{"id":589380,"date":"2026-04-17T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589380\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:03:07","slug":"new-york-hosts-atlanta-to-begin-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589380\/","title":{"rendered":"New York hosts Atlanta to begin playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks<\/a> (46-36, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks<\/a> (53-29, third in the Eastern Conference)<\/p>\n

New York; Saturday, 6 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n

LINE: Knicks -5.5; over\/under is 216.5<\/p>\n

EASTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Knicks host first series matchup<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> scored 36 points for the Hawks.<\/p>\n

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

The Hawks are 27-25 in conference play. Atlanta is 7-8 in one-possession games.<\/p>\n

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’ opponents have shot this season.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Mikal Bridges<\/a> 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

Jalen Johnson<\/a> 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

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

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

INJURIES: Knicks: Tyler Kolek<\/a>: day to day (oblique), OG Anunoby<\/a>: day to day (ankle), Josh Hart<\/a>: day to day (ankle), Mitchell Robinson<\/a>: day to day (ankle), Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>: day to day (elbow), Jalen Brunson: day to day (ankle).<\/p>\n

Hawks: Onyeka Okongwu<\/a>: day to day (finger), Nickeil Alexander-Walker: day to day (toe), Jalen Johnson: day to day (rest), CJ McCollum<\/a>: day to day (rest), Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>: day to day (knee), Dyson Daniels<\/a>: day to day (toe), Jock Landale<\/a>: out (ankle).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive<\/a> and data from Sportradar<\/a>.br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/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)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[257485,6417,352,355,361,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-589380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-257485","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}