Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 12th, 2024.

Coming up, two more teams punch their ticket to Vegas.

So we got two guests to talk about it.

We got James Edwards.

We got Marcus Thompson post game.

And then S and I, we're going to dig into some questions.

Thank you. Thompson post game and then S and I we're going to dig into some questions. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, James Edwards, live from MSG, where the Atlanta Hawks did the thing they're built to do.

They won an NBA Cup game over the Knicks.

Trey Young goes to MSG, Ever the villain.

James, what was it like in the building for the NBA Cup at MSG?

Yeah, I thought it was a little subdued to start. It's been raining here in New York, so it's a little slow to trickle in. I think people were a little jury, but as the game went on, it picked up. It wasn't the most beautiful half of basketball to start. There was a lot of turnovers, a lot of missed shots, a lot of missed free throws. But as things kind of picked up in the third, and it looked like Atlanta was coming back.

Like there was a little bit more uneasiness from Knicks fans.

There was a little bit more vulgarities in their language when Shrey Young was messing up.

So it was definitely a grower, but it ended up being an interesting game. I wouldn't say a good game, but an interesting game. And I'm sure we'll talk about that. Yeah. What happened in that second half? And I mean to say that simply because I think like that third quarter by the New, that by New York just completely, it was, it was terrible, right? It was. Yeah, the H 6 run. Yeah, it just, it seemed like from that point, it was just the Hawks game to, to kind of dominate and control. What happened in the third that changed the game that way? Yeah, I think there were a few things. I think one, New York did generate some good looks. They just missed a lot of open shots. Yeah. And I think there was some of the missed shots bleeding into defense. They didn't look in sync defensively. They looked a bit sluggish. They weren't really getting back fast in transition. They were getting beat off the dribble. They also looked like a team that was tired. Their starters play a lot of minutes, right? Yeah, that Raptors game all Monday, man, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

And they've, and they've, how do I say this?

They're very much a team that like goes, ebbs and flows with its energy.

And Atlanta is a team that usually pretty consistently has energy. You saw it with them

having 22 offensive rebounds. The Knicks just really looked stuck in mud. And it looked like a team

that's tired and a team that looked like that was down on itself because shots weren't falling.

And ultimately it was a bad combination because Atlanta started to make shots after missing so many

in the first half. But the Knicks made it easy for them to make shots too. Yeah, at a certain

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