Atlanta Hawks Player Grades From Game Four Loss to New York: A Night Where Everyone Was Bad

The Hawks lost game four at home to the Knicks by 16 points and it was a rough game from everyone

Apr 25, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (7) shoots over New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) during the first half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

With a chance to go up in the series 3-1 in their series against the New York Knicks, the Atlanta Hawks fell flat on their faces tonight at home. The Knicks took the game by 16 and domianted from start to finish.

In what was a bad night all around from the Hawks, how did the individual players grade out?

CJ McCollum- C+

McCollum did not have his usual heroics tonight against the Knicks and finished the night 8-15 for 17 points. The Hawks tonight went 10-41 from three and that included an 0-4 mark from McCollum. He has been the Hawks best player this series, but the Knicks defense was ready for him tonight.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker: C-

NAW shot the ball better than he had all series, going 5-10 from three, but it was a real struggle to do anything else on offense and his defense as not as effective as it usually is. It was good to see his shot go in, but the rest of the night was not great, especially the six turnovers, from the recently named winner for NBA's most improved player award.

Dyson Daniels: C-

Daniels played solid defense on Jalen Brunson and finished with six points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Daniels does a lot of the little things right every game, but he could not find a way to make an impact tonight, and the Knicks did a good enough job of getting him switched off Jalen Brunson. Daniels has some things that he has to figure out this series on the offensive end if Atlanta is going to win.

Jalen Johnson- F

For a star player and one of the NBA's best young talents, this was a really poor game from Jalen Johnson in what has turned out to be a disappointing series so far for him. He scored 14 points on 4-12 shooting and had some poor defensive moments, which has been a theme in this series. Johnson was a -19 in over 34 minutes played and simply put, this version of him is not going to be able to get it done in the postseason.

Known as a player with a strong all around game, Johnson only pulled in three rebounds and five assists. The Knicks have limited Johnson as well as any team can and it is working.

Onyeka Okongwu- C

Okongwu is tough to grade because he was in foul trouble so early in this game and he only finished with 12 points and six rebounds on 4-7 shooting. He played the fewest minutes of any starter and just was unable to make any impact.

Jonathan Kuminga-F

Kuminga had been the Hawks second best player in their two earlier wins in the series, but he was not very effective tonight. He did finish with 10 points, but he shot 3-10, took some very ill advised shots that ruined the flow of the offense, and did not have any effective defense against Karl-Anthony Towns in this game. Kuminga has been mostly very good for the Hawks in this game, but tonight was one of his worst nights.

Gabe Vincent- C

Vincent did score 10 points and play ok defense and I would argue that was might have been the Hawks most effective bench player tonight over Kuminga. Vincent knows his role and plays it well and that was not any different tonight.

Mo Gueye- D

Gueye struggled immensely tonight handling KAT and Mitchell Robinson and I think a performance like this is going to put his role in question for the rest of the series. Gueye is just physically outmatched against the Knicks big men and it showed tonight. He scored 0 points and pulled in four rebounds tonight and did not play strong defense. It would not surprise me if Quin Snyder opted to make a switch to Tony Bradley in the backup big minutes going forward to try and mitigate the Knicks impact down low.