Knicks drop Game 3 to Hawks, trail 2-1 in first-round series

ATLANTA — In the Knicks locker room the mood was clear, players sitting quietly in front of their stalls, some with their heads in their hands, others staring ahead.

It was as if they, like probably most of their fan base, could not quite process what had just occurred, what had left them retreating to the catacombs of State Farm Arena silently as streamers poured down from the rafters with the Atlanta Hawks celebrating a 109-108 win in Game 3 of the opening round playoff series, pushing the Knicks into a two games to one hole.

What might have been most startling was that the Knicks ever had a chance for their hearts to be broken in the end, since they seemed lost much of the night, trailing by as many as 18 points. But it was the end where they saw the sort of thing that just doesn’t happen to this team — the ball in Jalen Brunson’s hands and failure the result.

Brunson had given the Knicks their first lead since the opening minutes with a three-point play with 1:03 remaining and he had the ball again with the lead at one and 16.4 seconds left, but the shot fluttered to the left of the rim, an airball that fell out of bounds. C.J. McCollum, who the Knicks had held in check for much of the second half, played the hero again, draining a quick elbow jumper to push Atlanta back in front.

But it seemed too quick, giving the Knicks the ball and a timeout with 12.5 seconds left, far too much time for last year’s Clutch Player of the Year to be afforded. Brunson got the switch he wanted, drove to the right side along the baseline and was unable to shake Jonathan Kuminga and other defenders converging on him. He tried to flick a pass to Josh Hart cutting into the lane, but it misfired — a turnover that rolled helplessly to midcourt as time expired.

Brunson came to the podium and was asked to explain what had happened on those final two possessions. He was quiet for a moment and then said, “Wish I had a better answer for you. I got nothing right now.”

Understandable. The Knicks just hadn’t seen this, the other team delivering the death blow while Brunson faltered. But through the three games Brunson has had to fight for every shot, the long-armed defenders of the Hawks focused on taking him out of his game and the Knicks out of theirs.

“We’re down, two-one,” Hart said. “Right now there’s no room to feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got another one on Saturday at 6 o’clock. So it’s a quick turnaround. We’ve got to make sure we regroup and go out focused for Game 4.”

“The reality of it is, it’s a seven-game series for a reason,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “Stuff’s going to happen. Plenty of teams have been down 1-2, even OKC was down 1-2 last year and they ended up winning it. I’m not saying we’re going to win. . . . This should sting. We gave ourselves a chance knowing we didn’t play our best basketball, so it should sting. We need to feel it and be locked in for the next games.”

Brunson had 26 points as the Hawks worked to blanket him. OG Anunoby delivered heroic shots down the stretch and led the Knicks with 29 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 17 rebounds. But Mikal Bridges was invisible — and benched most of the second half — as he finished without a point in 21 minutes — 0-for-3 with four turnovers.

McCollum finished with 23 points, just seven after halftime. But the Hawks got a boost off the bench from Jonathan Kuminga, who had 21 points.

“We fought and it shows that we’ve got that fight,” Towns said. “We’ll never quit on ourselves no matter how the game is going. But we need to close out the game and just didn’t today.”

From the very start the Knicks just looked like they weren’t ready to play and certainly not ready to match the intensity and physicality of the Hawks. In the opening four minutes the Knicks had three turnovers and Hart saved them from two of them, hustling to recover the ball — including one off a lazy inbounds pass from Brunson where Hart knocked the ball loose, dove across the floor to grab it, fought off two Hawks trying to tie him up and from the ground fed the ball ahead to Anunoby for a fast break dunk.

But the sloppiness kept coming and the Knicks stopped recovering, falling behind by as many as 18 points — Atlanta reaching that gap with 3:46 to play in the first half when McCollum delivered another three-point field goal over Brunson while Anunoby was called for a loose ball foul under the rim. Nickeil Alexander-Walker converted the free throw for a four-point possession and a 56-38 lead.

The Knicks took that punch and staggered back to their feet. Brown threw out some of the rotations he’d used and in the final minutes of the half had Jordan Clarkson and Deuce McBride paired with Hart, Brunson and Towns. And with McBride draining a pair of threes, the Knicks were able to close the gap to 58-50 at the half.

The Knicks also tinkered with the defensive assignments, putting Hart on McCollum to start the second half after the 34-year-old point guard had scored 16 first-half points, mostly targeting Brunson. With Hart on him McCollum was 0-for-3 with just a pair of free throws in seven minutes in the third.

Atlanta coach Quin Snyder won a pair of coach’s challenges — one late in the third quarter on a Hart drive to the basket that was originally called a foul on Kuminga and another early in the fourth on a McCollum foul on a McBride jumper, one wiping out a potential four points from the line.

Brown went without Towns and Brunson to start the fourth but with the Knicks down 92-82 just 2:33 into the quarter, he sent them back and yanked Bridges — who had committed a fourth turnover.

“Had more turnovers than I had the two games combined,” Bridges said. “Just sloppy overall. . . . But I’ve just got to be better so I can be out there.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

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.