The Knicks had the Hawks right where they wanted them. They simply needed to maintain their grip.
But instead, they let a commanding series lead slip away, dropping to a heartbreaking 107-106 loss in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden. The series is now tied 1-1 as they head to Atlanta, and you could feel the shift in momentum. The Hawks gained a much-needed spark.
All of this brings back some of the Knicks’ toughest memories.
“We should have won that game,” Josh Hart remarked. “In the playoffs, you can’t just let one slip away.”
This time, it was CJ McCollum, the newly minted villain of the playoffs, who dealt the final blow. He ruffled feathers in Game 1 with a low kick to Jalen Brunson; on Monday night, he sent a jolt of despair through Knicks fans instead.
The Hawks quickly went on a 6-0 run, chipping away at the Knicks’ 12-point lead. Brunson’s 3-pointer leveled the score momentarily, but McCollum responded with a jumper just 33.5 seconds from the end, putting the Hawks ahead by two. The Knicks were left scrambling.
Brunson managed another 3-pointer with just 7.1 seconds remaining, narrowing the gap to a single point. McCollum then missed both of his free throws, giving the Knicks a flicker of hope. But without timeouts left, they struggled to set up a plan. Hart grabbed the rebound off McCollum’s miss and tossed it to Mikal Bridges. Though his shot seemed promising, the stepback jumper hit the rim and sealed the Knicks’ fate.
“We’ve been in these tight spots before,” Hart said. “This loss is frustrating for all of us. We’ll head into Game 3 with sharper focus and attention to detail. We have a skilled team that can bounce back.”
Interestingly, the Knicks had a solid record in third quarters this season; they led 47-2 heading into the final stretch, but now sit at 47-3. It’s hard not to be reminded of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, where they suffered a tough loss in Game 1 against the Pacers.
As for their fourth quarter performance, they faltered completely, converting only 5 of 22 field goal attempts and 3 of 11 from beyond the arc. They even missed two free throws, while allowing the Hawks to score on 10 of 15 attempts.
They maintained their lead for most of the game, holding a maximum advantage of 14 points from late in the second quarter into the fourth.
“In that fourth quarter, [the Hawks] got the better of us on four 50-50 balls—we got one of them,” stated coach Mike Brown. “We refer to that statistic as a gauge of our aggression. In the fourth quarter, they showed a lot more.”
Some might point fingers at the bench for letting the lead slip earlier in the second quarter, but the real issues arose when the starters took the floor. With just over six minutes left and a six-point lead, all five starters were in play. Unfortunately, OG Anunoby lost the ball, missed two free throws, and Hart struggled to find his rhythm.
Towns’ performance was particularly baffling. He barely had any shots in the first half but came alive in the third with 14 points on six of seven shooting—yet then vanished again.
“The opportunity just didn’t present itself for me in the fourth,” Towns said. “But I trust everyone in this locker room to take their shots. We just didn’t have it at the critical time.”
The reality is, the Knicks set themselves up for trouble from the start. It didn’t hit them until the closing moments. They struggled with a 32.4 percent success rate from three-point range and 63.0 percent from the charity stripe, along with 14 turnovers.
This marked the second recent late-game collapse for the Knicks; they had a 19-point advantage in Game 1, nearly letting the Hawks back in then as well. Fortunately for the Knicks, that one didn’t end as drastically.
“We must protect our leads and play better,” Brunson acknowledged. “We allowed it to slip away twice in the fourth.”
McCollum, who faced chants of disapproval from the Madison Square Garden crowd, finished as the game’s leading scorer with 32 points. He seemed to be a thorn in the Knicks’ side more than any other Hawk through the first two games, a lot of which can be attributed to the defense from Brunson.
“He found his rhythm,” Brunson said. “I need to disrupt that. I can’t let him get comfortable. He hit his shots, and I have to give him credit for that.”
While McCollum and the Hawks deserve some applause, this slipping grip was, predominantly, their own doing.
