Shorthanded Knicks just don't have it in loss to Hawks
Knicks' Tyler Kolek and Jalen Brunson have a discussion during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Knicks were back home after days of film and lectures to fix the defensive woes that had struck them in recent weeks.
And they responded with what might have been their worst performance of the season.
The same defensive failings that have plagued them of late were mixed with a sluggish and sloppy offense on Friday night, and by the third quarter, the crowd at Madison Square Garden was booing regularly.
The Knicks fell behind by 26 points late in that quarter en route to a 111-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, who didn’t even have Trae Young to rub it in.
The Knicks (23-11) had their own issues, playing without Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson, and for most of the night, the players in uniform seemed absent, too.
“Not gonna lie, we just didn’t have it tonight,” Jalen Brunson said. “I know that’s a terrible, lame excuse, but we let shotmaking affect our overall game play. That includes our pace, our sense of urgency. Just wasn’t our style of basketball today and it’s unacceptable.”
Brunson had 24 points but was 1-for-10 from three-point range (the Knicks went 9-for-44). OG Anunoby had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Ariel Hukporti, pushed into the starting lineup, had 17 rebounds and four blocks.
It’s difficult to say that anything would have made a difference on a night like this, as little seemed to go right on either end of the floor. But it was another night when it was hard not to wonder if Robinson could have made a difference, a question that has been asked often.
Robinson hasn’t played in a game since last Saturday in Atlanta. It has been the Knicks’ practice and plan to sit him in one end of a back-to-back set. This week, though, he sat out the games in New Orleans and San Antonio along with this one despite having a rest day before each game (the Knicks had said earlier this week that he would play one game of the back-to-back set Friday and Saturday against the 76ers).
Robinson was listed as questionable in the 6 p.m. injury report submitted to the NBA, but shortly after that, he was ruled out. That decision became a little cloudier when Towns, who also was questionable with what the team called an illness, was scratched shortly before game time.
“We gotta go play,” Mike Brown said. “It doesn’t matter how many guys are in uniform or who’s in uniform. We gotta go play the right way.”
For the Knicks, Robinson’s absences might seem like a fact of life by now. He played only 17 games in the 2024-25 regular season, so he’s ahead of that pace — but according to the team, he doesn’t have an injury. He is load-managing his left ankle to help preserve him for the whole season and, the Knicks hope, a long postseason run.
That was the plan last season, too, as Robinson sat out the first 50 games. But no matter how accustomed the Knicks may be to it, he can be a huge factor in a game, and it’s not ideal for them to be missing him every time there is a back-to-back set.
“He is [a force], and shoot, we’d rather have him than not,” Brown said. “When we do, he definitely protects us on the back side in a lot of different ways.”
Could the Knicks have used him to help counter Victor Wembanyama on Wednesday? Could he have helped avoid the beating the Knicks took on the boards in that 134-132 loss? Brown has bemoaned the team’s inability to sustain a defensive effort for 48 minutes, but being without Robinson is a huge part of that — just like the absence of Hart, Landry Shamet and Deuce McBride before the latter returned from a sprained ankle.
The Knicks — who cut a 24-point fourth-quarter deficit to nine — took an 11-2 lead and seemed fine with the additions to the starting lineup, as McBride hit a pair of three-point field goals and Hukporti dunked. But the good vibes faded quickly as the offense turned sluggish and sloppy and the defense, without Robinson and Hart, again could not slow down Atlanta.
The Hawks built a 60-47 halftime lead and then scored eight points on 4-for-4 shooting in an 89-second span to make it 68-49.
“It’s not a reality check,” Brown said. “It’s how we played. It’s how I feel myself. Inside, I’m like, ‘Boo. Mike, you stink.’ They have a right to boo me and everybody else. Especially if we’re playing the way we were playing, starting with guarding the ball and not getting back in transition. It’s tough to stomach because you’re not giving yourself a chance.”
Notes & quotes: Hart, who has missed four games with a sprained right ankle, is doing light court work and will be reevaluated in a week.
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.
