Coming off an upsetting loss to the San Antonio Spurs on New Year’s Eve, the New York Knicks opened 2026 with their worst game of the season by far. On Friday, the Atlanta Hawks came into town and destroyed the Knicks by a score of 99-111.
The Knicks shot very poorly against the Hawks
With Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson, and Josh Hart all out, the Knicks’ offense completely fell flat. They had their worst shooting performance of the season, going just 37% from the field and 21% from three.
Without Towns, their spacing and offensive creativity was nowhere to be found. They took a lot of bad shots, often heavily contested, and couldn’t secure many offensive rebounds to earn second-chance opportunities.
They secured 14 offensive rebounds on the night, but most didn’t come until the fourth quarter, as they were missing Robinson’s prowess on the glass significantly. The Hawks took full advantage of the Knicks’ shooting woes, and New York couldn’t deliver a better punch.
These kinds of nights will happen in a long season, but it is rather discouraging to see them have a performance like this after blowing a huge lead against the Spurs on Wednesday. They need to come out with better energy offensively on Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Knicks had virtually no rim protection
With Robinson and Towns sitting out, the Knicks had to rely on Ariel Hukporti, Guerschon Yabusele, and Trey Jemison to provide some protection down low. Unfortunately, they were unable to provide much resistance to a tall Hawks team.
New York allowed Atlanta to penetrate the rim with ease. The Hawks scored 58 points in the paint, and their big man group of Onyeka Okongwu and Kristaps Porzingis had very few problems scoring inside the paint.
The Knicks were missing a lot of size in this game, and it showed. The hope is that they can get more games with Robinson and Towns both healthy, as it was a struggle for the backup options on Friday.
The Knicks committed way too many turnovers
The Knicks are usually a good team when it comes to taking care of the basketball, but they committed way too many turnovers against Atlanta, thwarting any chance of cutting the deficit.
New York committed 14 turnovers on the night, struggling to get by the Hawks’ physicality on defense. Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson gave New York a lot of trouble, and the Knicks were missing the floor spacing that Towns usually provides.
With poor ball control, it’s tough to win games. Shooting poorly doesn’t help either, but on nights where the shot isn’t falling, they need to take better care of the ball.
Overview
The Knicks are not starting the year off the way they had hoped, and they have a lot of things to correct heading into their next game. They will turn right back around on Saturday for a big matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.
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