Implosion

The Knicks overcame a shaky game in several areas to take command late, but allowed Atlanta to make every winning play down the stretch.

Good morning. That’s about as frustrating an early season loss as you’re going to get. On the bright side, the chance at redemption is around the corner. Speaking of which…

Hope to see everyone at T2 Social tomorrow! Now, about last night…

Game 7: Hawks 121, Knicks 116

• New York came out flat, but was rescued by an incredible run of 3-point accuracy.

• Even with the hot shooting, Atlanta stayed ahead for most of the night thanks to sloppy and stagnant offense and a failure to keep the Hawks off the glass.

• KAT was again very good on offense, putting up 34 points

• On the flip side, Jalen Brunson had another game he’d like to forget

• The Knicks led by five with under 2:30 to go, but made zero (0) winning plays from that point forward.

After 45 and a half minutes, it looked like the Knicks were going to get away with it.

After 45 and a half minutes of more uneven execution on both sides of the ball, after they again came out flat, after they kicked the ball around the court like a team just meeting each other for the first time, and after failing to keep the hungry Hawks off the offensive glass, the Knicks were still in position to steal a game on the road to finish off the trip at 3-1 and allow everyone to breath easy for a bit.

They were in that position after 45 and a half minutes in large part because they couldn’t miss from downtown, hitting 20 of their next 31 attempts from behind the arc after a 1-for-10 start. It was a staggering display of shooting that ended with 22 makes and tied for the second most threes in a game in franchise history. The fact that they trailed a middling Atlanta team - one that has twice lost to the Wizards this season - for the majority of the night despite that level of shooting tells you all you need to know about how far this group still needs to go.

And yet…

This was never a game they should have lost.