Linemakers expected a hotly contested series between the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks heading into Game 1. And true to form, it took a running floater from Trae Young at the near-gun to allow for Atlanta to snag the 1-0 series lead in a game that saw both teams hold multiple possession leads. Every time a team went on a run, the other answered. Unfortunately for Julius Randle and company, they simply ran out of time. Facing a 1-0 deficit and home court advantage now in control of the Hawks, Tom Thibodeau’s troops find themselves in the precarious position of needing to tie the series up or face the threat of Atlanta making quick work of them back home. Online sportsbook are expecting a series split with the Knicks installed 2.5-point favorites – a full point higher than Game 1 – with the total down to 213.5 after opening 215 and closing 214 the game prior.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series between the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks will tip-off on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 from the Madison Square Garden. Take it in live on TNT at 7:30 p.m. ET. We'll have NBA Playoff odds and player props available at BookMaker.eu for this and every game going on today’s NBA slate.
NBA Betting Lines at BookMaker.eu
Atlanta Hawks +2.5
New York Knicks -2.5
O/U 213.5
Odds Analysis
Game day saw the Hawks take a bunch of steam turning them into short 1-point favorites. Then a rush of Knicks money surfaced leading up to tip-off pushing the number to beat back in the Knicks’ favor by 1.5-points. In the end, the pointspread didn’t come into play after Atlanta scored the last second 107-105 outright win. The combined 212 points just came in below the closing 214 point O/U moving the total to 2-2 ATS with an average of 233 points scored in this season’s four played meetings. Game 2 finds the Knicks favored for the second straight time and the total down a point. Going by the trend of the rivalry, there is some value in the line for those expecting the rivalry to go back to its high scoring ways. Atlanta is now a bigger -245 favorite to win the series and offers up an attractive +500 return if it were to bust out the brooms and sweep the Knicks right out of the playoffs.
Atlanta Hawks
Sunday’s win moved the Hawks to 17-20 SU and 17-19-1 ATS as visitors. It got out to the series lead by being efficient offensively and taking care of the basketball. As a team, Atlanta shot 47 percent from the field, hit at a 35 percent clip from beyond the arc and made all but one of its 12 free throws. Most importantly, it only turned the ball over six times. One of the main reasons I recommended backing the Hawks in the series opener was because of Trae Young, and the third year guard didn’t let me down. He went for a game-high 32 points on 11 of 23 shooting and hit the game winning shot. Atlanta’s bigs also did a great job defensively holding Randle to just 15 points on 6 of 23 shooting; hat tip to Clint Capela and John Collins!
New York Knicks
The series opening defeat amounted to only the Knicks 12th home loss of the season. This is a team that knew how to take care of business when in front of the hometown faithful, and I’ve got a feeling they come out strong in Game 2. Unfortunately, sloppiness got in the way of winning a home playoff game for the first time since 2013. As great a job Atlanta did of protecting its possessions, New York’s 11 overall turnovers played a major role in the end result much to the chagrin of Spike Lee and the other 15K plus that packed MSG. Alec Burks had a huge game off the bench with 27 points. Derrick Rose and R.J. Barrett went for 17 and 14 respectively, but Randle’s rough showing ultimately led to the team’s demise. While he logged a double-double, NY is gonna need more than 15 points from him if it’s to bounce back and make this a series.
Atlanta vs. New York Prediction
I’m going with the zig-zag in Game 2. While I foresee Atlanta ultimately moving on to the conference semis, I don’t for one second believe the Knicks will just roll over and die. Now that Randle has a better sense of how Atlanta will look to defend him moving forward, you can’t help but think he makes some adjustments to his game to get back in the ball park of his near 25 point per game regular season scoring average. Once Atlanta starts moving even more defenders his way, it’ll open up some wide open long range shots for NY to take advantage of. His inability to do so played a large role in the Knicks missing 20 of their 30 attempted 3-balls in the opener. With so much time between games, Thibs will cook something up to better contain Young who’s owned his defense to date. Atlanta didn’t get much else from its complimentary players in the opener, and I don’t foresee them rising to the occasion if Young has an off night. Knicks knot it up in a high scorer – lay the points and hit the over!
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