Heading into the season, the New York Knicks were one of the biggest favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference, while the conversation surrounding the Atlanta Hawks was whether it was time to blow it up.
Five months and a Trae Young trade later, and these two teams are now embroiled in the most must-see series of the first round.
On Saturday, the Knicks will look to avoid falling into what would be a catastrophic 3-1 hole, while CJ McCollum and the Hawks aim to repeat their late-game heroics from Games 2 and 3.
Meanwhile, through the first three games of the playoffs, no team has more reason to panic than the Denver Nuggets.
After a decisive Game 1 victory in which Anthony Edwards did not look fully healthy, all of a sudden the Minnesota Timberwolves have taken back-to-back games off the 2023 NBA Champions, and threaten to take a 3-1 lead before the series returns to Denver.
News of Aaron Gordon’s injury broke late Thursday ahead of Game 3, and after his absence was felt massively in a blowout Nuggets loss, his status is now up in the air for Game 4.
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First Pick: New York Knicks -2 over Atlanta Hawks
Rundown: After McCollum took over Game 2 in the clutch and followed it up with a game-winner in Game 3, the vibes in the New York locker room could not be worse if you read into head coach Mike Brown’s latest quote to the media.
“Plenty of teams have been down 1-2,” Brown said. “Sh*t I even think OKC was down 1-2 last year and they ended up winning it––I'm not saying we're gonna win it or anything like that.”
While the head coach’s belief or lack thereof should not inspire any bets on New York winning the title, the frustration surrounding the Knicks as a whole undersells their chances of still coming out of this series.
Not much at all has gone right for New York through three games, yet both Atlanta victories required multiple late-game gaffes by the Knicks and incredibly clutch shot-making from McCollum.
Despite the Hawks not having the requisite size to guard Karl-Anthony Towns, New York’s offensive ballhandlers have struggled to feed him the ball, as the All-Star big has averaged just over 12 shots per game in the series.
Additionally, Mikal Bridges has gone MIA in this series, and his zero-point, minus-26 performance in Game 3 surely means we’ll see more minutes for Miles McBride going forward, as the reserve guard dropped five threes in the Knicks’ most recent loss.
But above all else, New York’s biggest problem in this series has been its inability to hide All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson on defense.
When it gets late in the fourth quarter, McCollum is looking for one man to hunt, and it's led to great success for Atlanta.
Brown finally adjusted in the second half of Game 3 by putting Josh Hart on McCollum as the primary defender, and while the former Portland Trail Blazer still ultimately hit the game-winner in the fourth quarter, he was held to 2-for-5 shooting when guarded by Hart.
There are simply too many adjustments for the Knicks to make, whether it be defensive assignments, fewer minutes for Bridges and more touches for Towns, for them to fall down 3-1 in this series.
Regardless of the result, this series is destined to go at least six games, if not seven, and should head to New York knotted at 2-2.
Second Pick: Denver Nuggets -1 over Minnesota Timberwolves
Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
Apr 23, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) goes to the basket against Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) in the third quarter at Target Center.
Rundown: After Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels called the entire Nuggets team “bad defenders,” they certainly did not do much to prove him wrong in Game 3.
The gap in physicality and athleticism between these two teams is the biggest reason for the Timberwolves upset that is brewing in this series, and Gordon’s injury does not help the Nuggets in mitigating that.
While those factors may be the reason Minnesota eliminates Denver from the postseason for the second time in three years, the three-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, is simply not going to go down without swinging.
Through three games, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert has guarded Jokic one-on-one better than anyone ever has since the Serbian’s rise to superstardom, limiting him to shooting 40% from the field.
As the consensus best player in the world, expect Jokic to figure out this matchup sooner rather than later.
Lost in the shuffle of the Nuggets’ disappointing start to the series is that Edwards has yet to look like himself through three games.
Still dealing with a nagging runner's knee injury, Edwards has averaged 23 points a game on 39% from the field.
On Saturday, Jokic finally breaking through with his best game of the series combined with another poor shooting performance from Edwards will have this series heading back to Denver tied at 2-2.