After the Atlanta Hawks traded Trae Young to the Washington Wizards, there was only one thing that could revive the playoff rivalry between them and the New York Knicks: a playoff series.
Both teams are now set for exactly that, with Game 1 on Saturday, April 18, as the Knicks embark on a playoff run that they're expected – even internally – to sustain all the way through the Eastern Conference Finals.
While the Knicks have the advantage on paper, the Hawks are getting plenty of buzz as a young, athletic, and hungry squad that has the motor and grit necessary to pull off an upset over a contender that isn't so sure of themselves.
That doesn't mean that New York doesn't still have what it takes to win the series. And Jalen Brunson, with his late-game heroics in the Knicks and Hawks' final regular season showdown on April 6, just showed why the Knicks are going to wind up coming out of this series victorious.
Knicks are set to beat Hawks because they have Captain Clutch
Over the course of the first three quarters of that regular season clash between New York and Atlanta, Brunson struggled mightily. The Hawks' young, long defenders such as Dyson Daniels were able to make him uncomfortable enough that he posted just 13 points and 12 assists on 5-16 shooting from the floor.
In the fourth quarter, though, Brunson reprised his recurring role as Captain Clutch. And that got the job done for the Knicks, even though CJ McCollum's last-second buzzer-beating half-court heave was just milliseconds away from sending the game to overtime.
Brunson played eight minutes in the fourth quarter of that game, dropping 17 points and one assist on 6-10 shooting to win the Knicks the game. It was a quintessential crunch-time performance from the Knicks' lead guard, who won the NBA's Clutch Player of the Year award in 2024-25 for his season-long track record of saving New York late in close games.
While the Hawks' feisty group of athletic, young forwards and experienced guards will certainly give the Knicks a real test in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference Playoffs, it likely won't be enough to overcome the Herculean force that Brunson has become in close games.
Unless Atlanta is able to boatrace New York early in four first halves, the chances that they come out on top of a close late-game scenario are small.
That's because the Knicks have Brunson, the best player in the series and one of the best in the league. New York will certainly need a team effort to win the series, and potentially several more. But Brunson's the Captain for a reason. And he'll need to steer the ship.
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