Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2026.04.20)

By: marechal

marechal — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:25:15 +0000

A couple of things that worried me from Saturday: the Knicks shot a really poor volume from deep. 25 attempts (vs 37 from the Hawks) is probably not going to do it.

The other thing is that the Knicks had a number of defensive breakdowns in very simple offensive actions from the Hawks (their very first basket is an example, the uncontested Gabe Vincent layup in the 3rd or 4th is another one). They really need to clean that up, even if their defense was good overall.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:12:49 +0000

“It’s not meaningless.”

To me it is. The better team almost always wins a 7-game series. It is probably the case that the team that wins game 1 is the better team 70% of the time and the team that loses game 1 is the better team 30% of the time. But we don’t have any reason to believe that Orlando is the better team yet. We have plenty of reasons to believe that Detroit is the better team.

I have always felt that the most important game of the first 4 in a seven game series is game 2. I think we beat Boston last year because we beat them in game 2, and Indiana beat us because they beat us in game 2. Obviously this is just my opinion.

By: ess-dog

ess-dog — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:10:30 +0000

Towns has had issues against smaller defenders this year, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Just exploit other defenders and let KAT go nuts on the boards.

By: BigBlueAL

BigBlueAL — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:58:06 +0000

Detroit is still going to beat Orlando but what Game 1 proved is that Detroit is not your typical dominant 1 seed which everybody basically knew already.

By: Knicks 2025

Knicks 2025 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:50:43 +0000

“No they aren’t. Specifically, teams that do not have home court advantage but win game one have a 70 percent chance of winning the series.”

How about teams that do not have home court advantage, lose Game 1, but then win Game 2? (Not that it’s going to happen here.)

By: marechal

marechal — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:47:27 +0000

I love Katz, but I find it hard to look seriously at the sample of what happened after the Knicks were up 19. To me, they made a pretty concerted effort to run prevent offense (which I really hate). They were not going to force potential turnovers by, say, letting KAT iso against Daniels. I wouldn’t read too much into that small sample.

Obviously, NY’s offense is much worse with a wing on KAT. But if the Hawks are going to do it, it seems weird to do it with Daniels, which probably will just let Brunson exploit the NAW matchup when he wants. It will also make it easier for Brunson to get a switch onto CJ, as NAW is not as good a screen navigator as Dyson.

To me, it feels like one of these overcorrections that you only do when you are desperate, and the Hawks shouldn’t be desperate just yet. The Knicks have too many counters to it – including by playing 5 out.

Also an encouraging thing for me is that the Knicks have been much better at getting switches off-ball. Brunson did this a lot on Saturday, and they can do the same with KAT (as they did against the Celtics).

By: walkerandbendercornerstones

walkerandbendercornerstones — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:44:53 +0000

Those kinds of odds after game 1 are pretty meaningless.

No they aren’t. Specifically, teams that do not have home court advantage but win game one have a 70 percent chance of winning the series.

It’s not meaningless.

By: Bo Nateman

Bo Nateman — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:36:32 +0000

Alan, Fred Katz noted that the Hawks had some success in 4th quarter putting Dyson Daniels on KAT and that may happen again even if Okongwu plays.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7210295/2026/04/20/karl-anthony-towns-knicks-hawks-offense-nba/

By: Knicks 2025

Knicks 2025 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:34:34 +0000

I will say that I didn’t see Okongwu get injured at any point. If I remember correctly, he finished the game just fine, right? I also imagine that the Knicks have enough sources in the right places to probably sniff out whether or not it is simply a smokescreen. We’ll know later today.

By: marechal

marechal — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:23:22 +0000

Hmm. Is there any way in which Okongwu sitting helps the Hawks? If they have no centers, a wing will be guarding KAT at all times. And we still haven’t solved that problem. Katz wrote about it today:

The wing-on-KAT thing would be vastly offset by the impact on their rebounding (if they decide to go small) and the spacing in their offense, I’m sure. Imagine having Daniels AND Kuminga/Bradley on the court together. Johnson would be in a phone booth all night long.

That said, I think Okongwu is very likely to play. Coaches love to create doubts with the injury announcements.