After breakthrough series win, Hawks and McMillan focused on Sixers

Two droughts ended Wednesday night when the Atlanta Hawks finished off the New York Knicks.

Atlanta, in the playoffs for the first time since 2017, earned its first series win since the 2015-16 NBA season. The 103-89 clincher also was a breakthrough for veteran coach Nate McMillan, who earned his first series victory as a head coach since 2005, when he was with the Seattle SuperSonics. He had gone 0-7 in the first round during his latest trips with the Trail Blazers and the Pacers.

With both of those spells vanquished, the young Hawks and their seasoned coach get to see how far this turnaround season can go.

Up next for fifth-seeded Atlanta is No. 1 seed Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals, which begin Sunday. The other Eastern semifinal matchup pits No. 2 Brooklyn against No. 3 Milwaukee.

The 76ers won two of three from Atlanta in the regular season, including lopsided wins the past two games on April 28 (127-83) and April 30 (126-104). Atlanta was without star guard Trae Young in the April 28 loss.

Young had 26 points and eight assistsin a 112-94 win over Philadelphia on Jan. 11, though the Sixers were shorthanded that night with many of their top players out. They may face a similar situation going forward as star center Joel Embiid is day-to-day while recovering from a small meniscus tear in his right knee.

Both teams enter the playoff showdown on a roll after 4-1 victories in the first round.

Young scored 18 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth quarter to bury the host Knicks, who were outscored by 42 points over the final three games of the series. Atlanta’s point guard averaged 29.2 points in the five games against New York.

Clint Capela (14 points, 15 rebounds) had a double-double while De’Andre Hunter scored 15 points and John Collins had 13 for the Hawks, who have surged to a 30-12 record since McMillan took over as head coach for ousted Lloyd Pierce.

The final Hawks-Knicks game featured the feistiness that defined the series between the budding rivals. Knicks power forward Taj Gibson was whistled for a flagrant foul on Hunter late in the second before a skirmish between the teams just after the first-half buzzer resulted in three technicals being issued.

Randle collected the rebound of a miss by Young and tossed the ball at Young. New York center Nerlens Noel bumped shoulders with Young as the teams walked off the court before forward Solomon Hill bumped into Noel, resulting in the pair going nose-to-nose.

The Hawks took the lead for good at 36-33 on Collins’ 3-pointer with 5:21 left in the first half. That basket began a 19-12 run in which Young scored seven points as Atlanta took its biggest first-half lead at 52-45 with 54.6 seconds left.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored five points in a 9-0 run that gave the Hawks their first double-digit lead at 62-50 in the third. The Knicks pulled within nine points a handful of times, the last on a Randle reverse layup with 3:45 remaining, but Atlanta scored the next seven points to go ahead 74-58.

Young almost single-handedly removed any doubt by scoring all but one point in an 8-1 run that gave the Hawks an 87-71 lead with 7:12 left in the game. Atlanta twice led by as many as 19.

Philadelphia didn’t miss a beat without Embiid in the Game 5 clincher, a 129-112 win over the Washington Wizards. Seth Curry scored a playoff career-high 30 points, Tobias Harris had 28 points and nine rebounds and Ben Simmons had 19 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his third career playoff triple-double.