Jalen Brunson had the ball in his hands with a chance to win.
Captain Clutch came up empty.
Trailing by one point, Brunson turned the ball over in the final seconds as the Knicks’ comeback fell short in a 109-108 loss to the Hawks in Game 3 Thursday night at State Farm Arena.
The Knicks are now in a 2-1 series hole.
CJ McCollum, the biggest Knicks villain this series, drilled the go-ahead bucket with 12.7 seconds left. It has been McCollum, not Brunson, who has owned this series.
Ring the alarm bells. Hit the panic button.
The Knicks might not yet be on the ropes. But they’re certainly reeling.
And now they’re firmly on the back foot.
They had a chance to flip the script and pull off their own late-game comeback after collapsing in Game 2. They trailed by 11 with 8:06 left in the game.
With 3:50 left in the game, Karl-Anthony Towns was blocked at the rim by Jalen Johnson. OG Anunoby corralled the rebound in the corner and heaved a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired and somehow made it to cut the Knicks deficit to just two points.
And after a stop, they had possession with a chance to tie the game or take the lead.
But Brunson missed his floater. McCollum, who had gone quiet since a huge first half, drilled a jumper to extend the Hawks’ lead to four points.
Anunoby hit another 3-pointer to cut the Knicks deficit to one point, but Johnson answered with a bucket of his own to re-establish a three-point Hawks lead.
Miles McBride – on the floor in place of the benched Mikal Bridges – hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with 1:41 left. Brunson’s and-1 gave the Knicks a three-point lead with 52.6 seconds left.
He had a chance to ice the game, but air-balled his shot with 16.4 seconds left.
Then, with the Knicks needing a stop, McCollum hit the game-winning jumper and shifted the balance of this series.
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