NBA Playoffs must-follow storylines: Knicks vs Hawks
By Luke Duffy
With all NBA playoffs matchups now set in stone, we can look forward to a couple of months of postseason basketball. In the Eastern Conference, no round one series is as intriguing as the one between the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks, the fourth and fifth seeds in the conference.
The regular season that the Knicks put together has been documented extensively, with the organization catching everybody by surprise en route to a fifth-place finish. The Hawks on the other hand went about their business to the least amount of fanfare since drafting Trae Young, and will surely be using that as motivation in this series.
The NBA playoffs tip-off on Saturday, and the series between the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks is the most fascinating first-round matchup.
The reason for this is simple. Whichever teams manage to advance to the semi-finals in the Eastern Conference will be able to point towards that achievement next season. Just think about what that means for both franchises. For the Knicks, who have quickly reversed their perception league-wide with some great front office and personnel moves, winning a series would be vindication that they are back.
As things stand they are already the biggest team in a city that also houses Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets. To be winning at a postseason level would be huge for them. For the Hawks, it would validate that building around Young is bearing fruit in the form of tangible success.
In order for a winner to be crowned in this series though, a lot of questions are going to have to be answered. The following are the key questions, as well as the key matchup, ahead of Game 1 tipping off on Sunday evening.