The Hawks understand the importance of Wednesday’s game against the Knicks at State Farm Arena, the final game before the All-Star break.
A day after allowing a season-high 144 points in a loss to the Hornets Monday, the Hawks spent more than an hour Tuesday dissecting what went wrong. Charlotte scored at least 35 points in each quarter and despite scoring 138 points, the Hawks still couldn’t get the job done.
Next up will be a Knicks squad which is one spot ahead of Atlanta in the Eastern Conference – and has scored at least 124 points in three of its last six games.
“We know that all these games matter,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “We let one get away (Monday) night. ... We understand where we are, and we’re going to need to do in the remaining games. So we’re going to have to have a strong finish in order to get ourselves into the playoffs.”
With less than half the season remaining, the Hawks have a home heavy schedule ahead of them. Their next three home games are against teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference (Knicks, Cavs, Nets). Two of their next three home games against Western Conference opponents are against teams currently with more victory (Timberwolves, Warriors). They are 15-11 at State Farm Arena and have a 14-18 record on the road.
They’ve won two of the three matchups they have played against the Knicks this season and are two games behind them in the standings for seventh in the East. So they also understand the importance of winning Wednesday to clinch a playoff tiebreaker should they need it down the line.
“We know and it’s really important, you know, so it’s a home game,” McMillan said. “Most of our games that are left are here at home. And we talked about how we have to take advantage of this home stretch and certainly with New York coming in and playing and as you mentioned split we have to take care of home court before we go out on this break.”
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