CJ McCollum Has Put the Atlanta Hawks On His Back

Entering the series, CJ McCollum had by far the most playoff experience on the Atlanta Hawks roster. He is using that experience to lead the Hawks through their first two games against the New York Knicks.

Going into the series, all eyes were on Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson to have big performances. However, it has been McCollum who has taken charge of the Hawks’ offense. 

In just two games against New York in the regular season, McCollum only scored 22 points total. This included scoring just five points in 22 minutes as a Washington Wizard in November. 

Based on these numbers, one wouldn’t expect McCollum to have the impact that he is having so far, but he is determined to put Atlanta on his back and lead them throughout the series.

CJ McCollum Is Not a Focal Point

Going into the series, it was clear that New York was more focused on shutting down both Johnson and Alexander-Walker. To their credit, it has worked. In Game 1, Alexander-Walker shot just 3-of-12 from the floor and 1-of-4 from three. He came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, but the Hawks’ comeback fell short as they lost 113-102. 

Game 2 was more of the same for Alexander-Walker as he shot 3-of-12 from the field and scored just nine points, a far cry from his 36-point outburst against the Knicks just two weeks prior. 

Johnson has also had his struggles in the series. In Game 1, he was not playing as aggressively as he needed to be. Instead of getting to the rim and putting pressure on New York’s interior defense, Johnson opted for post fadeaway jump shots. While he’s made a fair bit of them throughout the season, those are the shots the Knicks were hoping Johnson would settle for. 

In Game 2, he got off to a slow start, scoring four points with no made field goals in the first half. In the second half, however, Johnson did get going as he scored 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. 

Meanwhile, McCollum has taken full advantage of the defense not being focused on him. 

In his first two playoff games against the Knicks, McCollum has scored 58 points. In comparison, Trae Young scored 62 points against New York during his first two playoff games back in 2021. Atlanta split the first two games with the Knicks in both playoff series.

Not A Villain

During the game, the fans at Madison Square Garden were attempting to make McCollum the newest villain in New York. Of course, they tried this with Young in 2021 and Tyrese Haliburton last season. Ultimately, the Knicks went on to lose both series as the star players had big games in big moments.

For McCollum, the chants started with 1:34 left in the third quarter. McCollum proceeded to miss three consecutive shots to end the quarter as the Hawks trailed 91-79. 

McCollum got the last laugh as he scored 6 points in the final two minutes to lead Atlanta to a game two win. He finished the game with 32 points and has led Atlanta in scoring in both games of the series.

After the game, McCollum clarified that he wasn’t a villain, but that he enjoyed the hostile environment. “I am no villain,” he said. “I think it’s admiration. Great passionate fans in a really hostile environment, it’s fun.”

Jonathan Kuminga—who had 19 points off the bench in 35 minutes—chimed in and said the chants got McCollum going. “That got CJ [McCollum] going. He enjoyed that. The crowd really shouldn’t do that. It really got him going. Got all of us going,” he said.

Time For an Encore

After two big games from McCollum, the big question is, how will he follow it up? Of course, the Hawks would like to see greater contributions from Alexander-Walker and Johnson, but McCollum is clearly the go-to guy right now. 

Atlanta has a real opportunity to take advantage in this series with two home games coming up. 

McCollum will certainly be a focus for the Knicks’ defense for the rest of the series. That might open up others to be more impactful. For McCollum, he battled his entire playoff career in the heat of the Western Conference. He is more than capable of putting this young, inexperienced Hawks team on his back for the remainder of this series. 

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