ATLANTA – The Hawks are right where they expected … in a way they never expected.
Less than a year ago, the Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porziņģis, 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.
Well, the Hawks got the “something more” 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 Porziņģis 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.
Rather unexpectedly, however, it’s been the two players whom Atlanta received once they traded Young and Porziņģis who have the Hawks halfway to a first-round upset of New York, leading their best-of-seven series 2-1 after Thursday’s dramatic 109-108 win.
In a game that contained multitudes, Atlanta’s C.J. McCollum who scored 23 points and made the go-ahead basket with 12.7 seconds left in the Hawks’ 109-108 win, while Jonathan Kuminga was the bench savior with 21 points and rugged defense on Karl-Anthony Towns.
If you think was unlikely when the series started, go deeper and consider how improbable all this 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’t fit him.
McCollum and Kuminga, of course, were Atlanta’s returns on midseason trades of Young and Porziņģis. McCollum has been the playoff hero for Atlanta, making the go-ahead basket in both of the Hawks’ wins while averaging 27.0 points across the three games, and repeatedly roasting Knicks’ All-Star Jalen Brunson in the process.
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.
In a series where the Hawks’ two leading scorers – freshly minted All-Star Jalen Johnson and guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who may be awarded the league’s Most Improved Player award on Friday – have both struggled, it has been the play of McCollum and Kuminga that has been their unlikely postseason life raft.
McCollum’s impact, it should be noted, was fairly instant from the time the Hawks acquired him from Washington. Atlanta originally brought him of the bench – his first time playing as a sub in 11 years — 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.
The Hawks’ starting group has been lights-out since, with a +20.2 Net Rating in 30 regular-season games together.
The difference in the postseason, however, is that it’s now been McCollum doing the biggest chunk of the lifting. He’s 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’s ATO afterward, that got him rolling to his right hand against a good defender in Miles McBride, and he knocked it down.
“I’m comfortable with failure,” McCollum said, “and I’m comfortable with success … I could have missed that shot, [but] I’ll approach the game the same way.”
Kuminga’s 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.
“He’s been awesome,“ said McCollum. “(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’s easy to root for him, he’s selfless. He was in a not-so-great situation, and now he’s found a happy home.”
“I don’t think anybody’s surprised by what he’s doing,” Johnson said.
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 — 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.
Atlanta has needed Kuminga’s 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’s made 19 of his 33 shots (57.6%) and earned 11 free-throw attempts.
However, his defense has been equally impactful, and for that he credits his former Warriors teammate Draymond Green – 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.
“It’s just instinct,” Kuminga said. “I give my praise to Draymond … I’ve seen him do that so many times, like so many times, he’s one of the best. Seeing somebody doing it all the time … and Nickeil [was] still in good position. Like I say, I watched Draymond do it, it’s little things that don’t go on the [stat] sheet that help you.”
“Jonathan’s just been all in,” Snyder said. “Tonight he did some things that really gave our team a lift. I think the biggest thing he’s done is he’s just defended. Another guy that’s in there competing and defending.”
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 — 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.
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.
At this point, however, the Hawks have the advantage. And for that they can thank Kuminga and McCollum, the unlikely heroes of the postseason’s most captivating series this far.
