Knicks 143, Hawks 120: "He Wants Us To Hoop"

Here's something you're probably not used to hearing from a Knicks coach.

"It's difficult, because there's really a lot of positives," Mike Miller said from the postgame podium, asked to name which of the breakthroughs sticks out to him.

RJ Barrett's career-high 27 points? Mitchell Robinson posting 22 and 13? The Knicks decimating the Hawks offensively, and the defense not letting up, even in the final minutes?

Miller discussed that latter point, seeing a need to urge his team forward even at moments when the score might not dictate a max effort. It reflects a realistic view of the team, namely that the Knicks will not, even on a night they are the better team, have the best player on the floor — on this evening, that was Trae Young, who finished with 42 points.

"I think we have to bring the urgency every night," Miller said. "What we have to establish is this is how we play, and this is our identity. Then we can look at other things. Right now we just have to bring that every night. Bring that enthusiasm."

The reality is that the Atlanta Hawks, right now, are a bottom-feeder of the league — just 4-19 since a 2-3 start, playing without bedrock big man John Collins, limited and young. Even so, these Knicks, just a few weeks ago, weren't playing well against the worst the league has to offer — remember the infamous press conference of Steve Mills and Scott Perry followed a double-digit loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, not the Milwaukee Bucks.

Identifying whether the Knicks are having more fun because they are winning or they are winning because they are having more fun is impossible. Multiple players after the game spoke about the players-only meeting, held just before David Fizdale was fired.

But there's a different emotion coursing through the locker room at Madison Square Garden, one unimaginable when the team left for the west coast less than two weeks ago. Basic realities of the league wouldn't lead you to think a more permanent sea change is at hand, and Marcus Morris Sr., for instance, wasn't about to guarantee a playoff spot. 

All anyone seemed to know on Tuesday night was how the present feels.

"He just wants us to hoop," Dennis Smith Jr. said of his coach.

On this night, indisputably, that's just what the Knicks did.