The NBA schedule manufacturer decided to play some “This is your life” with the New York Knicks just before the All-Star break.
Knicks will end a three-game distance against the comrades they are most compared to Wednesday and host Atlanta Hawks in the final game for both teams before the week-long Hiatus.
Knicks will complete a back-to-back set after Karl-Anthony Towns (40 points, 12 Returns) and Josh Hart (30 points, 10 returns) each published a double double in a 128-115 victory over Indiana Pacers on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
The hawks played last Monday, when they lined values Orlando Magic 112-106.
New York received a return victory after a wire-to-thread 131-104 home loss to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics on Saturday.
Knicks has been outscored 263-213 by Celtics in two matches this season, so Tuesday’s victory was the latest proof that New York is far closer to being the same as Indiana than Boston.
Knicks missed a chance to fight Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals last spring when they were eliminated by Pacers in a seven-game conference semi-finals. New York won the rubber match in the three-game regular season series Tuesday despite Jalen Brunson scored season with eight points in 23 minutes.
Brunson sat for more than 15 minutes after pulling his fifth foul with 8:42 in the third quarter and Knicks had a lead of 74-65. Hart scored 15 points during Brunson’s absence to help New York extend the benefit to 116-100 before Brunson returned.
“What Josh did is what we needed to win,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “He was everywhere, flying around, did everything. Good team wins, good bounce.”
Knicks has made a few bouncing back to the hawks, which eliminated New York in a five-game first round of series 2021 to finish Thibodeau’s first season at the helm.
New York is 8-7 against Atlanta since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, although Atlanta won the first two matches this season and eliminated Knicks from the NBA Cup with a 108-100 quarter final victory on December 11.
While Knicks is in third place in the eastern conference and nine matches away from seventh place Miami Heat, the road is back to a potential playoffs for the hawks, which is in eighth place. Atlanta is two matches behind Detroit Pistons, which occupies the sixth and last guaranteed place after the season.
Hawks won its third straight Monday and improved to 4-1 since an eight-game losing line from January 20. 1. However, the latest victory was costly. Larry Nance Jr. (Knee) and white Krejci (back) suffered injuries within 18 seconds in succession during the fourth quarter, although Atlanta surpassed Magic 18-12 after Krejci’s exit with 7:43 left.
Both Nance and Krejci will sit outside on Wednesday.
Trae Young scored 11 of its 19 points in game -ending driving, which included a combined five points from Reserves Terance Mann and Georges nian.
“We ended with a compilation of guys at different times and obviously it was affected to some extent by what happened to white and what happened to Larry,” said the Hawks coach Quin Snyder. “But that besides that group pulled that group together.”
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