When the buzzer sounded to end the first half, the Hawks were down 83-36 to the New York Knicks in an elimination game. That’s not just a blowout, it’s the largest halftime lead in NBA playoff history at 47 points.
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But that wasn’t the end of Atlanta’s futility. Let’s review how bad that half of basketball was, through the magic of numbers.
51
That was the Knicks’ biggest lead in the first half. If that margin had held until halftime, it would have been the largest halftime lead in NBA history, regular season or postseason. The current record is 50 points, held by the Dallas Mavericks in 2020.
60-19
There were a lot of ridiculous scores in that first half (48-15, 72-22, 83-35), but the most absurd was 60-19. That’s the precise score that led to the scoreboard showing “A little one-sided, right?” in Space Jam.
10
The Haws committed eight turnovers in the first quarter, then two more in the first minute of the second quarter. There are 12 turnovers in the span of 13 minutes.
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4,550
There have been 4,550 playoff games in NBA history. In 9,099 teams the Hawks performed worse than in the first half.
-17
Bench forward Mouhamed Gueye had a plus/minus of -17 in the first half. That’s usually bad. In the context of the Hawks, it was the best mark of any player who saw more than five minutes. The worst: Jonathan Kuminga at -40 in 12 minutes.