Hawks beat Knicks, Rockets down Warriors to reach NBA Cup semis
Alperen Sengun scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Rockets and teammate Jalen Green's 12 points included the game-winning free-throws with 3.5 seconds remaining as Houston ended a run of 15 straight losses to the Warriors stretching back to February 2020.
The Rockets booked an NBA Cup last-four showdown against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Las Vegas on Saturday, when the Hawks face the Milwaukee Bucks.
Atlanta, fueled by 22 points and 11 assists from New York nemesis Trae Young, rallied from a 10-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Knicks 108-100 at Madison Square Garden.
The final of the second edition of the in-season tournament will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
"I've never seen my team so thirsty," Sengun said of the Rockets' determination to make it to Vegas. "We got ready for this game so hard."
The Rockets harried Stephen Curry and the Warriors into 14 first-half turnovers and led by as many as 14 points on the way to a 44-37 halftime lead.
But the Warriors adjusted, and with Draymond Green keying a strong defensive effort they appeared to have taken control when back-to-back three-pointers from Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga pushed their lead to 89-82 with 3:38 to play.
Golden State were up 90-84 with 1:16 to play when Houston's Fred VanVleet drilled a three-pointer to launch a 7-0 scoring run to snatch the win.
Kuminga scored 20 points to lead the Warriors, Curry scored 19 but missed a three-pointer with 11.1 seconds left.
The Warriors were still up by one with 3.5 seconds remaining when Rockets guard Green dived on a loose ball and officials called a foul on Kuminga to send Green to the line for the game-winning free throws.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was incensed at the call.
"Never seen a loose-ball foul on a jump-ball situation 80 feet from the basket with the game on the line," he said. "That is unconscionable... give them a timeout and let the players decide the game."
Young comes alive
In New York the Knicks dominated the first half but Young came alive in the second to get the Hawks offense firing.
Young scored 12 points and handed out nine assists after the break, directing a balanced Hawks attack that was led by 24 points from reserve De'Andre Hunter.
Young found Hunter for an alley-oop dunk that pushed the Hawks' lead to 14 points with 3:01 remaining.
Clint Capella threw down an alley-oop fed by Dyson Daniels and added another seconds later off a pass from Young as the Hawks put the game away.
"It's a big game, especially for us," said Young, who has been the player Knicks fans love to hate since Atlanta's win over New York in a 2021 playoff series.
"We just try to play for each other and play til the end, and that's what we did," added Young.
Josh Hart led the Knicks with 21 points. Karl-Anthony Towns added 19 points and 19 rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes, and Mikal Bridges added another 19 for New York, who failed to respond when Atlanta stepped up the pace in the second half.