Dyson Daniels lifted his offensive output but another big night from New York star Jalen Brunson has placed Atlanta on the brink of an NBA playoff exit.

The Knicks cruised to a 126-97 home court win on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.

They can progress on Thursday in Atlanta, where the Hawks must find solutions to force a game seven at Madison Square Garden.

Daniels, who had guarded Brunson with relative success earlier in the series, began game five with a defensive assignment on centre Karl-Anthony Towns.

That Daniels' pressure did bring some early joy, but with Brunson (39 points) off the leash the Knicks quickly built a buffer that never closed.

Towns finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.

Boomers guard Daniels, who had no more than eight points in any previous game of the series, hit his first three field goals to signal his intent.

He finished with 17 points and five assists, shooting at 64 per cent including two-of-four from long range.

But, after passing up some early looks at the rim, the 23-year-old still faced criticism for his apparent reluctance to shoot.

"Their mindset was to try and come out and try bully us and be physical and they did that," Daniels said.

"We've got to move the ball, get better shots ... come out with a different mindset for game six, come in and be better as a team defensively."

The Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the series with one-point victories in games two and three.

But since then it's gone the way of the No.3 seeds, with the Knicks building leads of 24 to win game four and up by as many as 32 points on Tuesday.

Jalen Johnson had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Hawks but CJ McCollum, the catalyst of both Atlanta victories, had just six.

In Boston, Joel Embiid scored 33 points, Tyrese Maxey had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers avoided elimination by upsetting the Celtics 113-97.

Paul George had 16 points and nine rebounds for the seventh-seeded Sixers, who lost games three and four at home to fall behind 3-1 in the series before returning to Boston to keep their season alive.

The Sixers can force a decider when the teams return to Philadelphia on Thursday night.

In his second game back from an emergency appendectomy, Embiid helped rally Philly from a 13-point, third-quarter deficit.

Jayson Tatum had 24 points and 16 rebounds for Boston and Jaylen Brown scored 22.

And in San Antonio, the Spurs sewed up the series against Portland 4-1 behind 21 points from De'Aron Fox in a 114-95 victory.

Coming off the bench for the Trail Blazers, Australian Matisse Thybulle made only one of six shots to go with two two assists and two steals.

With AP