Knicks administer generational beatdown of Hawks to advance to Eastern Conference semis

ATLANTA — The box score will tell you that Game 6 of the Hawks-Knicks playoff series ended after 48 minutes of game play. The box score lies. This game was over in four minutes and 10 seconds, the exact length of time that the Hawks could run with the Knicks.

What followed those scant competitive minutes was pure, uncut, not-safe-for-work-or-children carnage. New York started with a virtually flawless 40-15 first quarter and a playoff-record 83-36 halftime lead — no, there’s no typo there — to stomp the Hawks into paste and set up a fourth straight trip to the Eastern Conference semis.

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The final score — New York 140, Atlanta 89 — came more as a relief than as a celebration, because it meant the Knicks didn’t need to tire themselves out scoring any more points. The Knicks now await the winner of Boston-Philadelphia, and after the last three games of this series, now look like a viable threat to reach the Finals.

As for the Hawks … you know the old Tyson line about having a plan until you get punched in the face? Yeah. Iron Mike didn’t say anything about getting punched 35 times in a row. Whatever plans Atlanta may have had to slow down the Knicks should be burned in a fire pit on a Cancun beach later this week. Nothing slowed down the Knicks except the clock; if this were a baseball game, New York might have scored in the quadruple digits.

If this were a boxing match, it would have been stopped in the first round. If this were a meme, it would be the Simpsons’ “Stop! He’s already dead!” And if this kind of annihilation happened at a youth basketball league, it probably would lead to charges being filed.

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After the first three games of this series, when Atlanta won two games by a grand total of two points, the Knicks adjusted … and proceeded to blow the doors off the Hawks by a combined 45 points in Games 4 and 5. That left Game 6, in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, as the Hawks’ final chance to salvage the season and their dignity. They did neither, and now go pinwheeling into their offseason with a loss so ugly it threatens to overshadow a resurgent season and a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/knicks-administer-generational-beatdown-of-hawks-to-advance-to-eastern-conference-semis-014317331.html

Author : Jay Busbee

Publish date : 2026-05-01 01:43:00

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