The New York Knicks produced a record-breaking rout on Thursday night after steamrolling the Atlanta Hawks to reach the second round of the NBA playoffs.
OG Anunoby scored 29 points in 27 minutes and Karl-Anthony Towns had his second triple-double of the series as the Knicks recorded their biggest playoff victory in franchise history, overwhelming and eliminating the Hawks 140-89 in Game 6.
In an astonishing beatdown at State Farm Arena, the visitors racked up the largest halftime playoff lead ever when they went in at the interval 83-36 ahead in Atlanta.
That was not the only NBA record they had broken by halftime, with their 40-15 lead at the end of the first quarter marking the largest of the shot clock era.
And at the start of the third quarter, a quick run to open the second half expanded the Knicks’ advantage to 61 points – the largest lead any team has ever held in a playoff game.
New York’s eventual 51-point win tied for the sixth-largest margin of victory in NBA postseason history.
Before Thursday, the biggest halftime playoff lead was 41 points. It had happened twice: Cleveland led in Boston 72-31 at the break on May 19, 2017, and Indiana led the Cavaliers 80-39 at the half of a game on May 11, 2025.
The 47-point lead tied for the second-biggest – including regular season games – in the NBA’s shot-clock era, which started in 1954. Dallas led the Los Angeles Clippers by 50 points at the break on December 27, 2020, and Golden State led Sacramento by 47 at the half of their game on November 2, 1991.
The New York Knicks stormed to a record-breaking NBA playoff win over the Atlanta Hawks
