Boos rain down at MSG as Hawks punch shorthanded Knicks, 110-99
A rare handful of boos rained down from the Madison Square Garden crowd.
The Knicks faithful can be ruthless like that sometimes. After all, their team is alone in possession of the second seed in the Eastern Conference. They recorded 23 wins and just 10 losses heading into Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. They had reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a quarter century, hired a head coach who radically changed the way the Knicks operated on both ends of the court, and then won the NBA Cup, a clear barometer of this team’s ceiling as championship contenders.
On Friday, in the first game of the new calendar year, everything went out the window. That’s how lousy a performance the Knicks had — with Karl-Anthony Towns (illness) and Mitchell Robinson (load management) sidelined — in their 110-99 loss at home Friday, their second in a row following Wednesday’s loss in San Antonio to the Spurs.
Knicks fans booed their valiant and heroic team, often to Teflon, when the Hawks’ lead ballooned to 29 points midway through the third quarter. They booed again at the start of the fourth quarter.
And then something happened, a short-lived Knicks run that cut Atlanta’s 24-point fourth-quarter lead to just 13 in three minutes of play. The Knicks then cut Atlanta’s lead to nine with less than 90 seconds left in regulation.
Those two late surges weren’t enough to make up for the lackadaisical opening three quarters. The Knicks lost the middle two periods, 61-40, and fell to a Hawks team without All-Star point guard Trae Young.
Jalen Brunson finished with 24 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the field and a miserable 1-of-10 from downtown. OG Anunoby added 19 points and 10 rebounds, Mikal Bridges posted 17 points, five rebounds and five assists, and Ariel Hukporti – starting for Towns – did his best Robinson impression with 17 rebounds (seven on the offensive glass), four blocks, four assists and eight points in 28 minutes of play.
The Knicks got only 19 points off their bench compared to 24 for the Hawks: Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek shared 11 points, and Guerschon Yabusele scored eight points in 15 minutes coming off the bench.
Meanwhile, Kristaps Porzingis returned to MSG for the first time as a Hawk since the trade that sent him to Atlanta from Boston over the summer. On a minutes restriction, just two games removed from an extended illness absence, the former Knicks first-round pick finished with four points and eight rebounds on 1-of-8 shooting from the field in 17 minutes of play.
“The reality is it’s a long season. And everyone is human, just like you are with your job, our guys are human just like you are with your job,” head coach Mike Brown said before Friday’s announcement. “It’s my job to try to push our guys to be perfect. I know it’s not going to happen, but I’m going to try my best to push them that way.
“It’s human nature that when you have success, you tend to disappoint a little bit, especially when you’re playing or competing against the best in the world. It’s human nature to let go of the rope from time to time, especially if you’re still looking for ways to succeed. And then when you have success, I’ve experienced this in a lot of other teams that I’ve played with, people come for your neck and they come for your neck for 48 minutes. If you give them a taste of I hope they take advantage of it because they are professionals, they are the best. And this has also happened to us several times.
Brown’s words rang true Friday, and the Knicks have a chance to right the ship Saturday, although it will be the second leg of a back-to-back with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, rookie VJ Edgecombe and the Philadelphia 76ers coming to town.
