The NY Knicks will begin their first playoff journey in eight years when they tip off against the Atlanta Hawks Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
The series is set to be one of the most tightly contested first round matchups. There are a lot of parallels between the two teams.
Both NY and ATL have surpassed their preseason expectations. Their rosters don’t have a lot of playoff experience, and they’ve both been among the hottest teams in the NBA down the stretch of the regular season.
The majority of the analysis surrounding this series, whether it be from bloggers, scouts, or reporters, has revolved around the star players. How are the Atlanta Hawks going to contain Julius Randle? How are the Knicks going to slow down Trae Young?
We’ve seen Clint Capela and Nate McMillan field plenty of questions about their game plan for Randle, who has torched the Hawks this season.
We’ve seen Tom Thibodeau have to answer questions about his team’s point guard situation and defending Trae Young.
The headline of this series is the NY Knicks’ stout defense versus the Atlanta Hawks’ wide array of scorers. We’re leaving out some important details.
The NY Knicks’ underrated offense
The Knicks may not have the flashiest offense in the NBA, but they a productive one. Since April 1st (the last 24 games) the Knicks have the 13th best offensive rating in the league. In that same span, they have the 10th best true shooting percentage and the highest 3-point field goal percentage of any team in the league.
So while a lot of Atlanta’s focus will be on Julius Randle, who is often the focal point of the NY’s offense, there are a LOT of questions about how they’re going to defend the Knicks’ secondary scorers, and NY has a lot of them.