Thursday night marked the end of the road for two NBA teams in the first round of the playoffs, as the New York Knicks ousted the Atlanta Hawks, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite being short-handed, pulled off a surprising upset against the Denver Nuggets. Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics, who once held a commanding 3-1 lead in their series, now find themselves heading into a tense Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers after a tough loss in Game 6.

Let’s delve into who emerged as the big winners and losers from Thursday night’s action.

Winner: Knicks’ closeout mentality

Over the past two nights, five teams had the opportunity to seal their first-round series victories. However, the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, and Boston Celtics stumbled, failing to close the deal. The New York Knicks, on the other hand, showcased a performance that did not disappoint their fans.

In one of the most commanding playoff performances you’ll ever witness, the Knicks demolished the Hawks with a staggering 140-89 victory, clinching the series 4-2. With this triumph, they advance to face the winner of the Celtics and 76ers showdown.

After trailing 2-1 in the series and suffering two consecutive nail-biting one-point losses to Atlanta, the Knicks faced immense pressure. Their Finals-or-bust mentality shone through as they responded with three consecutive decisive wins, boasting an impressive combined margin of 96 points.

The Knicks were determined to avoid a Game 7 showdown on Thursday night. They stormed out to a 40-15 lead after the first quarter and held an astonishing 83-36 advantage by halftime. To put it in perspective, that’s a 47-point lead at the half—a feat only surpassed once in NBA history, albeit not in a playoff context.

Biggest halftime leads in NBA history

The lead ballooned as high as 61, and the final disparity of 51 points is the third-largest margin of victory in a closeout game in history. New York’s defense turned up considerably as the series went on, and it was again stifling on Thursday. Meanwhile, OG Anunoby was unbelievable. He has 25 points in the first half. He finished with 29 on 11-of-14 shooting. He made four of his six 3s and scored at every level. 

Karl-Anthony Towns joined Walt Frazier as the only two Knicks to ever record multiple playoff triple-doubles. He did it without scoring much, finishing with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. That runs his assist total to 36 in in six games so far this postseason. His playmaking has been so impactful. 

Also, more good news for New York: Mikal Bridges finally got going, finishing with 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting. He had a brutal series other than this game. The Knicks need him moving forward. 

In the end, what felt like a close series actually wound up being dominated by the Knicks. They outscored the Hawks by 105 points over six games, and again, their only two losses were by one point each. 

Loser: Jaylen Brown

The Celtics had a chance to finish off the Sixers and instead wasted it in a 106-93 loss in Game 6. Jaylen Brown had a night to forget. Brown finished with a team-high 18 points, which doesn’t look all that bad, but he spent most of the night trying to bulldoze his way through whatever defender was in front of him — Paul George, Kelly Oubre, VJ Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey — at the expense of Boston’s offensive rhythm, which, to be fair, has ground to a halt collectively as some of their worst, most stangnant habits are showing up at the worst time. 

Brown has 10 offensive fouls this series. He had a team-high five turnovers in Game 6 and now has 22 for the series. He has played well until Thursday, but he hijacked too many possessions trying to do it himself. George ate him up in this game. 

Meanwhile, this is a pretty representative of Brown’s overall defensive effort in Game 6. 

Bottom line: You can’t go around trumpeting yourself as the best two-way player in the world and then play like this in a closeout game. 

Winner: Jaden McDaniels

McDaniels called out everyone but the Denver mayor as a defensive dog (and not the good kind) following Minnesota’s Game 2 win earlier in this series. It’s one thing to talk the talk. It’s quite another to walk the walk, and McDaniels indeed walked all over the Nuggets in basically this entire series and most importantly on Thursday as the Wolves closed out the series in Game 6 without Anthony Edwards, Ayo Dosunmu or Donte DiVincenzo. 

McDaniels finished with 32 points and 10 boards. Even with having to assert himself more as a primary scorer with Edwards out, he didn’t commit a single turnover. He is the only player in this postseason to put up 30 and 10 with no turnovers. 

Everyone knows McDaniels as a suffocating defender, which he is (he put Jamal Murray in handcuffs on Thursday), but he has been growing exponentially as an offensive threat, both as a floor spacer/secondary scorer and self-creator. Other than the 3-point shooting, which is a major strength of his (he shot the 3 at 41% this season but missed 15 of 17 against Denver), it all showed up in this series — particularly in the closeout game. 

Winner: Paul George

George has been very good all series and he was incredible with Philly’s season on the line. George finished with 23 points. He made five of his nine 3s. That puts him at 54% from deep for the series on just under six attempts per game. When he’s clicking, there still aren’t many smoother scorers than George. 

George has also been sensational defensively all series. Holding scorers to 0.65 point per isolation as the direct defender is a terrific number. 

As good as Tyrese Maxey has been, and with all due respect to Joel Embiid’s heroic return these past three games, there’s a strong argument to be made that George has been the Sixers’ most important player in this series. His within-the-offense production as a third option has been huge, and his defense has been great all season (when he wasn’t hurt or suspended, of course). 

Speaking of that suspension, George has said the 25-game absence was sort or a blessing in disguise as it allowed his body to fully heal. It looks like he’s feeling the benefits of that rest at the most important time of the year. 

Loser: Jamal Murray

The Nuggets got what they needed from Nikola Jokić (28 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds) to have a shot to push the Wolves to a Game 7, and Cam Johnson gave them the wild-card performance with 27 points (5 for 10 from 3), but Murray couldn’t pull his weight. He finished with 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting as a team-worst -18 for the game. 

Murray finished the series averaging 23.7 points, 5.7 assists and five rebounds per game. That looks pretty good until you look at the shooting clips: 35% overall, 26% from 3. He was a volume shooter who did most of his damage with 39 made free throws. 

With Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson out, the Nuggets’ defense (already not very good) was going to be playing uphill. They had to win this series with offense, and on top of Jokić being relatively stifled by Rudy Gobert, Murray just did not provide enough shotmaking. Certainly not in the closeout game.