Knicks Collapse In Stunning Game 2 Loss To Let Hawks Even Series

The Knicks had their foot on the Hawks’ neck. All they had to do was press down.

Instead, they choked away what would’ve been a commanding 2-0 series lead. The best fourth-quarter team in the NBA completely fell apart.

The Knicks blew a 12-point lead to start the fourth quarter and fell to the Hawks 107-106 in Game 2 Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Now the series is tied 1-1 heading to Atlanta with a completely different tenor. Now the Hawks have life.

Now, the worst memories around the Knicks have come flooding back.

“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”

And it was the newest postseason villain who put them away. CJ McCollum kicked Jalen Brunson in the midsection in Game 1, causing a bit of controversy. Monday, it was a gut punch that he delivered, this time to all Knicks fans.

He scored six straight Hawks points as the Knicks lead melted away. A Brunson 3-pointer briefly tied the game before McCollum’s jumper re-established a two-point Hawks lead with 33.5 seconds left. The Knicks trailed the rest of the way.

Brunson drilled another 3-pointer to cut the Knicks deficit to one point with 7.1 seconds left. And McCollum missed both free throws, giving the Knicks life. But the Knicks were out of timeouts and could not set up their offense. Instead, Hart corralled the rebound off the missed free throw and threw a pass ahead to Mikal Bridges. He got a decent look — stepback jumper in the left corner — but it clanked off the rim and the collapse was complete.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” Hart said. “Everyone is frustrated with this loss. We’re gonna go into Game 3 with a great attention to detail and a great focus for a full 48 [minutes]. We’ve got high-character guys that’ll respond well.”

The Knicks had been 47-2 when leading after three quarters this season, including Game 1. Now, it’s 47-3. It’s hard not to think back to their Game 1 collapse to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals last year.

The Knicks went ice cold, shooting 5-for-22 from the field and 3-for-11 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. They missed two free throws. They allowed the Hawks to shoot 10-for-15 from the field.

They had led from 2:58 left in the second quarter to 2:08 left in the fourth quarter. Their lead was as large as 14 points during that stretch.

“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”

The bench might have been at fault for losing an earlier lead in the second quarter. It was the starters, though, who were at fault for blowing it in the fourth quarter. All five starters were in the game with 6:05 left, with the Knicks up by six. OG Anunoby was carelessly stripped and later missed two free throws. Hart missed his only shot in the quarter. Bridges was 0-for-3. Karl-Anthony Towns was uninvolved and went 0-for-2.

Towns’ usage was particularly perplexing. He took just three shots in the first half. Then he went 6-for-7 and scored 14 points in the third quarter. Then he disappeared down the stretch.

“The opportunity just didn’t come around shooting,” Towns said. “But at the end of the day, I trust everybody in this locker room to shoot the ball. The opportunities weren’t available for me in the fourth, and it was fine.”

In truth, the Knicks had delivered a recipe for failure from the start. But it didn’t bite them until the last few minutes. They shot just 32.4 percent from 3-point range and 63.0 percent from the free-throw line. They committed 14 turnovers.

And, notably, it’s the second time the Knicks unraveled late.

In Game 1, they had a 19-point lead before an 11-0 Hawks run made it interesting. That lead proved insurmountable. Monday’s wasn’t.

“We have to play better with the lead,” Brunson said. “That’s twice in the fourth quarter now we’ve done that.”

McCollum — who heard “F–k you CJ” chants from the MSG crowd — finished with a game-high 32 points. He has hurt the Knicks more than any other Hawks player through two games — and it’s largely come with Brunson defending him.

“He was in a great rhythm,” Brunson said. “I gotta disrupt it. Make him play on his heels, make him react to me defensively. He was just in a rhythm. I give him a lot of credit.”

McCollum and the Hawks might deserve some credit. But this choke job was largely self-inflicted.