Knicks deliver all-time dominant win over Hawks in Game 6, advance to second round of NBA playoffs

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Apr 30, 2026

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ATLANTA — The Knicks knew the Atlanta Hawks were fighting for their playoff lives.

They didn’t let Atlanta even come up for air.

In a historic display of domination, the Knicks punched first and just kept pounding in Thursday night’s first-round-series-clinching 140-89 victory over the Hawks in Game 6 at State Farm Arena.

The Knicks led 40-15 after the first quarter, by as many as 51 points in the first half, and by as many as 61 points before both teams pulled their starters.

Their 47-point lead at halftime was the largest in NBA playoff history.

If the underdog Hawks had any hopes of evening this first-round series and forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks crushed those dreams in a matter of minutes.

OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting and seven rebounds, while Mikal Bridges — in a bounce-back performance — scored 24 points and finished 10 of 12 from the field.

Karl-Anthony Towns delivered his second triple-double of the series, contributing 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

Jalen Brunson added 17 points and eight assists.

“The toughest game to win is the one that ends someone’s season,” Towns had said ahead of Game 6. “We’ve got to be super disciplined, we’ve got to execute at the highest level that we have in this series.”

The Knicks did just that, winning in practically every phase of the game.

They repeatedly looked for opportunities to get out and run, turning every turnover, block and long rebound into fast-break opportunities.

A Towns rejection on Dyson Daniels midway through the first quarter quickly became a Bridges basket on the other end. On the next possession, Anunoby stripped Nickeil Alexander-Walker, then found Josh Hart for a breakaway layup as the Knicks went up 21-11.

Anunoby scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting during that tone-setting first quarter, helping to fuel an early 14-0 run in which the Knicks pulled ahead for good.

The Knicks shot 18 of 26 in the first quarter — much to the delight of a rowdy, sizable contingent of New York fans that made its presence felt more and more as the game got out of hand.

And it didn’t stop there. The Knicks opened the second quarter on a 22-4 run, a surge in which Bridges found Mitchell Robinson for an emphatic one-handed alley-oop dunk; and in which a Brunson long-range lob resulted in a highlight-worthy Bridges jam.

When Anunoby completed a three-point play with 4:39 before halftime, the Knicks went up 72-22.

Frustration began to boil over from there. As Anunoby shot his free throw, Robinson and Daniels got tangled up while jockeying for position.

That escalated into a shoving match that spilled into the sideline, causing players from both teams to intervene. Robinson — who had stepped over Daniels during a testy exchange in Game 2 — were assessed offsetting technical fouls and were both ejected.

But it was an otherwise excellent night for the third-seeded Knicks, who made 28 of their first 40 shot attempts, assisted on 21 of them, and turned 14 first-half turnovers into 20 points.

The Knicks went up 101-40 with 8:21 left in the third. By the 2:45 mark of that quarter, both teams turned to the back ends of their benches for the remainder of the game.

It was a much-needed big performance for Bridges, who entered Thursday averaging just 7.2 points per game in the series, including a scoreless Game 3, and had sat down the stretch in two games.

After trading away Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis midseason, upstart Atlanta entered the playoffs as one of the NBA’s hottest teams, winning 19 of its final 24 games to clinch the Eastern Conference’s No. 6 seed.

The resurgent Hawks carried that hot play into the playoffs, earning back-to-back one-point victories in Games 2 and 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.

But the Knicks — buoyed by unrelenting physicality, an experience advantage and an increased emphasis on Towns’ play-making — emerged as the superior team as the series wore on, winning the final three games in progressively more overwhelming fashion.

This is the fourth year in a row the Knicks have advanced to the second round of the playoffs, after last year’s trip to the Eastern Conference finals, they have much loftier aspirations.

In January, Knicks owner James Dolan told WFAN in a rare interview, “We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals.”

Consider step one complete.