OG Anunoby scored 26 of his 29 points in the first half to lead visiting New York to a historic 140-89 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday as the Knicks won their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series 4-2.
It was the most points scored by the Knicks in a playoff game and their largest winning margin in the postseason. The only bigger victory margin in club history came earlier this year, when New York routed the Brooklyn Nets 120-66 on Jan. 21.
The Hawks endured the second-worst postseason defeat in franchise history. The then-St. Louis Hawks lost 133-75 to the Minneapolis Lakers on March 19, 1956.
New York, who produced a 63-11 first-half run, led by as many as 61 and beat the Hawks for the third straight game to advance to the conference semifinals for the fourth straight year. The third-seeded Knicks next will face either the second-seeded Boston Celtics or the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
Anunoby shot 11-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds and four steals.
“I work hard on my game and the ball finds me,” Anunoby said.
New York’s Mikal Bridges scored 24 points, Jalen Brunson had 17 points and eight assists. Karl-Anthony Towns had his second career playoff triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, with three steals. The starters were out of the game midway in the third quarter.
“I thought we did a great job with our defense,” Towns said. “You know, I thought our offense was created by our defense (which) did a great job of causing turnovers, upping the pressure, and we executed offensively. It’s a great recipe for success.”
Sixth-seeded Atlanta was led by Jalen Johnson with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
“I did not see it going down like this tonight,” said Atlanta’s CJ McCollum, who scored 11 points. “None of us did.”
The Knicks took control early and showed their dominance in the first quarter, taking a 40-15 lead into the second. New York shot 69.2% from the field (18-for-26) and was helped greatly by eight Atlanta turnovers. Anunoby scored 14 in the opening quarter.
The Knicks finished the first quarter on a 31-4 run, which became a 39-4 run as the lead continued to grow.
Tempers flared in the second quarter and resulted in New York’s Mitchell Robinson and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels being ejected for a fracas with 4:39 left in the half.
While battling for position on a free throw, Daniels hit Robinson with a high elbow. Pushing ensued and official Brent Barnaky was knocked to the ground, but no punches were thrown and order was quickly restored. Both players were assessed a technical foul and ejected.
The Knicks’ 47-point halftime lead (83-36) was an NBA postseason record.
