Knicks lean on Karl-Anthony Towns’ triple-double to beat Hawks, 114-98, in Game 4

The Knicks evened the series to 2-2 after beating the Atlanta Hawks in Game 4, 114-98, on Saturday night.

Here are the takeaways…

— Things started out pretty evenly between both teams in the first six minutes, with neither side able to get a lead of more than four points. After Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns were responsible for New York’s first nine points, it was nice to see Mikal Bridges, in the starting lineup despite two consecutive poor performances which included being held scoreless in Game 3, get on the board with a driving layup on his first shot attempt.

Following the midway point of the first quarter, the Knicks closed the frame on a 14-6 run helped out by players not named Brunson or Towns to open up a seven-point lead headed into the second quarter. OG Anunoby, Bridges and Mitchell Robinson all played a part in the run and were able to get easy buckets down low.

Defensively, New York held Atlanta to 20 points in the first 12 minutes and that defense kept at it in the second quarter as the Hawks struggled to find consistent scoring. Part of that was because the Knicks were outrebounding Atlanta all throughout the first half, grabbing offensive boards that led to second-chance points and not allowing the Hawks to get near the glass themselves.

Sooner or later, New York’s lead grew to 16 points following a quick 10-4 spurt that included the Knicks scoring nine points in the span of 70 seconds thanks to back-to-back threes by Anunoby. Josh Hart, also coming off a tough shooting performance in Game 3, came alive to end the first half and scored nine of the Knicks’ last 11 points before halftime to put New York up, 58-44, at the break.

After going 1-for-12 for two points collectively in Game 3, Hart and Bridges went 7-for-11 with 17 points in the first half.

— Determined to make it a game, Atlanta began the second half on a 9-3 run to cut its deficit to eight points. The Knicks, though, countered immediately with an 11-0 run with Towns getting in the mix by dishing the rock. KAT was the biggest facilitator on the night with a playoff career-high 10 assists, the most on the team.

Still, Towns didn’t let that stop him from being aggressive on offense as he scored the final seven points of the quarter for New York. His tip-in layup off an offensive rebound with three seconds left in the quarter gave the Knicks an 86-65 lead, their biggest lead of the night. Towns finished with 20 points on 6-for-10 shooting and secured 10 rebounds for his first career playoff triple-double and just the fifth triple-double of his career.

Meanwhile, Anunoby had a double-double (22 points, 10 rebounds) while Hart was rebound shy of a double-double of his own.

— New York had things all but wrapped up in the fourth quarter and this time didn’t let the Hawks come back. Miles McBride came off the bench and scored eight of his 11 points in the final frame, shooting 3-for-6 from downtown. The Knicks as a whole shot 14-for-31 from three-point range and held Atlanta to 10-for-41 from deep, although Nickeil Alexander-Walker did go 5-for-10 from beyond the arc.

Brunson scored 19 points but had six turnovers.

Game MVP: Karl-Anthony Towns

The big man came up big and did everything in this one by recording his first career playoff triple-double in a must-win sort of game for the Knicks.

Highlights