‘This guy is phenomenal’: Dyson Daniels locks down Knicks superstar as Hawks villain has last laugh

The Atlanta Hawks are off to Las Vegas and Australian defensive dynamo Dyson Daniels is a big reason why.

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Daniels played exceptional defence on New York guard Jalen Brunson, who shot 5-of-15 from the field as the Knicks went down 108-100 on Thursday.

With the win, the Hawks have booked a meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks in the semi-finals of the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament.

Brunson scored a pair of 3-pointers when matched up on Daniels and made a pair of free throws after a foul from the Australian, but outside of that struggled to get into his usual offensive rhythm for the second time this year when facing the Hawks guard.

Brunson scored 14 points in Thursday’s game, having previously gone 8-of-18 from the field for 21 points in Atlanta’s 121-116 upset win over New York in November.

“He competes on the ball and is obviously a leader in deflections in the NBA. Every defender is different, but I like the way he competed,” Brunson told NBA Australia after that game.

The Knicks made their plan to disrupt Daniels clear early, not that it was a surprise anyway, using Karl-Anthony Towns as a screener to get the Australian moving and open up looks for Brunson.

But even when Daniels was able to fight through a pair of screens at one point in the first quarter, Brunson still was able to shoot over him for the 3-pointer.

That was largely a rare occurrence for Brunson though, with Daniels making him work hard for every shot attempt when matched up on the Hawks guard.

While usually limiting the opposition’s leading scorer would be a recipe for success, Atlanta still found itself trailing 6-0 early in the first after opening the game 0-for-8 from the floor.

Trae Young eventually got the Hawks on the board after three minutes with a floater but coach Quin Snyder called a quick timeout soon after when Mikal Bridges made a layup to put the Knicks ahead 9-2.

Daniels had a pair of nice plays on offence to help reduce the deficit for Atlanta, first making a floater of his own before then finding Clint Capela for the dunk with a nice pass close to the rim.

That had the Hawks trailing 13-8 and the closest Atlanta got in the first quarter was three points, with New York taking a 28-22 lead into the second quarter off the back of nine points from Bridges.

In an early sign of what was to come, Daniels stayed on the court late in the first quarter as Atlanta’s defacto point guard after Young sat.

Although, instead of that being a sign of Snyder cutting back the rotation it quickly became clear it was just a matter of having Daniels match Brunson’s minutes, with the Australian checking out a minute later when the Knicks guard did.

As expected, Daniels then re-entered the game five minutes into the second quarter when Brunson came back in.

Brunson had one of his better moments of the night matched up against Daniels, draining a corner 3-pointer after the Australian was a bit too hesitant to commit to the closeout.

The Knicks had built a 56-45 lead with just under six minutes left at that point, but the Hawks started to chip away at the buffer later in the second.

Daniels was also starting to make his presence felt again as he knocked the ball out of Towns’ hand when the seas in the Hawks defence parted to present the Knicks big man with a clear lane to the rim.

“This guy is phenomenal with his hands,” Doris Burke said in commentary.

Active hands from Daniels then forced a deflection minutes later to cap off an impressive first half from the Australian on the defensive end.

Still, with the Hawks only shooting 36 per cent from the floor and 18 per cent from deep, there was little Daniels could do on defence to make up for Atlanta’s inefficient opening half.

But it was somewhat of a miracle that the Hawks only trailed by seven points at halftime in spite of that, and then went on an 8-0 run early in the third to close the gap.

Jalen Johnson (nine points) and Young (four assists) were both heavily involved in the first four minutes of the quarter alone, while Daniels was still proving a menace for Brunson as he blocked a 3-point attempt to force a shot clock violation.

“All of those shot fakes and jabs usually get Brunson space but how about that defence?” Burke said in commentary.

“Daniels has been doing that to everyone this season,” added Breen.

The Hawks, who trailed by as many as 12 minutes, then took the lead for the first time in the game off a long Young 3-pointer to go up 68-66 with 5:30 left in the third quarter.

All up, Atlanta outscored New York 34-18 in the third off the back of 12 points from Young while Daniels’ work on Brunson in defence was also a big reason why the Hawks were able to flip the game.

As a whole though, it was Atlanta’s size advantage against New York’s smaller line-ups — and specifically the way the Hawks capitalised on that in the third quarter — that proved the difference.

Atlanta went on with the job in the fourth too, with Daniels confidently hitting a 3-pointer to push the lead out to 98-87 as the Hawks ran away 108-100 winners, leaving the Madison Square Garden crowd stunned.

Young, who was the subject of “F*** Trae Young chants” while shooting free throws earlier in the game, ultimately had the last laugh as he threw dice on the Knicks logo to close out the win.

All five of New York’s starters finished on double figures while De’Andre Hunter (24 points) led the way for the Hawks along with Young (22 points, 11 assists).

Johnson was the standout on both ends of the floor for Atlanta though, finishing with 21 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, two steals, two blocks.

Daniels, meanwhile, had nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks in the win.