‘Take a Bow’: Draymond Green, Isiah Thomas and Others React to Hawks Eliminating Knicks in First Round

The Knicks, amidst all the hype surrounding them, succumbed under pressure with their fairly young, talented, and inexperienced unit. No one imagined the result to come out in five games and that too against the Knicks, but that’s the news. The Hawks have advanced for Round 2 against the Sixers after winning Game 5 by a 14-point margin.

The NY-based highly valued team was a no-show in MSG and totally missed out on their offense. Apart from Immanuel Quickly, the entire bench failed as Derrick Rose started the game. It started off as a promising series but ended as a one-sided show completely dominated by the #5 seed.

A highly anticipated series, an unpopular outcome, and NBA’s reactions

If one incident could sum up this round 1 series between the Knicks and the Hawks, it would not be a fan spitting on Trae or a Trae shushing the crowd. At the end of the first half, as Trae Young was walking off the court, Nerlens Noel bumped into him. Solomon Hill, from a distance, noticed this and decided to do the same to Noel. Take a look at the scuffle –

Coming back to the game, Atlanta’s starting five combined 87 points against the Knicks’ 62. Plus, the Knicks had six turnovers too many against a largely disciplined Hawks that froze out the home team.

Although Julius Randle had a great regular season, his postseason remained a flop show, giving an edge to the Hawks. Take a look at how former NBA players like Isiah Thomas and others reacted to this epic show from the Atlanta boys –

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What went wrong with the Knicks that kept the Hawks flying?

The iconic MSG’s home team looked lifeless right from the beginning, and it took a lot of effort from them to tie Q1. The ball movement from the Hawks depicted confidence and belief in their squad, which kept getting better as the night matured.

Although the Hawks struggled big-time from the three-point range, going 0/4 on open threes to start the game, they made up for it in other departments. 

Julius Randle started his game with two turnovers, and that set the wrong tone for him. MSG’s “Let’s Go Knicks” chant kept fading just as the deficit kept increasing at a constant pace.

In every way, the Knicks had an unfortunate outing. Take, for example, the foul that Trae Young called and received on Derrick Rose, while the latter didn’t even touch him in one of the sequences. 

Trae’s 36 points, Clint Capela’s double-double, and Bogdan Bogdanovic’s defense diluted the 23-point effort from reigning MIPY in Randle. And after this, New York must now shift their fandom on to the Nets.

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