Steve Popper: Does this Knicks team have what it takes to regain control of series?

If you are a Knicks fan looking for something to cling to as the series shifts to Atlanta for Game 3 of the first-round playoff series, if you feel like this is the first time or the worst time that the Knicks have fallen apart in the fourth quarter, there is this.

The last time and the only other time they’d blown a lead of at least 12 points heading to the fourth quarter of a playoff game came 32 years ago. It was when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals to beat the Knicks and break Spike Lee’s heart with a choke sign that has endured for decades.

But the Knicks got the last laugh, still winning the series, that fact a nice pick-me-up for the Knicks, who certainly could use one as they try to figure out what went wrong Monday night. The Knicks, now tied 1-1 in the best-of-seven series, squandered the home-court advantage when they did, well, just about everything wrong down the stretch.

CJ McCollum, a far friendlier version of a villain than Miller, arrived in this series and did the Knicks in on the scoreboard, but really, it was a self-inflicted choke job on this night. They got away with it in Game 1 when a 19-point lead almost disappeared with lackadaisical play down the stretch, but they couldn’t survive it Monday.

When the Knicks were preparing for this series, the first playoff test under Mike Brown, he was asked if he felt the pressure that was on him since he took over for Tom Thibodeau, who had brought the Knicks from a dysfunctional mess to the Eastern Conference finals last season. Thibodeau still was fired, and combined with the words of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan insisting that he believed the team absolutely should reach the NBA Finals, it would seem to cause Brown’s collar to tighten.

“Obviously, you feel the game is different than a regular-season game,” Brown said. “I always think that pressure is a privilege. The more work you put into it the more prepared you are. But always the thought process is: Any time there is any type of pressure, it should be embraced. I’d rather have that than not be in a pressure situation.”

We’re tempted to remind him, you asked for it. You wanted pressure, you’ve got it. But he probably already has a good idea even if he rarely shows it outwardly.

Brown has found himself questioned for a number of decisions in the Game 2 collapse. Some of the critiques are understandable. With a chance to go up two games to none, entering the fourth quarter with both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns on the bench against an athletic and high-pressure Hawks defense, not having a true point guard like Brunson or a go-to scorer to play through like Towns the Knicks’ offense stalled.

“We’ve played that lineup quite a bit since the end of the season,” Brown said. “That lineup has been pretty good. We weren’t good tonight and we turned the ball over a few too many times during that period. We had opportunities with our starters where we were up eight to 10 and Atlanta closed it so I wouldn’t just say that specific lineup caused it.”

“What I do know is the time we were off the court isn’t when we lost,” Towns said. “It was the time when we were on the court at the end and when they found ways to make shots. It’s on us as starters, me and JB, to make it tough.”

And you can debate Brown’s use of timeouts that left him with none when Josh Hart grabbed a rebound with about five seconds remaining and the Knicks down one. It forced them to rush it up the floor and get a shot from Mikal Bridges that bounced off the rim. In a perfect world Brown calls a timeout there and the Knicks get a clutch shot from Brunson or Towns. But that also would have risked, if they had a timeout, that Atlanta sets its defense, forces Brunson to give the ball up in a double-team and hand someone a grenade with one second left to get off a game-deciding shot.

The reality is that the Knicks lost this game not by decisions as much as performance. The second unit struggled. Towns had just 12 shots and three of them came on offensive rebounds.

“We were a little stagnant,” Brunson said. “Obviously, I can control what I can control. And so, poor decision-making on my part. A couple of possessions they played great defense and knocked the ball out of my hands. We just have to play better with the lead. That’s twice in the fourth quarter we’ve done that.”

When Miller lit them up in the fourth quarter in 1994, the Knicks came back and won the next two games. The question isn’t how they blew the lead this time as much as do they have what that team had back then: the fight to fix the issues and take over the series again.

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.