{"id":1900231,"date":"2026-04-24T11:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1900231"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:13:06","slug":"unlikely-duo-of-cj-mccollum-jonathan-kuminga-has-hawks-positioned-to-upset-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1900231","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely duo of CJ McCollum, Jonathan Kuminga has Hawks positioned to upset Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ATLANTA \u2013 The Hawks are right where they expected \u2026 in a way they never expected.<\/p>\n

Less than a year ago, the Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is with the idea that pairing him with Trae Young would be the perfect inside-outside combo to take them on a playoff run. After four straight seasons in the Play-In, the thought was that those two could be the linchpins of something more.<\/p>\n

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Well, the Hawks got the \u201csomething more\u201d part accomplished, but the imagined dynamic duo had little to do with it. Young only played 10 games before he was traded to Washington, while Porzi\u0146\u0123is only suited up for 17 before he was sent to Golden State. Together, they played a grand total of three games and 51 minutes as a combo.<\/p>\n

Rather unexpectedly, however, it\u2019s been the two players whom Atlanta received once they traded Young and Porzi\u0146\u0123is who have the Hawks halfway to a first-round upset of the New York Knicks, leading their best-of-seven series 2-1 after Thursday\u2019s dramatic 109-108 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In a game that contained multitudes, Atlanta\u2019s C.J. McCollum who scored 23 points and made the go-ahead basket with 12.7 seconds left, while Jonathan Kuminga was the bench savior with 21 points and rugged defense on Karl-Anthony Towns.<\/p>\n

If you think this was unlikely when the series started, go deeper and consider how improbable it all seemed at midseason. McCollum was toiling in anonymity for a tanking Wizards team, while Kuminga was racking up DNPs in a Warriors system that didn\u2019t fit him.<\/p>\n

McCollum and Kuminga, of course, were Atlanta\u2019s returns on midseason trades of Young and Porzi\u0146\u0123is. McCollum has been the playoff hero for Atlanta, making the go-ahead basket in both of the Hawks\u2019 wins while averaging 27.0 points across the three games, and repeatedly roasting Knicks\u2019 All-Star Jalen Brunson in the process.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"CJ<\/p>\n
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\n CJ McCollum sinks Knicks again to give Hawks series lead: Game 3 takeaways\n <\/div>\n
\n McCollum, who finished Thursday with 23 points, hit the game-winner on a fadeaway jumper with 12 seconds to go.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile, Kuminga has been a mainstay off the bench, finishing both Games 2 and 3 while guarding Karl-Anthony Towns at one end and supplying instant offense at the other. Kuminga scored 21 points in 28 minutes in Game 3, and despite his bench role has played a starter-esque 30.0 minutes per game in the series.<\/p>\n

In a series where the Hawks\u2019 two leading scorers \u2013 freshly minted All-Star Jalen Johnson and guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who may be awarded the league\u2019s Most Improved Player award on Friday \u2013 have both struggled, it has been the play of McCollum and Kuminga that has been their unlikely postseason life raft.<\/p>\n

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McCollum\u2019s impact, it should be noted, was fairly instant from the time the Hawks acquired him from Washington. Atlanta originally brought him of the bench \u2013 his first time playing as a sub in 11 years \u2014 but lineups with McCollum and the other four starters worked so well that coach Quin Snyder pulled the trigger on Feb. 22 and never looked back.<\/p>\n

The Hawks\u2019 starting group has been lights-out since, with a +20.2 Net Rating in 30 regular-season games together.<\/p>\n

The difference in the postseason, however, is that it\u2019s now been McCollum doing the biggest chunk of the lifting. He\u2019s taken a team-high 60 shots in the series, compared to 50 for Johnson and 41 for Alexander-Walker, and the two biggest shots of the playoffs have been 1-on-1 isos. The Game 3 winner was a called play for McCollum, who credited Snyde\u2019s ATO afterward, that got him rolling to his right hand against a good defender in Miles McBride, and he knocked it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with failure,\u201d McCollum said, \u201cand I\u2019m comfortable with success \u2026 I could have missed that shot, [but] I\u2019ll approach the game the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuminga\u2019s impact, meanwhile, has been more recent. He only played 16 regular-season games in Atlanta, and while he had a couple of strong outings in laugher wins over the lowly (and, by then, McCollum-less!) Wizards, his minutes in games that mattered had been more limited. A playoff dress rehearsal against the Knicks in early April, for instance, saw him play 22 minutes and score only five points; his season-high in minutes was 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been awesome,\u201c said McCollum. \u201c(He) has championship DNA coming from the Warriors. He understands how to play the game the right way. He can guard 1 through 5. It\u2019s easy to root for him, he\u2019s selfless. He was in a not-so-great situation, and now he\u2019s found a happy home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s surprised by what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

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In the playoffs, however, the Hawks have leaned into a playing bigger against the huge Knicks team, and their best way to do that is by playing Kuminga, Johnson and Onyeka Okonwgu together \u2014 something they rarely did in the regular season. That trio only played 66 minutes as a unit in the regular season, but amassed 25 just in the first two playoff games; in the fourth quarter of Game 3 alone, they were on the floor for 9:18.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Josh<\/p>\n
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\n Josh Hart has been the Knicks\u2019 most important player. They need even more of him\n <\/div>\n
\n Many didn’t understand why Tom Thibodeau was beholden to Hart. With the way these playoffs have started, it’s clear.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Atlanta has needed Kuminga\u2019s offense, especially his gravity as a rim-runner and his ability to hammer smaller Knicks like Brunson and Jordan Clarkson in switches, and his efficiency has been a welcome development: He\u2019s made 19 of his 33 shots (57.6%) and earned 11 free-throw attempts.<\/p>\n

However, his defense has been equally impactful, and for that he credits his former Warriors teammate Draymond Green \u2013 notably on a key play late in Game 2 where he shoved Alexander-Walker back into the right defensive position to stop Brunson rather than switching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just instinct,\u201d Kuminga said. \u201cI give my praise to Draymond \u2026 I\u2019ve seen him do that so many times, like so many times, he\u2019s one of the best. Seeing somebody doing it all the time \u2026 and Nickeil [was] still in good position. Like I say, I watched Draymond do it, it\u2019s little things that don\u2019t go on the [stat] sheet that help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJonathan\u2019s just been all in,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cTonight he did some things that really gave our team a lift. I think the biggest thing he\u2019s done is he\u2019s just defended. Another guy that\u2019s in there competing and defending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, nothing will be easy for Atlanta. Their two wins so far have only been by a single point, and the Knicks likely will have some gnarly adjustments for the Hawks to contemplate in Game 4 \u2014 such as a multi-guard lineup with Miles McBride replacing the shockingly ineffective Mikal Bridges, which gave Atlanta problems in the second half of Game 3.<\/p>\n

New York already showed some of those cards in the second half on Thursday, by hedging and trapping against McCollum to force the ball out of his hands, at times meeting him at the halfcourt line to do so. Kuminga, similarly, will likely see more time on the scouting report, with New York hoping to coax more appearances from his iffy jumper and fewer forays to the rim.<\/p>\n

At this point, however, the Hawks have the advantage. And for that they can thank Kuminga and McCollum, the unlikely heroes of the postseason\u2019s most captivating series this far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2013 The Hawks are right where they expected \u2026 in a way they never expected. Less than a year ago, the Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is with the idea that pairing him with Trae Young would be the perfect inside-outside combo to take them on a playoff run. After four straight seasons in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1900231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1900231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1900231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1900231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1900231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}