New York opened its first-round playoff series with a tone-setting home win, riding 28 points from Jalen Brunson and a dominant second half from Karl-Anthony Towns to a 113-102 victory.
The Knicks opened their first-round playoff series with a 113-102 home win over the Hawks, a tone-setting evening at Madison Square Garden that gave the city the energy fans had been waiting two weeks for.
Jalen Brunson did Brunson things, finishing with 28 points and the kind of late-clock control that has defined his postseason reputation. Karl-Anthony Towns dropped 19 of his 25 in the second half, including a stretch in the third quarter where the Hawks simply could not contest his looks.
Atlanta made a real run inside the final five minutes, cutting the deficit to single digits with a 10-0 burst. The Knicks answered the only way you can in the playoffs — at the line, where they outscored the Hawks decisively over the course of the night.
The series resumes in two days, again at the Garden. New York will not say it out loud, but the players know how big a 1-0 lead at home is in a series like this.