By Oliver Carter
The New York Knicks absolutely dominated the Atlanta Hawks 140-89 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff match-up.
The game took place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Thursday night.
The win means the Knicks advance to face either the Boston Celtics or the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, while Atlanta crashes out with one of the most embarrassing playoff losses ever.
First-half domination
Atlanta started the game out as they usually would, including a very early 9-0 run to take a 5-9 lead, a lead that would turn out to be their largest of the game.
As the Knicks began to respond, the lead kept growing, led by OG Anunoby, the Knicks went on a 35-6 scoring run throughout the rest of the first quarter.
This built a 40-15 lead, the second-largest first-quarter lead in NBA playoff history, trailing a 2023 match-up between the LA Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
The end of the quarter couldn’t come soon enough for the Hawks. The game did not change after the recess, it continued in the same embarrassing fashion.
New York continued to run the score up as the Hawks couldn’t seem to get any sort of offence to flow and the Knicks outscored the Hawks 43-21 in the second quarter ending the half with an 83-36 lead, the largest half-time lead in NBA history.
New York led by as much as 51 in the half and went on a run starting with 6:55 remaining in the first quarter all the way until 3:43 in the second quarter where they outscored Atlanta 64-14.
OG Anunoby led the Knicks in scoring with an impressive 26 points, seven rebounds, two assists and four steals at the half.
The incredible score difference even had the announcers of the game surprised with the veteran announcer saying: “If you’re just tuning in, that is not a graphic glitch. It’s 76-27. The Knicks have been up by as much as 51 points.”
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Second half cruising
New York came out the gates in the second half and didn’t let up at all, pushing the lead to a game-high 61 just three minutes into the third quarter.
After growing the lead to over 60, the Knicks began to rest some of their more important players to ensure they didn’t pick up any accidental injuries.
All 15 players signed to the Knicks roster played at least seven minutes, with 11 of the 15 getting over 10 minutes of play.
Atlanta began to make a slight dent into the lead, going on an insignificant 14-2 run in the middle of the third quarter, before outscoring the Knicks’ reserves 23-25 in the fourth quarter.
The game ended 140-89, a 51 point victory for New York, the second highest elimination game win in NBA history behind the 1956 Minneapolis Lakers’ 58-point win against the St Louis Hawks.
What comes next?
The Knicks will now have to wait for the outcome of Sunday’s Game 7 between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics to see who they’ll face in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
The Hawks on the other hand will have to take this offseason to reset and reflect on what went so wrong.
They won their two games by just one point both times, but lost four games of the series by a combined 107 points – one of the highest series point differentials in NBA playoff history.
Liberty Nicholson-Hulse 
Aidan Leo