The New York Knicks, riding the momentum of a comeback win on Christmas Day, open a three-game road trip with a stop in Atlanta to play the struggling Hawks on Saturday.
New York beat the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers 126-124 on Thursday for its third straight victory, erasing a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit. The Knicks have won 12 of their past 15 games and are only 2 1/2 games behind the Detroit Pistons for first place in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta has gone the other way. The Hawks have lost five in a row, including a 126-111 decision against the visiting Miami Heat on Friday. They have dropped nine of their past 11 games to fall two games under .500.
“I think we’ve got a simple answer — just play a little harder, you know?” Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “I know guys care. I know what we’re capable of doing. We just have to do it consistently.”
Atlanta’s Trae Young, a major antagonist to the Knicks, has shown few ill effects from missing 22 games with right MCL sprain, averaging 23.8 points in four games since his return. He put up 30 points and six assists on Friday.
In 24 career games against New York, Young is averaging 25.6 points and 9.8 assists.
However, Young is playing on a minutes restriction, and he may be withheld from the second game of a back-to-back set on Saturday. Last week he played the first of consecutive games, facing the Charlotte Hornets, but sat out the next night against the San Antonio Spurs.
Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson has posted a double-double in 12 straight games, the longest stretch in the NBA this season. He came within one rebound of getting his seventh triple-double of the campaign on Friday, logging 24 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.
The Knicks showed their resiliency against the Cavaliers on Thursday by digging out of an 18-3 hole to start the game and a 103-86 deficit in the final period.
“It’s about connectivity,” New York coach Mike Brown said. “Our group is extremely, extremely connected. It’s about a competitive spirt.”
Atlanta will try to find a way to slow nemesis Karl-Anthony Towns, who averages 24.4 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 20 lifetime games against the Hawks. He is averaging 21.9 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists this season, and he scored 40 against the Minnesota Timberwolves two games ago.
Seven-footer Mitchell Robinson could be a matchup problem for the Hawks, who continue to be without center Kristaps Porzingis, sidelined the past eight games due to an illness. Robinson has offensive limitations — he scored a combined 11 points over the past three games — but he grabbed 13 rebounds against the Cavaliers and averages 8.7 boards.
“With all the guys, you see them from afar, you think certain things about them,” Brown said. “You think, ‘He’s this type of player, that type of player, he has this type of attitude and personality.’ And then when you get around them and you actually see how effective he is in certain areas, you think, ‘No way he should be that effective.’ It’s like, ‘Wow.’ You can’t teach that.”
Atlanta has allowed 120-plus points in every contest during the five-game skid, but coach Quin Snyder believes the problem goes deeper than the numbers.
“It’s less about how many points we’re giving up than it is just the way that we’re playing and the things we need to correct,” Snyder said.
The Saturday contest will be the first of three meetings between the clubs this season. The Knicks won the final three of five matchups with the Hawks last season.
