Knicks 122, Hawks 101: Scenes from a wire-to-wire grounding of the Hawks in Atlanta

The Knicks thrashed the Hawks in Atlanta in their final regular season meeting of the year. 122-101. It was a tremendous performance by New York from beginning to end.

In the first quarter, the Knicks outscored the Hawks 37-21 and never looked back. ESPN’s win probability with 4:01 left in the opening quarter was at 87.4 percent in favor of New York. From that point to the end of the game, it never went under 85 percent.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 28 points and along with Isaiah Hartenstein was the sparkplug in the first quarter.

Those great extra effort plays gave the Knicks early momentum and it carried on for the rest of the game. The Knicks bench depth really shined as well led by the 14 points from Immanuel Quickley and 13 points from Josh Hart.

The fact that we are just getting to Julius Randle now on a night where he had 25 points and 11 rebounds tells you a lot about the collective effort the Knicks provided tonight. It will be tough to stop the Knicks when Randle and company play this well.

And finally to put a bow on the evening, this play epitomized the effort and execution the Knicks brought with them to Atlanta. The Hawks had no answer for it.

If you were impressed with this performance, you should’ve been. It’s as well as the Knicks have played for 48 minutes all season and to do it at the home of a rival means even more. Now New York can enjoy the All-Star break before they get back to action on Feb. 24 against the Wizards in DC.

See ya then!