Hawks Bounced from Playoffs After Historic Game 6 Beatdown

On the evening of Wednesday, February 11, the Hawks dropped a 110-107 decision to the Charlotte Hornets to ride a three-game losing streak into the All-Star break. With a 26-30 record over the first two-thirds of the season, the Hawks appeared destined to play in their third consecutive play-in tournament with their prospects for reaching the actual postseason appearing rather dim.

How things have changed since late winter.

In one of the most stunning turnarounds in NBA regular-season history, the Hawks went on a 20-6 surge over the season’s final two months to bypass the play-in tourney and earn their first postseason berth since 2023. Though Tony Ressler and Steve Koonin’s team lost the final three games of this year’s first-round series against the New York Knicks, the last of which came in a humiliating 140-89 blowout, that the Hawks were at one point two wins away from their first playoff series win since 2021, when a Trae Young-spearheaded team stormed its way to the Eastern Conference Finals, was an unexpected treat.

If there’s anything more shocking than the Hawks’ dominant post-All-Star break run it’s that they jumped out to a 2-1 series lead over the Knicks — before ultimately bowing out in six games. Though the Knicks won the series’ final three games convincingly, the Hawks, over the first three, proved to be very much the Knicks’ equal, silencing any naysayers who claimed the locals feasted on a parade of also-rans in their late-season march to the playoffs.

The Hawks’ unquestioned MVP was 34-year-old guard CJ McCollum, the centerpiece of the franchise-altering Trae Young trade, who, after hushing a vociferous star-studded MSG crowd with his Game 2 masterpiece—the veteran torched Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson while putting up 32 points and six assists — drained the game-winning jumper in a must-have Game 3 win (109-108) that the Hawks nearly let slip away after the Knicks roared back from a late-first half 18-point hole. Two nights later at State Farm Arena, McCollum once again paced the Hawks with 17 points on a uber-efficient 8-15 from the field.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Hawks team was a no-show for Game 4, as the Knicks regained home court advantage with a 114-98 cruise-control win. Whatever momentum the run-and-gun Hawks had from bagging a pair of gutsy 1-point wins in Games 2 and 3 vanished as their fastbreak offense was a non-factor and—unlike the first three games—turnovers proved to be a bugaboo. As a team, the Hawks shot only 41 percent from the field and 24 percent from behind the arc.

Meanwhile, some eyebrow-raising soundbites came out of the Hawks’ postgame locker room.

“I think they just punked us,” said Hawks All-Star forward Jalen Johnson, who’s had an up-and-down series. “We just didn’t match their intensity from the jump. Guys like [Josh] Hart, we need to match their energy.”

“They wanted it more; they played harder,” agreed Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who became the second consecutive Hawk to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year award after his backcourt mate, Dyson Daniels, took home the honor last spring.

“Well, I think more than anything, the start of the game, you know, their physicality bothered us,” acknowledged Hawks head coach Quin Snyder after Game 4. “But we didn’t do the things that we need to do to have success against them. You know, we turned the ball over. There’s no transition when you’re turning the ball over and bringing it up out of the net. We didn’t crash the way we need to. It felt like there were 50-50 balls that they came up with. So we’ve got to be better. We didn’t do the things we needed to do to win from that standpoint, and I thought we didn’t move the ball either.”

While the lopsided outcome of Game 4 sucked the energy out of State Farm Arena last Saturday evening — “Let’s go Knicks!” chants erupted through the building as the visitors’ lead mushroomed to 24 points in the fourth—the Game 3 atmosphere very much provided a homecourt advantage.

“Our crowd’s unbelievable,” said Hawks’ head coach Quin Snyder in his post-Game 3 press conference, minutes after his team’s lockdown defense prevented the Knicks from even attempting a last-second shot. “It’s fun to feel that connection. I think our players and myself as well feel — it’s one thing to have fans and have a team — it’s a unique thing to have fans and a team that are connected and battle through it together. That’s how it felt to me tonight.”

Throughout most of the early action in Midtown Manhattan, the series was following the expected script. A couple nights after a Game 1 113-102 loss, the Hawks were staring down a 14-point third-quarter deficit — and the prospect of heading home to Atlanta down 2-0 — when McCollum took over. The Hawks rode the veteran sharpshooter’s hot hand to even up the series as McCollum made three critical buckets over the final couple minutes to secure the 107-106 road win. McCollum’s takeover performance, coupled with his dust-up with Knicks backup guard Jose Alvarado, notably drew a cacophony of expletive-strewn jeers from the MSG faithful — an eerily familiar reception to that which Young received at Madison Square Garden during the 2021 playoff series.

“I’m no villain, I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,” McCollum quipped afterwards. “I think it’s admiration. Great, passionate fans in a hostile environment. It’s fun, it’s basketball, it’s the playoffs. If anything, I think it’s a sign of respect.”

Now, the entire Hawks’ roster has everyone’s respect. On paper, the Knicks presented a more battle-tested and talented lineup, but on the court the Hawks at times demonstrated they were the hungrier and scrappier team (with of course, some glaring exceptions)—and one that, with its exciting young nucleus, projects to be a regular postseason participant for many springs to come.