The Atlanta Hawks' season ended Thursday as the New York Knicks rolled to a 140-89 Game 6 win at State Farm Arena, taking the first-round series 4-2.
The New York Knicks ended the Atlanta Hawks' season Thursday night at State Farm Arena, winning Game 6 of their first-round playoff series 140-89 to take the series 4-2.
The 51-point margin closed Atlanta's 2025-26 campaign and sent the Knicks into the second round. New York led 40-15 after the first quarter and 83-36 at halftime, and the lead reached 61 before the visitors emptied their bench in the fourth.
OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting. Mikal Bridges added 24 on 10-of-12, and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with a triple-double of 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Jalen Brunson contributed 17 points and 8 assists, while Josh Hart added 14 points and 5 rebounds.
Jalen Johnson paced Atlanta with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists in 32 minutes. CJ McCollum and Nickeil Alexander-Walker each scored 11 points, and Jonathan Kuminga added 11 off the bench. Onyeka Okongwu finished with 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Atlanta shot 37.8% from the field and 25.7% from 3-point range, going 9-of-35 from beyond the arc. The Hawks turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 26 New York points, and the Knicks held a 66-38 advantage in the paint while outscoring Atlanta 35-8 in fast-break points.
"Give credit to the Knicks. That's obvious," Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. "Whether it's experience or what you attribute it to, I thought their physicality made it hard for us. We obviously didn't respond in a way that generated the results we wanted."
Snyder pointed to early ball-handling issues as the catalyst for the deficit.
"Early, we turned the ball over, and that was a catalyst for a lot of what happened," he said. "They converted off those turnovers. When you turn the ball over, you can't set your defense. It becomes a slippery slope."
Tempers flared at 4:39 of the second quarter, when Dyson Daniels and Mitchell Robinson were ejected after an altercation that drew matching technical fouls. Daniels finished with 3 points in just under 15 minutes. Snyder picked up a technical at 7:31 of the period, Johnson drew one with 1:55 left in the half, and Towns received one at 9:19. Asked about the scuffle, Johnson said the ejections came out of the postseason atmosphere.
"I feel like that's just the intensity of playoff basketball," Johnson said. "I don't really want to comment too much on that because I don't want to get a fine. But it was intense. I don't think it was ejection-worthy maybe, but it was tough to lose Dyson."
Alexander-Walker, who shot 3-of-8 with five turnovers in 29 minutes, took accountability for his individual performance.
"Three for eight, one for four, five turnovers. That's unacceptable," he said. "I take full responsibility, and I'll be better."
Asked about the deficit Atlanta faced from the opening minutes, Johnson said the team had no path back.
"We dug ourselves a deep hole from the start, and it was tough to climb out of that," he said.
The loss closes Atlanta's 2025-26 season and shifts the franchise into an offseason of evaluations across the roster and coaching staff. For now, the team enters the offseason on an optimistic path to building on what they achieved.
"We're definitely proud of this group and all the things we accomplished this year," Johnson said. "We're all just looking forward to being better. This is a learning experience for us. We're growing, and we're going to grow from this."