NBA Playoffs: Atlanta Hawks vs New York Knicks Game 2 Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Atlanta Hawks have been victorious in Game 1 of their series against the New York Knicks. This was a big success for Nate McMillan guys, as most of them won their first playoff matchup, and to make it even better, they did it in New York, at the famous Madison Square Garden. Hawks’ youngsters weren’t afraid of the fired-up crowd but traded punches with them and their favorites, eventually recording a win that presents a massive step towards the East semis. The Knicks’ euphoria for the playoff appearance won’t stop even after this loss, and we might expect the fans to come back louder. That is why we simply needed to do the preview for Game 2.

Preview

Atlanta Hawks (+110) have eight wins in the past nine matches, once counting the victory in Game 1. It was a tough one, but it was worth every effort because the Hawks’ players could enjoy the silence in MSG following the buzzer.

That is what Trae Young mentioned while walking down the hall, the silence. He would shot down the entire arena with his moves in the last few minutes, ending the game with 32 points, 10 assists, and seven boards. The Mayor of NY was a bit frustrated because of his “foul hunting,” asking him to stop doing that and probably to put additional pressure on the officials.

One guy didn’t hunt fouls but threes, and his name is Bogdan Bogdanovic. The Serb scored 18 points with four downtown hits, taking over in the moments once Young needed rest. Lou Williams added 13 points, and John Collins 12.

New York Knicks (-120) couldn’t take over the wheel in this match, with the Hawks constantly having a slightly upper edge. Even in the moments when it seemed that the hosts might break the feisty rival, the Knicks didn’t have enough juice to push their intentions until the end.

One of the big reasons for that was Julius Randle’s poor performance. The strong big man had only 15 points, making 6 of his 23 shots from the field, which isn’t great at all. Randle had 12 boards as well, but that wasn’t of such great importance once he failed to deliver on the offensive side of the court.

Alec Burks had a night of his life with 27 points off the bench. He was followed by Derrick Rose, who had 17, also off the bench, with 5 boards and dimes.

Head to Head Games

Atlanta lost all three games against the Knicks in the regular part of the season but won the most important so far, Game 1 in the playoffs. The result was 107-105 for the Hawks.

Prediction

We are going with under here, as the line for the total number of points sits at 212.5. The reason for that is New York’s much tougher approach in Game 2, and be sure that Thibodeau will try to tighten up the defense as much as possible. On the other side, four of the previous five games Atlanta played were all under, meaning that their trend favors our suggestion.

Pick: Under 212.5