Despite being down only 2-1 in the series, it has been a fairly dreadful showing so far for the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs. Julius Randle has been abysmal, RJ Barrett has stopped making three's, and the defense has had a couple of head-scratching lapses at inopportune times. Yet, a win on Sunday and this series would be squared away heading back to Madison Square Garden. Here are two things that must happen for the Knicks to beat the Hawks in Game 4.

Lead dogs have to lead and take control

This one is obvious, everyone in the world knows it, but the Knicks' best players need to show up.

RJ Barrett is 4-16 from three-point range in this series so far after shooting 40% from the land beyond in the regular season. Some have given him a hall pass, noting he's just 20 years old but shame on them for doing so. Ja Morant, who was part of the same draft class and taken one pick ahead of Barrett, is dominating in his first playoffs for the Grizzlies being just 21 years old. Throw the age crutch out the window.

Barrett's defense has been fine and has actually been fairly underrated all year. But the Knicks have excelled on that end of the court when they've needed to all year long. Where they need Barrett to be a difference maker is with his three-point shooting on offense. It has to be better, point blank, or else the Knicks are in trouble.

Then there's Julius Randle. What a disappearing act it's been so far for the Knicks all-star after an incredible regular season. Randle's series can be summed up so far with these two tweets:

This can be simplified very easily. If Randle ceases to show up in Game 4 or moving forward, it's a wrap on the Knicks season. They need their lead dog to lead and to show up like he did all throughout the regular season. He feasted against the Hawks in three regular season matchups and could not have diverted in the opposite direction more if he wanted to so far in this playoffs from those performances. Randle and Barrett know it, the Knicks know it, the Hawks know it, everyone knows it. Those two have to wake up.

Attack in transition

Getting buckets in the NBA playoffs is tough. It's almost as though the court shrinks and there is less room to maneuver around. The Knicks have not shot the ball well this series against the Hawks and a large part of that rests on the shoulders of the aforementioned Randle and Barrett. One other staggering stat for the Knicks is their lack of fast break points in this series.

On one end, give the Hawks credit for getting back defensively and putting up the brick wall to disallow the Knicks from getting any of those easy buckets. For New York, why are they not trying to push it at different junctures?

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In three games this series the Knicks have a total of 15 total fast break points combined and had a zero in Game 3. They've been content with settling in to the half-court offense and it has played into the hands of Atlanta. This isn't to suggest the Knicks should turn up the tempo to a Phoenix Suns “Seven seconds or less” during the Mike D'Antoni era, but more so a nudge to get out and pick their spots to get some easy hoops instead of having to constantly grind out 24 second possessions.

The Knicks don't have a lot of pure isolation demons on their team, making it more difficult in those late shot-clock scenarios. Getting out and letting Randle and Barrett get some easy layups or dunks and them just seeing the ball go through the hoop early can do wonders for their mental makeup and for the team.

To put some perspective on this stat, the Knicks ranked dead last in fast break points per game during the regular season in the NBA. So it's not exactly the model they build off of. However, even with that dead last ranking, they still put up 3.7 more points per game with their fast break average in the regular season (8.7 fast break points per pop) than what they are doing in the 2021 NBA Playoffs (5.0 fast break points per game). That's how bad it's been for New York in transition.

It won't be easy in Game 4 for the Knicks, it wasn't during the regular season and it sure as hell isn't going to change now under the bright lights. This is the single most pivotal game of this series that won't be an elimination game. Win, and it's 2-2 going back to the Garden and New York would feel as though they have the momentum. Lose, and you're down 3-1 starting to look at trips to Cancun for a summer vacation.

If Julius Randle and RJ Barrett wake up on offense, if the Knicks can find ways to get some easy hoops in transition, they will have a really good shot to win Game 4.