The Atlanta Hawks will head into their Round 1 playoff meeting with the New York Knicks without Jock Landale, who will miss at least two more weeks with a high ankle sprain. That leaves Atlanta with only one traditionally sized big man in Onyeka Okongwu when the series begins.
The injury news landed Thursday, one day after Mike Brown dismissed the idea that Atlanta’s center rotation is too small to matter. Brown spoke to reporters after practice in Tarrytown on Wednesday and said he did not buy the excuse that the Hawks are undersized at the position. “The excuse that Atlanta is small at the center spot, I don't buy it. Because it's your approach to the game and the things that you do out there. So he can impact the game on both sides defensively with his athleticism, and then offensively with the way he shoots it and the way he [grabs] offensive rebounds,” Brown said.
Okongwu will have to carry the interior load at a time when the matchup already tilts toward the Knicks on the glass. He shot 11-23 from behind the 3-point arc in three regular-season games against New York and averaged 7.6 rebounds per game this season, but he is going to be asked to handle much more than his regular-season role suggests. Karl-Anthony Towns led the league in rebounds this season, and Mitchell Robinson’s dominance on the offensive glass has been well documented over the last several postseason runs by the Knicks.
That is what makes Brown’s comments more than a shrug. The Hawks are not just losing a body; they are entering a series against a team built to pressure the paint, rebound misses and test every possession. With Landale out and Okongwu left as the lone conventional center, Atlanta will need to win that battle with size it does not fully have and with a response it has not yet had to show in this matchup.
