New York Knicks: 3 goals for their playoff run

New York Knicks NBA playoff goals No. 1: Get home-court advantage back.

Thanks to winning all three regular-season games against the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks finished in the fourth seed, giving them the home-court advantage for their first-round series. Thanks to the last-second runner by Trae Young, the Hawks now hold the home-court advantage.

Why this is important is the Hawks have an impressive record at home. You have to go back to mid-April to find their last loss on their home floor. This loss was against the eventual third seed the Milwaukee Bucks. Since then the Hawks won their next 11 games at home.

The Knicks had an equally impressive record at home, willing 11 of their last 12 going back to the early part of April. This is why it is so concerning that they lost at home. Without this advantage, they have to travel to Atlanta to take a win in the playoffs with a team with so little postseason experience.

Now that they have lost this advantage, they need to work even harder to win this series. This is going to require Randle to play a lot better than he did in the first game. The supporting cast did their job last game but Randle failed to lead the charge.