ATLANTA — James Dolan has risen to his feet. He’s been through a roller-coaster ride of emotions watching his Knicks — who he gave an NBA Finals mandate in January — cough up Game 2 against the Hawks at Madison Square Garden on Monday, then fall behind by as many as 15 points from his court side seat at State Farm Arena on Thursday.
Only to take a one-point lead with less than a minute left in regulation, the ball with his captain, his floor general, his All-Star and face of the franchise’s hands with the game on the line.
Dolan’s dreams — the dreams Mike Brown sold him in July when hired as the replacement for Tom Thibodeau following the franchise’s first Eastern Conference Finals run in a quarter-century — quickly became nightmares. Because Jalen Brunson, the NBA’s reigning Mr. Clutch, came up short with the game, and maybe even the series, on the line.
With the Knicks up one and less than a minute left in regulation, Brunson shot an airball, to which C.J McCollum responded with a go-ahead pull-up 2. And on their final offensive possession, the Knicks went back to their captain one more time, the player who’s taken them home so many times since restoring the winning order in New York after his arrival in 2021.
Brunson received a pass from Josh Hart and drove baseline. The ball popped out. It rolled past Hart into Hawks possession as a sellout Hawks arena — an arena once loudly cheering the Knicks on — roared for Atlanta’s 109-108 victory that may have changed the trajectory of two franchises.
This isn’t the team Brown sold the world when he took the job. The team that was supposed to play fast, selfless basketball turning defense into offense, a brand of basketball, Brown said, would lift the Knicks to championship heights this season.
It’s certainly not the vision he sold Dolan on during the interview process, after the Knicks owner struck out on Jason Kidd, Billy Donovan and other gainfully employed NBA head coaches. Brown sold Dolan a dream.
This has been a nightmare: Five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges, who was benched most of the second half after zero points in the first. A $212 million extension for OG Anunoby, a defensive stopper, only to prove incapable of slowing down the 34-year-old McCollum, who scored another 23 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field. And moving Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns, who has been more of an offensive afterthought under Brown than he was under Thibodeau in his first year in New York last season.
The Knicks were supposed to more closely resemble the Golden State Warriors — a team Brown helped coach as an assistant to three NBA titles in a five-year span.
Instead, they look more like Brown’s Sacramento Kings. A one-hit wonder. A team that convinced the world they were on the way up, but were more quickly on the way out.
The Knicks have now fallen into a 1-2 series deficit. They will play Game 4 at State Farm Arena on Saturday, against a Hawks team with all the confidence in the world after stealing home-court advantage from the Knicks in Game 2 then protecting their own backyard on Thursday.
And they don’t look like a team capable of turning the tide. The Knicks look disjointed and out of whack, and they don’t look fully bought into the coach either. The huddles looked lifeless. As do the Knicks’ championship hopes.
And it’s a shame: The Knicks wasted a 29-point masterpiece from Anunoby. They lost despite 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from deep from Miles McBride. Brunson scored 26 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 and 17 rebounds.
But the Hawks were better. They got 21 points from Jonathan Kuminga and 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists from Jalen Johnson, who hadn’t had a good game this series until Thursday.
The question now: Were the Hawks only better in two games this series? Or are they the better team outright? If the latter holds true, it could easily mean the end of these Knicks as currently constructed.
Because these Knicks sold ownership and their fan base a vision. They are not seeing it through.