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 the third 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.
Jalen Brunson did his part with 24 points and was still diving for a loose ball in the final minute. OG Anunoby had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Ariel Hukporti, pushed into the starting lineup, had 17 rebounds.
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.
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, through a long postseason run.
That was the plan last season, too, as Robinson sat out the first 50 games. The team said he was ramping up to full health.
But no matter how accustomed the Knicks may be to it, Robinson 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,” coach Mike 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.
“At the end of the day, I truly believe the guys that we have on this roster are more than capable,” Brown said. “I’m going to keep pushing. No matter who’s in uniform, I’m going to keep pushing them to play better because I believe in them. I feel they believe in each other, too, and what we’re doing.''
The Knicks — who cut a 24-point fourth-quarter deficit to nine at one point — 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.
After the Hawks (17-19) built a 60-47 halftime lead, Dyson Daniels just walked through the Knicks' defense for an uncontested floater to begin the third quarter. Zaccharie Risacher scored and then Jalen Johnson dropped in a short runner as he took a bump from Brunson, drawing a foul on the play. A breakaway dunk by Daniels upped the Atlanta lead to 68-49. In 89 seconds, the Hawks were 4-for-4 and the Knicks were calling a quick timeout. The damage kept coming as Atlanta went ahead by 26 with 1:14 left in the quarter.
With the Knicks trying to mount some sort of rally in the fourth quarter, Mo Diawara picked up a ball knocked loose by Anunoby and drove the floor on a break, feeding Tyler Kolek with a behind-the-back pass for a layup that woke up the crowd and maybe the Knicks. Kolek then found Anunoby for a three-pointer and the Knicks had cut the deficit to 13 with 8:51 left. But back-to-back three-pointers by Luke Kennard quickly extended the lead back to 19 and took the life out of the comeback attempt.
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.
