Skrive<\/a> and data from <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportradar.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Hawks (46-36, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks (53-29, third in the Eastern Conference)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12188,1262,24028,52214,79557,30706,5348,4777,59642,44862,44898,4778,1555,14063,1557,21,4583,56784,9,24,11,1104,10,66820,58290,74438,319,37017],"class_list":{"0":"post-200416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-athlete-injuries","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-c-j-mccollum","11":"tag-data-skrive","12":"tag-dyson-daniels","13":"tag-ga-state-wire","14":"tag-georgia","15":"tag-jalen-brunson","16":"tag-jalen-johnson","17":"tag-jock-landale","18":"tag-jonathan-kuminga","19":"tag-josh-hart","20":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","21":"tag-mikal-bridges","22":"tag-mitchell-robinson","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-nba-basketball","25":"tag-nba-playoffs","26":"tag-new-york","27":"tag-new-york-city","28":"tag-new-york-headlines","29":"tag-new-york-knicks","30":"tag-new-york-news","31":"tag-nickeil-alexander-walker","32":"tag-o-g-anunoby","33":"tag-onyeka-okongwu","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-tyler-kolek"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}