The New York Knicks flattened the Atlanta Hawks 140-89 in Game 6 on Thursday night, taking a 3-2 series lead and putting themselves one win from moving on. New York led 40-15 after the first quarter and, at one point, was ahead 60-19 in a postseason game that never looked close.
The blowout was the latest in a run that has changed the mood around the Knicks fast. They have won their last three games by a combined 96 points, a stretch that began after they took two convincing wins over Atlanta and pushed their edge in the series. Josh Hart said the surge mattered because the team felt it had given away two games earlier in the series, and he said the Knicks wanted to come out with a high level of attention to detail and focus from the opening tip. He added that the starts had been strong in the series and that the goal was to set the tone right away.
Hart’s comments fit the way New York has played since the postseason began. During the regular season, the Knicks had week-to-week swings in focus and attention to detail, but Mike Brown said the team has changed in the playoffs by altering its offense and adjusting its rotation. In Game 6, that showed up in the minutes for Pacôme Dadiet and Ariel Hukporti, who played a combined 20 minutes in a postseason game. The result was a roster that kept pressure on Atlanta from the start and never let up.
Brown has also said the Knicks’ work against a tough opponent has helped sharpen them, crediting Quin Snyder and his staff for forcing New York to improve. He said Snyder and his group helped the Knicks get better, and added that he thought they would say the same about his staff. Brown said Snyder pushed a lot of the right buttons and that Atlanta’s team did, too. It is a rare acknowledgment in a playoff series, and it underscores how much New York has had to adapt to keep control.
That control matters because the Knicks now look like the steadiest team in a volatile Eastern Conference. The Boston Celtics had already blown a 3-1 lead and needed to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 to advance, the top-seeded Detroit Pistons still had to beat the Orlando Magic two more times to be considered a legit East contender again, and the Cleveland Cavaliers were struggling with the Toronto Raptors. New York, by contrast, has answered each step of the postseason with clearer play and wider margins. The next game will decide whether the Knicks turn a dominant series into the kind of playoff run that changes the conversation around them entirely.