Knicks lose control against the Hawks late, collapsing in Game 2 loss
When CJ McCollum was introduced before the game Monday night, the fans at Madison Square Garden loudly booed, welcoming the latest postseason villain into the postseason rivalry.
It grew louder, even to profane chants, as the game wore on and McCollum found himself nose to nose with Jose Alvarado, drawing double technicals. But in the end, he left the Garden crowd speechless as he delivered shot after shot — like Trae Young had before him — to carry Atlanta back from a 14-point hole to capture a 107-106 Game 2 win, evening the best-of-seven opening-round series at 1-1 as the series shifts to Atlanta on Thursday.
McCollum led all scorers with 32 points and went to the line with a chance to ice it with 5.6 seconds left and the Hawks up by one. But he misfired on both free throws with the crowd screaming at him. Josh Hart grabbed the rebound and with no timeouts remaining, threw it ahead to Mikal Bridges, who hesitated near the three-point line before continuing toward the baseline and putting up a jumper that rimmed out to end the game.
“I ain’t no villain,” McCollum said. “I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife. I think it’s admiration. Great passionate fans in a really hostile environment. It’s fun. It’s basketball and the playoffs. If anything, I think it’s a sign of respect.”
The villains the Knicks were pointing the fingers at — or at least should have been — were in their own locker room. The Knicks seemed to put this game out of reach, up 14 midway through the third quarter and still holding an eight-point lead midway through the fourth on their home court.
Jalen Brunson shot 3-for-8 in the fourth and just 10-for-26 on the night. Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t score in the fourth quarter, missing his only two attempts. And Bridges missed on the sort of open look he’d made so many times before.
Asked what he thought when he saw Bridges rising to launch that shot, Towns had a flashback to a game-winner last season.
“Portland — Mikal in Portland,” Towns said. “I’m confident. Like I said, I’m confident in any one of these guys in this locker room going out there, shooting the last shot, being on the court in the playoffs at any time. That’s because the trust we have in this locker room is special. Also because the guys — we know everyone in here is putting the work in. Confidence in each other is built not just off of we’re all wearing the same jersey, but we see each everyone putting the work in.”
But this one bounced away as time expired and the Knicks were left to wonder how they’d let this one get away. The Knicks controlled the game for nearly the entire night before a fourth-quarter collapse and Brunson did not have the magic on this night to bail them out, missing on a handful of late chances to pad the lead.
Atlanta cut the lead to just four, 96-92 with 6:15 remaining. Brunson converted a pair of free throws to stop the bleeding and then after a solid defensive stand, Brunson dropped in a short jumper with 5:26 left to give the Knicks an eight-point lead and have the Hawks scrambling for a timeout.
But Atlanta kept coming. The Hawks closed it to a one-point game on a three-pointer by Nickeil Alexander-Walker and a layup by Jalen Johnson. When Josh Hart misfired on a three, Atlanta had a chance for the lead. Bridges came up with a steal of a McCollum pass near midcourt but with Brunson driving into the lane, Mike Brown called a timeout with 2:43 remaining — taking the ball out of Brunson’s hands and leaving him with just one more timeout.
"Yeah, we had a couple of possessions that weren’t fluid,” Brown said. “So I wanted to make sure that we had something that we wanted to get to or set something up offensively because we had whiffed on the last couple of possessions. They just didn’t look right or didn’t feel right.”
That would come into play later. Out of the timeout, OG Anunoby lost the ball driving to the rim and McCollum scored on a layup to give Atlanta the lead, 101-100, with 2:08 left. Anunoby then missed a pair of free throws with a chance to tie or take the lead and McCollum got in the lane again for a floater and a three-point lead.
But Brunson answered with a pull-up three with 1:21 remaining. Hart and Bridges combined for a steal, but Brunson missed on an elbow jumper and McCollum delivered again, this time a baseline jumper with 33.5 seconds left. Brunson tried one more time to play the hero, but was stripped by Alexander-Walker, feeding it ahead to Johnson for a dunk with 10.2 seconds left and a four-point Atlanta lead.
Brunson delivered a three-point field goal with 7.1 seconds left and Atlanta called time. McCollum got the ball and dribbled briefly before being fouled, heading to the line to set up the final sequence. He missed both, but when Hart got the rebound with no timeouts, he pushed it up to Bridges, who misfired. Would Brown have called a timeout to set up a final play if he had one left?
“I usually like to go so they can’t put in their best defenders and all that other stuff,” Brown said. “Five to seven seconds is close. It would have been by gut feel. There’s a chance I could have taken a timeout if I had one and a chance I wouldn’t have. I thought ti was a good shot. Mikal got up the floor, think he got to his spot. He was a little bit off balance. Don’t think the shot was under a ton of duress. That’s a shot he’s hit for us in the past.”
“Nothing wrong with it,” Bridges said. “Just gotta make it next time. Just trying to get to the spot with time going off, try to get a nice shot, a rhythm shot.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
