Winners and Losers From Atlanta Hawks Game One Defeat: Knicks Pull Away For Convincing Win

Who are the winners and loser from the Hawks game one loss to the Knicks?

Apr 18, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby (8) goes to the basket as Atlanta Hawks forward Onyeka Okongwu (17) defends during the first half of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

In the highly anticipated game one of the series, the Knicks used a strong second half defense to pull away from the Hawks and grab the series lead 1-0. Atlanta had the game tied at 58 in the early minutes of the third quarter, but the Knicks used some strong shooting and stifling halfcourt defense to seal the win.

Who are the winners and losers for the Hawks in tonight's game?

Winner- Mo Gueye

This might be an odd place to start but when I thought about it, Mo Gueye was probably the most impressive player for the Hawks given expectations.

The big question for the Hawks coming into tonight's game was how their backup center situation would play out and how they would deal with Mitchell Robinson. Robinson and Gueye were not always matchup up, but Gueye did a pretty solid job guarding Karl-Anthony Towns when called upon and showed that he could be ready for the moment.

His performance was far from outstanding, but Gueye held his own.

Loser- Hawks second half offense

The offense was not great in the first half, but Atlanta collapsed in the third quarter and that is where the game was lost.

In that quarter, Atlanta shot 35% from the field and was 2-9 from three, with five turnovers. The Knicks won the quarter by seven and led by nine heading into the final quarter. Jalen Johnson had half of the field goal makes in the quarter and it was just a discombobulated mess on that end of the floor.

The Hawks halfcourt offense has plenty of questions to answer going forward in this series and if they can't produce answers, it might be a short stay in the playoffs.

Winner- Solid game one for Jalen Johnson

Johnson is held to a high standard because of the quality of player he is and tonight was far from perfect, but scoring 23 points, pulling in seven rebounds, and dishing out three assists while shooting 42% from the field and 43% from three is not a bad game one, though he has to be much better moving forward.

What Johnson did fail to do however was take advantage of some mismatches early in the game and find his shot when he was not in transition. The Knicks are going to try and make Johnson more of a shooter and scorer than distributor and it worked in game one.

Not terrible, but the Hawks need much more from Johnson.

Loser- The Hawks Bench

It was not a good night from the Hawks bench and this was one of the red flags for them coming into the series.

Atlanta only got 13 points from its bench, which consisted of Jonathan Kuminga, Mo Gueye, Gabe Vincent, and Zaccharie Risacher (just a little over two minutes). Kuminga had some ok defensive moments, but he also could not take advantage of when he had mismatches in his favor.

Risacher had some rough moments in his brief stint, Vincent was just fine, and Gueye had some solid defensive moments. It was not good enough to win however.

Atlanta's bench is going to be under the spotlight, especially on nights like this this. Can they find a way to get more production from their second units?