ATLANTA — The Knicks and Hawks split the first two games of their Eastern Conference first-round series, setting up Game 3 for 7 p.m. Thursday and Game 4 for 6 p.m. Saturday in Atlanta. For Knicks fans who travel, that means another weekend in a building that could feel a lot less like an away arena.
Casey Powell, the creator of KnicksFanTV, said he will be at Game 4 and plans to host a pregame meetup with a live show at Hudson Grille in downtown Atlanta. Powell’s YouTube channel has more than 103,000 subscribers, and he said the group has been making road trips for years because the payoff is bigger when the crowd turns. “What makes it memorable is that you're quote-unquote in enemy territory, but not really because you're also surrounded by Knicks fans,” he said. Powell added that the road trips work best when the city already has a base of New Yorkers or when the game lands on a weekend, because “even though we're traveling on the road and you're quote-unquote supposed to be in hostile territory, you're also amongst your friends.”
That idea has become part of the appeal for Knicks supporters who plan their postseason around away games. Powell said he first held a KnicksFanTV road meetup in Atlanta during the first round of the 2021 playoffs, and he has seen the same pattern in other cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit and Indianapolis. On Tuesday, Powell and his wife, Marija Kero-Powell, were at Madison Square Garden for Game 2. By Saturday, he expects to be back in Atlanta with a new crowd around him if the Knicks can keep the series moving.
David Perlmutter, 43, of Syosset, is making the trip too. He said he will travel to Atlanta for Game 3, while Mit Shah, 41, also of Syosset, will be there for Game 4. The two have taken playoff trips before with their 11-year-old sons, and Perlmutter said the Atlanta games are likely to draw a heavy Knicks turnout. He estimated that Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia in 2024 were made up of 80% Knicks fans, and said that by Game 6, 76ers owners had bought thousands of tickets to try to block Knicks fans from showing up. He also said Game 3 in Detroit last year was “arguably the best environment I've ever been in.”
That is why Atlanta has started to carry the feel of a possible Madison Square Garden South when the Knicks are in town. Perlmutter said, “I think that there'll be a big contingent of Knicks fans [in Atlanta], for sure, and I also think it'll be a great environment.” Powell expects the same. He said the best part is that a road win does not feel purely like a road win when the crowd turns blue and orange. “And so when the team wins, it's even more exhilarating because you kind of did it on the road, but sort of at home as well,” he said.
