New York Knicks vs. Atlanta Hawks Live Score and Stats – April 30, 2026 Gametracker
Jalen Brunson can proceed to construct on his popularity as an enormous-time participant if he finds a method to carry the New York Knicks into the second spherical of the playoffs.
Led by Brunson, the Knicks maintain a 3-2 lead over the Atlanta Hawks of their finest-of-seven, first-spherical Eastern Conference collection and will attempt to clinch the collection on Thursday in Atlanta.
Brunson scored 39 factors with eight assists and a sport-excessive plus-23 score in Tuesday’s 126-97 romp over the Hawks in New York. The veteran is averaging 28.2 factors and 5.8 assists in 5 playoff video games. He’s scored 26-plus factors in 4 of the 5 contests and continues to supply matchup issues for Atlanta.
“We’ll keep putting different guys on him, changing matchups, trying to do anything we can to make it hard on him,” Atlanta coach Quin Snyder mentioned. “I have tremendous respect for him as a player and a leader, and his ability to create for himself and then create for his teammates. It’s not easy.”
Little has labored.
“We’re just trying to move him around as much as we can so they can’t catch a rhythm with him,” Knicks coach Mike Brown mentioned.
It all labored for the Knicks on Tuesday. Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 factors and 14 rebounds, and OG Anunoby added 17 factors and 10 rebounds.
“OG and KAT were monsters,” Brown mentioned. “They were phenomenal.”
The Knicks know, although, how elusive that fourth win in a playoff collection will be.
“We just understand what the situation is. The toughest game to win is the one that ends someone’s season,” Towns mentioned. “We’ve got to be super disciplined. We have to execute at the highest level that we have in this series. We have to be ready for a really tough game.”
The Knicks produced a troublesome-man effort on Tuesday. They had been in a position to make the sport extra bodily, the model New York prefers towards the extra finesse sport Atlanta needs.
“We’ve just got to play through it. We can’t let their physicality take us out of what we want to do,” Atlanta heart Onyeka Okongwu mentioned. “…We’re not really playing like ourselves. We’re not running. We’re not moving the ball. We’re not spacing. The things that we did to get us to this point of the year, we’re not doing well enough. So we have to do that on Thursday.”
Atlanta didn’t have a participant attain 20 factors in Game 5, with Jalen Johnson scoring 18 and Dyson Daniels including 17. CJ McCollum, the hero of Atlanta’s Game 2 win in New York, was 3-of-10 taking pictures with six factors.
The Hawks flew the white flag of give up once they cleared the bench trailing by 24 with 4:09 remaining.
The physicality has actually appeared to hassle Johnson. He is averaging 19.2 factors, 7.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists within the playoffs, in comparison with 22.5 factors, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists in the course of the common season.
“They did what they were supposed to do, protecting home court,” Snyder mentioned. “Their defense never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them. We have to be more committed to imposing our will on the offensive end. Really moving and passing, you can feel possessions where that occurs, and that’s when we’re efficient or have success.”
–Field Level Media
