The Bounce Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
Hey, everybody, next week we’ve got another awesome newsletter starting. Our women’s basketball newsletter “No Offseason” debuts as the biggest season in WNBA history is about to tip off. You’re not going to want to miss this essential reading. Let’s all click this link and sign up here. Oh, you already get too many emails? Unsubscribe from the shoe store website that spams your inbox because you got 10 percent off on your first purchase and first purchase only. Now we’ve balanced it out with something way better
Appetite for destruction
Knicks were unstoppable against Hawks
“If you’re just tuning in, that is not a graphic glitch. It’s 76-27.”
That was Mike Breen on the call last night, when the Knicks were up by 49 points against the Hawks with just over three minutes left in the second quarter. At one point, Atlanta led the game 11-9, and the next thing you knew, everybody was looking up the biggest halftime deficit and biggest win in playoff history. Early in the second quarter, OG Anunoby had made seven shots, and the Hawks were stuck on six as a team. Anunoby finished with a team-high 29 points.
The Knicks set a playoff record with a 47-point lead at halftime. The final score was 140-89, and New York led by as many as 61. Let’s marvel at how the Knicks closed out the series in historic fashion.
So … what happened? Some of the stats are wild. For a 15 1/2-minute stretch spanning most of the first until roughly 4 1/2 minutes left in the second, New York outscored Atlanta 63-11. Anunoby had 20 points on eight shots with four steals. The Hawks had 11 turnovers, 10 of them live-ball steals. Also:
- Mitchell Robinson played 8:35 before being ejected for a tussle with Dyson Daniels. Robinson was plus-29 in those minutes.
- The Knicks had 35 fast-break points in the game.
- The Knicks had 66 points in the paint.
- Karl-Anthony Towns had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists with just one basket made. He had the first playoff triple-double with one or fewer makes in NBA history.
- New York scored enough points with 10:59 left in the third quarter to win this game.
- This was the first time in the last 37,965 games that a team has scored 100 before its opponent scored 50.
When did New York figure Atlanta out? Some time during Game 4, the Knicks completely solved the Hawks. They demoralized the Hawks with a play they kept running that was so basic and simple, and yet so impossible for Atlanta to guard. They’d give the ball to KAT on the wing. Jalen Brunson would set a back screen for Anunoby, who was standing in the corner.
Anunoby would cut baseline, Brunson would curl to the 3-point line and Towns would hit Anunoby with a pass for an easy dunk. Atlanta never figured out how to properly switch this or adjust personnel or even help off the weakside shooters. Watch for yourself:
his started the process of the Knicks showing they had more skill and more size in a way that was impossible to overcome. That’s when the Knicks gained their confidence to close out the series, and the Hawks lost theirs.
Did New York find its championship gear? This is the real question about the Knicks in this series. They were in serious trouble after being down 2-1. Then they outscored the Hawks by 96 points in the final three games. The offense and the defense were perfect. This is the type of play and understanding that will get them through the East. Boston has to play a lot better than it currently is. So does Philadelphia. The other side of the bracket, with Orlando, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto, isn’t playing at this level. Maintaining something close to this will give the Knicks the East. But what’s lurking from the West is a lot different
What did the internet have to say? As you can imagine, the internet was all over this.
But I don’t know if anything beats Shaq holding a funeral for the Hawks:
The last 24
☀️ Calm down. Suns owner Mat Ishbia really wants his star to feel wanted. “I’ll ride into a fire with Devin Booker.”
🏀 New job. John Wall is the president of basketball operations at Howard University. His “dream” role.
🏀 Blame game. The Blazers took a lot of public flak for not having two-way players travel for the playoffs. Their GM is taking the blame.
😢 Real men cry. Victor Wembanyama isn’t afraid to shed a tear.His teammates appreciate that about him.
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a recap of last night’s games. Including the Nuggets’ embarrassing loss.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Mile-low city
The Wolves have broken the Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets had their own injuries with Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson missing time. But those injuries are not nearly as severe as the Minnesota Timberwolves missing Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu in Game 6. That alone should have brought this series back to Denver for a seventh game. Instead, the Wolves did what they’ve done for almost three years now.
They’ve told the Nuggets they’re better than them, and they’ve backed it up with actions. Everybody was shocked when the Wolves won Game 7 in Denver in 2024 to end the reign of the 2023 NBA champions. People raised an eyebrow when the Wolves dominated them in their 2025-26 regular-season series. And after Jaden McDaniels called out individual Nuggets players by name, saying they can’t defend, you would have expected a spirited response from a team that has won a championship recently.
Instead, the Wolves kicked their butts in Games 3 and 4. The Nuggets won at home in Game 5, but that’s where their fight merely flickered. McDaniels was the best player in this series, and yes, Nikola Jokić played in every game. McDaniels locked up Jamal Murray for the entire series (23.7 points on 35.4 percent from the field). He held Murray to 12 points on 17 shots in Game 6, while putting up 32 points in the 110-98 series clincher.
Denver waited for Minnesota to fall apart with all of its injuries, instead of trying to impose its own will. The Wolves relied on 38-year-old Mike Conley and 25-year-old Terrence Shannon Jr. (who had 78 career playoff minutes before this game). The Wolves battled. The Nuggets wilted. Shannon put up 24 points in his spot start for the injured Dosunmu, including this emphatic dunk that nearly brought the Target Center down.
There were conspiracy theorists in the last week of the season claiming Denver was losing games to avoid the Wolves in the first round. The Nuggets should have followed that theory. Rudy Gobert played the best series of his life, often making Jokić look as human as anybody possibly could. Jokić’s 25.8 points per game were his lowest playoff average since The Bubble in 2020. His 44.6 percent from the field in the series was by far his worst playoff shooting performance.
Since winning the championship in 2023, Jokić and the Nuggets are 0-2 against Gobert and the Wolves in the playoffs. Denver is just 1-5 in series against 50-win teams, and that one win was against the Clippers last year. Denver reloaded for this season and was supposed to contend. It couldn’t even overcome a team with more injuries. The Nuggets have to figure out why they lost their fight and why they can’t beat Minnesota anymore.
Game 7 incoming
Sixers push Celtics to the brink
There was one other Game 6 last night …
76ers 106, Celtics 93: Series tied 3-3
Read the takeaways from The Athletic. Here are mine.
- Star combo. Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid worked perfectly together in this game. Maxey finished with 30 points on 11-of-22. Embiid had a tough shooting night but did have eight assists. Their two-man game was deadly all night.
- Third-quarter dominance. Philly held Boston to 14 points on 6-of-23 from the field. The Celtics took 13 3-pointers in that quarter and zero free throws. No aggressiveness.
- Horrendous shooting. The Celtics couldn’t knock down shots for the second straight game: 12-of-41 from deep overall, and 6-of-26 in the second half. Woof.
Who played huge in this game? Paul George. He was so good in the middle of the game, scoring 18 of his 23 in the second and third quarters. His defense was nearly perfect.
Who came up short for the Celtics? Jaylen Brown. A lot of role players are not pulling their weight or hitting shots. But Brown didn’t do enough to lead by example.
How concerned should the Celtics be? Extremely. They’ve been bad for two straight games, and being at home for Game 7 isn’t too comforting. They have no plan B if their 3-pointers aren’t falling, and Jayson Tatum seemed to have a calf issue flare up in this game.
PPM: 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 for Philadelphia | 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 for Boston
Game 7 is tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock.
Since we’re here, let’s do a quick preview of tonight’s Game 6s. All times Eastern.
Pistons at Magic, 7 p.m. (Prime Video) | Magic lead 3-2
Something to look for: Without Franz Wagner in Game 6, how do the Magic go about slowing down Cade Cunningham? Can they make someone else beat them at all?
Cavs at Raptors, 7:30 p.m. (Prime Video) | Cavs lead 3-2
Something to look for: If Brandon Ingram can’t play, then how do the Raptors continue to generate enough offense? Or will only home teams win in this series?
Lakers at Rockets, 9:30 p.m. (Prime Video) | Lakers lead 3-2
Something to look for: The Rockets are trying to become the fifth team in history to force a Game 7 after being down 3-0. Is their defense up to the challenge again?