Hawks Stun Knicks with 12-Point Comeback, Even Series 1-1 at MSG
The Atlanta Hawks authored one of the most improbable comebacks of the 2026 NBA postseason Monday night, erasing a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the New York Knicks 107-106 at Madison Square Garden and knot their first-round Eastern Conference series at one game apiece. The victory was a stunning reversal for a Knicks team that entered the final period with an unblemished 39-0 record this season when leading by at least 12 points in the fourth quarter.
CJ McCollum spearheaded Atlanta’s resurrection with a game-high 32 points, including the go-ahead basket with 34 seconds remaining that ultimately decided the contest. “It’s a long game,” McCollum said afterward. “You got to play to zero. The way the game is played now, it’s so fast, there’s so many 3s, so many possessions, you always have a chance. You just have to stay within one or two possessions, stay a punch away, and then we’ll throw the last punch.” Jonathan Kuminga provided crucial energy off the bench with 19 points and a pivotal block, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker delivered several huge defensive plays down the stretch.
The Hawks’ comeback was engineered by relentlessly attacking Knicks star Jalen Brunson on defense. After largely letting Brunson off the hook in Game 1, Atlanta targeted him for four critical buckets in the closing minutes. Kuminga blew past Brunson in transition for a layup to cut the deficit. On the next possession, McCollum crossed over Brunson in transition and found Alexander-Walker for a corner three. Later, with the game on the line, McCollum twice got Brunson switched onto him—once via an Alexander-Walker screen—and beat him with a double-crossover for a go-ahead layup, then blew by him going left before hitting a runner over Karl-Anthony Towns to put Atlanta up three with 90 seconds left. Brunson has been McCollum’s primary defender for much of the series, and the Hawks’ ability to hunt that matchup proved decisive.
New York’s defensive issues extended beyond Brunson’s individual struggles. The Knicks repeatedly allowed clean rolls to the basket out of pick-and-roll actions, with insufficient weak-side help. Gabe Vincent found Kuminga for a pocket pass layup early in the comeback, and Onyeka Okongwu rolled untouched to the rim on the next possession after a defensive breakdown. While the Knicks played stretches of excellent defense—stifling Atlanta’s half-court offense in the first quarter—these lapses proved fatal.
Despite the loss, New York dominated the glass. The Knicks retained 42.6% of available offensive rebounds and generated 24 second-chance points, Atlanta’s third-worst defensive rebounding performance of the season. Mitchell Robinson grabbed four offensive boards, Towns added three, and Jordan Clarkson remarkably snagged five in just 11 minutes off the bench, including two tip-ins on consecutive possessions. “We had a hard time on the defensive glass,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder admitted. “Those plays can really be deflating.”
The Knicks’ bench, so crucial in Game 1, faltered when it mattered. Coach Mike Brown has chosen not to fully stagger Brunson and Towns’ minutes, leaving stretches where both All-Stars sit. In Game 1, New York survived those periods. In Game 2, the Hawks outscored the Knicks 23-16 in under nine minutes with both stars on the bench, as New York shot 6-for-17 with five turnovers. Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, and Jose Alvarado combined to shoot 0-for-7. In a one-point game, those minutes proved catastrophic.
The series now shifts to Atlanta for Game 3 on Thursday, with the Hawks having stolen home-court advantage and proven they can overcome even the most daunting fourth-quarter deficits. For the Knicks, questions about defensive execution, bench production, and how to protect Brunson will dominate the two-day break.
