Knicks vs. Hawks score, takeaways: Kemba Walker posts rare NBA Christmas Day triple-double as New York rolls

Walker notches just the seventh Christmas Day triple-double in NBA history, and the first-ever for the Knicks

A week after returning to the New York Knicks' rotation, Kemba Walker unwrapped a triple-double on Christmas Day. Walker wasn't the Knicks' best player in Saturday's 101-87 win over the Atlanta Hawks -- that honor is unquestionably Julius Randle's -- but, given the circumstances, his 10 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds added up to the biggest story. 

Walker recorded the seventh Christmas triple-double in NBA history and first for a Knick. (This was New York's 54th Christmas game, a league high.) He didn't shoot particularly well (3 for 12 overall, 2 for 9 from deep) but, outside of Randle, did the lion's share of the playmaking, with Derrick Rose recovering from ankle surgery, Immanuel Quickley reconditioning after a stint in the health and safety protocols and Miles McBride still in protocols. When Walker checked out after playing 40 minutes, the Madison Square Garden crowd stood up and chanted his name. 

This follows Walker's 44-point performance against the Washington Wizards on Thursday. Walker did not play a single minute in between Nov. 26 and Dec. 18. 

Randle finished with 25 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including 6 for 9 from deep, plus 12 rebounds, looking like the All-Star player that he was during the 2020-21 regular season. Rookie Quentin Grimes, fresh out of COVID protocols, shot 5 for 12 from 3-point range off the bench. 

The Hawks, meanwhile, were anything but merry. Shorthanded without Trae Young and Kevin Huerter, among other players in protocols, they shot 33 for 87 from the field. Delon Wright and John Collins scored 20 points apiece, but starters Bogdan Bogdanovic, Cam Reddish and Clint Capela scored a combined 24 points on 8-for-34 shooting. Here are three takeaways from the Knicks' impressive Christmas Day win.

1. Randle the Red-nosed Reindeer?

Early in the game, ESPN's "wired" segment caught Randle saying he was in the Christmas spirit. If the holiday accounts for the extra pep in his step, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau should consider wearing a Santa Claus costume to every game going forward.

This wasn't just tough shot-making, although there was certainly some of that. Randle made quick decisions upon catching the ball, and he gave it up when he drew an extra defender. The Knicks would surely have liked to see him take more than four free throws, but he can't be accused of lacking aggression. 

Down by 17 points with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Atlanta called a timeout. Randle read the Hawks' after-timeout play perfectly, ripped the ball right out of Bogdanovic's hands and, seconds later, made his sixth 3 of the night. This sequence effectively ended the game. 

Randle's career year was primarily driven by scorching-hot shooting, and it was always going to be difficult to sustain that. His off-ball defense has deteriorated this season, though, so the late steal stood out. The way these Knicks are constructed, they don't always need Randle to go off the way he did against Atlanta, but they do need him to be locked in defensively and find places to attack within the flow of the offense. More of this, please. 

2. Fire away

The Knicks shot 20 for 50 from deep, the most they've made or attempted since going 24 for 54 against the Orlando Magic in the second game of the season. This is decidedly not the shot profile of a typical Thibodeau team, but this particular Thibodeau team has taken 3s at an above-average rate all year. 

Launching tons of 3s is not inherently awesome for an offense. This game did not, however, feature New York indiscriminately jacking up contested 3s. On the very first possession, Walker stepped into a pull-up 3 out of a pick-and-roll and nailed it. Over and over, Grimes found himself wide open in the corner, thanks to Walker and Randle getting into the paint. The Knicks are not a fast-paced team, but they repeatedly found clean looks in transition off of Atlanta's turnovers and misses around the rim.

Related: The Hawks' transition defense has been terrible all season, and in general they've taken a massive step back on that end. New York is among many teams that have put them in rotation with relative ease, then moved the ball and created the kind of 3s it was looking for.

3. Yuck!

Atlanta scored a season-low 94.6 points per 100 possessions. The Knicks' defense deserves credit, but the Hawks fell down 19-3 in less than five minutes because they couldn't make anything, contested or not. 

On the season, the Hawks' offense has been elite. To be clear, the primary reason Atlanta struggled at Madison Square Garden is that it was missing Young, Huerter, De'Andre Hunter, Danilo Gallinari and Lou Williams. I'm not sure what can reasonably be expected of bench lineups that include Skylar Mays, Lance Stephenson, Jalen Johnson and Gorgui Dieng all playing at the same time. (Side note: Shoutout to Dieng and his team-high five-assists.)

You would hope, though, that Young's absence would give Bogdanovic an opportunity to shine as a playmaker. You'd hope that Reddish's forays into off-the-dribble creation would go much better than they did. Heading into Christmas, the Hawks had scored just 102.1 points per 100 possessions with Young off the court this season, excluding garbage time, according to Cleaning The Glass. This one gross offensive performance is understandable, but, more broadly speaking, a team this deep shouldn't be so dependent on one player's pick-and-roll game. 

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:19 pm ET · James Herbert]

FINAL SCORE: Knicks 101, Hawks 87

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:18 pm ET · James Herbert]

Fans now chanting OBI, OBI

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:18 pm ET · James Herbert]

You'll see highlights of that one

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:17 pm ET · James Herbert]

Obi Toppin just brought the house down

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:17 pm ET · James Herbert]

OH OKAY

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:13 pm ET · James Herbert]

A KEM-BA WALK-ER chant has broken out at the Garden as he checks out. Awesome.

[Dec 25, 2021 at 2:11 pm ET · James Herbert]

Was that a profane Trae Young chant from the MSG crowd? Maybe!