Are the New York Knicks in trouble?
For the second time in three nights, the Atlanta Hawks upset New York in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, and now the Knicks have fallen behind in the series, 2-1. In Game 2, it was a historic blown lead in the fourth quarter. With New York’s 109-108 loss Thursday, April 23, it was an inability to complete an attempted comeback after trailing most of the game.
So, as for the question above. In short, the answer is yes.
For one, the Hawks — a balanced team with players who fit specialized roles — are playing with confidence and competing. They’re being led by veteran guard CJ McCollum (who has 81 points this series), they have a pair of dynamic, two-way wings in Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker and they have a bench that is suddenly rising to the occasion.
And, if we’re just playing the odds, history shows the massive importance of Game 3s. In the history of Best-of-7 series, the winner of Game 3 following a 1-1 tie has gone on to win the series 74% of the time.
New York’s offense has been something of a mess. Similar to last season, the Knicks rely far too much on Jalen Brunson, particularly in the clutch. Brunson is New York’s best closer, so this does make some practical sense. But the issue is the operation and the way a lot of these shots are created.
The ball often stagnates, which leads to other players standing around, waiting for Brunson to make his move.
Thursday night, when New York couldn’t inbound the ball to Brunson successfully on the last play of the game, the entire play broke down, forcing Brunson to try to play hero ball.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who did score 21 points Thursday night, has had inconsistent quarters, and coach Mike Brown often doesn’t do a good enough job of incorporating him as the clear No. 2 option.
And, rather inexplicably, Brown seemingly didn’t correct for an issue in Game 2 that helped spark the Atlanta avalanche that overwhelmed New York: once again, he began the fourth quarter with both Brunson and Towns on the bench at the same time.
Though Brown adjusted and inserted them both back in with 9:25 left to play in the period, it took the beginnings of a Hawks run for him to abandon that strategy.
And while OG Anunoby did bail out New York Thursday with 29 points, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart, a pair of starters, combined to score just 2 points on 1-of-12 shooting.
On defense, the Knicks have a glaring problem; throughout the entire series, Atlanta has been hunting Brunson, seeking him out in matchups. Hawks guard CJ McCollum made that abundantly clear when a reporter asked him after Game 2 if he liked that matchup.
Atlanta Hawks forward Onyeka Okongwu (17) defends the shot of New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby (8) during Game 3 of their first-round playoff series on April 23, 2026.
“What do you think?” McCollum asked the reporter, who shrugged his shoulders and responded in the affirmative.
“Yeah,” McCollum said, with a little extra emphasis.
This continued Thursday night. Whether it was McCollum, who scored 16 points in the first half, many of them after targeting Brunson.
This is not all to say that the Knicks are going to lose this series; there’s plenty of runway left here for New York to course correct and solve their issues.
But time is running out, and the margin for error has become tenuously thin.
Game 4 Saturday, April 25, also in Atlanta, suddenly is as close to a must-win as it gets.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Knicks lose Game 3 to Hawks. Is New York in trouble in NBA playoffs?
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