Hawks come up short versus Knicks in final game before All-Star break

Hawks guard Trae Young found Georges Niang on the wing for a 3. Dyson Daniels picked off the inbound pass and drew a foul. Daniels split his free throws and Mouhamed Gueye grabbed the offensive board and found Young, who drew a foul and iced both free throws to tie the game and eventually force overtime.

The Hawks opened overtime on a 5-0 run, but the Knicks scored the next six, taking the lead for good. The Hawks had a good look at the basket with a floater from Young that fell short, then a second-chance corner 3 from Niang that hit the rim.

“I thought we executed really well,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “The scoreboard doesn’t always show that, but when you go back, if we’re able to execute like that, you’ll be on the right side of the scoreboard more than wrong.”

2. Young, who scored 38 points, hit plenty of shots in the second half that helped the Hawks get into a position to force overtime. The Hawks guard opened Wednesday’s game 2-of-11 from the floor but made all but five of his 12 second-half shot attempts.

He scored 27 of his 38 points in the second half, after scoring just seven points in his first 18 minutes.

But Young has shown time and time again that he’s not one to let poor shooting affect his ability to impact the game. The Hawks guard continued to get teammates involved, dishing nine of his 19 assists in the first half. Young really pushed the pace in the latter portion of the second quarter, getting his teammates into prime spots to attack the paint.

“It’s tough whenever you’re missing easy bunnies and layups,” Young said. “We had some good looks, but I think in the second half, we just stayed confident and just kept shooting.

3. Guard Caris LeVert stabilized the Hawks in his minutes, doing just a little bit of everything. The veteran guard made some key plays in the Hawks’ 41-point quarter that helped them cut into the Knicks’ 15-point lead in the second half.

He found Niang, who the Hawks also acquired from the Cavaliers, for a couple of 3s and found his teammates in transition.

“Just trying to make the right play, trying to hit home runs, rebounding, pushing the ball fast, getting stops defensively,” LeVert said. “And I think that fueled my offense.”

On top of that, LeVert attacked the glass to pick up a career-high in offensive rebounds after tying it the game before. He had five offensive rebounds less than one minute into the fourth quarter and finished the night with six. His offensive boards accounted for five of the Hawks’ 24 second-chance points.

LeVert, who had 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, also tied his career-high in blocks with three.

4. The Hawks missed a lot of early shots, including several free throws in the opening half. They went 8-of-14 at the free-throw line and ended the game making just 24 of their 35 free throws. Two of those misses happened in overtime, including a pair from LeVert that could have put the Hawks up one with 2:48 to play.

“Super tough, especially the overtime,” LeVert said. “I feel like, two free throws were in and out for me. I’m definitely gonna think about that all break, but we fought hard. I think that’s a silver line you could take from it.”

5. The Hawks had to make lineup adjustments just when they seemed to have found a rotation that could work. The team announced ahead of Wednesday’s game that Larry Nance Jr. and Vit Krejci would miss significant time.

They also did not have veteran center Clint Capela, who is working back to form after missing several weeks.

Stat to know

297 -- The Hawks and Knicks combined for the NBA’s highest-scoring game this season with 297 points. The Cavaliers and Nuggets set the previous high at 284 on Dec. 27, 2024.

Quotable

“We were just on the other side of the other day and unfortunately in overtime, we just didn’t finish the job. But that’s just what we got to do. We got to keep playing.” -- Trae Young.

Up next

The Hawks are off for the All-Star break until Feb. 20 when they host the Magic at State Farm Arena.