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Mike Brown won 53 games in his first year as Knicks coach. His Knicks finished No. 4 on offense, No. 7 on defense and No. 5 in net rating. Strong numbers, solid results.
But Brown knows his regular season accomplishments don’t mean much.
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We all know that these Knicks – and their head coach – will be judged on what happens over the next few weeks.
So far, so good.
Brown and his staff made some decisions that were crucial to New York’s Game 1 win on Saturday.
Under Brown and associate head coach Chris Jent, the Knick offense looked strong early on. Yes, part of it was Jalen Brunson’s brilliance (19 first-quarter points, 8-for-11 shooting). But the Karl-Anthony Towns-Brunson actions also resulted in some great looks. The Knicks shot 60 percent in the first quarter and 49 percent in the half.
But they were having issues on the other end of the floor. Atlanta’s guard-guard screens produced some open threes (Hawks were 5-for-8 on threes in the second quarter). They allowed Atlanta to get out in transition.
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The Knicks dominated stretches of the first half but went to the locker room with just a two-point lead.
Brown and his staff seemed to push nearly all the right buttons coming out of halftime.
The Knicks outscored Atlanta in transition, 11-0, in the third quarter.
After facilitating in the first half, Towns started to put the ball in the basket after halftime. He had 14 points in the first 18 minutes of the half, helping the Knicks push their lead to 16 with six minutes to go.
The Knicks also cleaned up their defense on the Hawks perimeter screening. Atlanta missed seven of its nine three-point attempts in the decisive third quarter.
/ Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Another good call by Brown? His counterpart, Quin Snyder, started to intentionally foul Mitchell Robinson in the third quarter. They fouled Robinson four times in a 1:03 stretch of the third quarter. Robinson missed three of four free throws; New York’s lead was down to six with 4:51 left in the third.
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Brown took Robinson out at that point. But he didn’t keep him on the bench. Brown had Robinson back on the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-playoff-notes-mike-brown-051530255.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-19 05:15:00
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