It’s not uncommon for winning coaches and players to credit the team they just defeated in the playoffs, and that’s what the Knicks did after their Game 6 rout of the Hawks.
However, Knicks coach Mike Brown gave extra credit, if you will, to the Hawks and coach Quin Snyder on how they pushed New York in the series.
“Recognize the Atlanta Hawks. It was a good series,” Brown said after the win. “Quin and his staff, I said this before. They helped us get better. And I think they would say the same about us. Quin pushed a lot of right buttons, their team too. It made us have to keep figuring it out how to make our guys better. Appreciate that.”
While Brown’s compliments may seem confusing after three consecutive double-digit victories over the Hawks — including a historic win on Thursday — it wasn’t long ago that Atlanta held a 2-1 series lead over the Knicks and things were looking dire. The offense, in particular, looked stagnant as Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the others simply could not execute possessions consistently.
That was until Game 4.
Following back-to-back one-point losses, including Game 3 where the Knicks’ fourth-quarter comeback fell short after the offense fumbled the possession and could not get a clean shot off as the clock expired, Brown and his staff went back to the drawing board and as the Knicks head coach explains, they had to change the offense.
“We changed the way we played offensively and defensively about halfway through the season and we changed again after Game 3,” Brown said. “[The Hawks] forced us to put our thinking caps on and forced us to play different. Find ways to make the game easier while putting [the players] in their strengths, while trying not to hinder them. We changed what we done offensively, but again that’s because we were pushed to do it. We feel pretty good about what we fell into.”
The biggest change? Towns being more involved in the offense, whether it was offensive plays specifically for him or using him as a facilitator.
Towns scored 20 points and had his first career postseason triple-double in Game 4’s win. Game 5 saw the big man score 16 points, but come down with 14 rebounds and dish six assists.
And then in the series-clinching Game 6, Towns had just 12 points (on 1 of 4 shooting) in his 28 minutes, but he still had 11 rebounds and 10 assists to record his second career triple-double in the playoffs.
“I just wanted to answer the call,” Towns said of the offense running through him of late. “You ask for the opportunities and they obliged and I got to repay that trust and that opportunity. I just want to impact winning. I got more opportunities to do that and I wanted to make sure not take advantage of the opportunity that I was given. I’m proud that I’ve been able to help us win.”
“Every possession was a grind those first three games, especially down the stretch. We had to find more ways to put our guys in their strengths while getting to it quickly. While still having options,” Brown expounded. ” I’m not a guy that likes to call every play. I like our guys to read where the advantage is quickly throughout the course of the action and Atlanta forced us to find a way to do that and we feel pretty good about where we are right now. It happened holistically after Game 3.”
Will this new Towns-centric offense work in the next round? The Knicks will have to see whether they’ll be taking on the Celtics or 76ers in the semifinals, but it’s safe to say there will be a heavy dose of Towns no matter who New York winds up facing.
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