Knicks left searching for answers after shocking Game 2 loss to Hawks

To Brown’s point, the Knicks led by nine in the fourth quarter when Brunson and Towns returned to the court. There were eight minutes left in regulation. This is a game the Knicks should have won.

WHAT ABOUT THE TIMEOUTS?

Brown called a timeout with 2:43 remaining in the game and Brunson dribbling to the basket. Brunson didn’t have a clean look so you can’t say that Brown’s timeout directly prevented the Knicks from scoring, but it was strange to see Brunson stopped mid-dribble by the timeout.

“We had a couple of possessions weren’t fluid so I wanted to make sure that we had something that we wanted to get to or set something up offensively because we had whiffed on the last couple of possessions,” Brown said. “They just didn’t look right or didn’t feel right.”

At that point, the Knicks led by just one and had been outscored, 10-4, over the past five minutes.

Brown did not have a timeout to use on the Knicks’ final possession, which ended with a Mikal Bridges miss.

WHAT ABOUT BRUNSON?

Brunson finished the game 10-for-26 and went 3-for-8 in the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter.

In that same span, Towns took just two shots.

“The opportunity just didn’t come around to shoot it,” Towns said when asked about the fourth quarter. “But at the end of the day I trust everyone in this locker room to shoot it. The opportunity wasn’t there for me in the fourth. And that’s fine. These guys, they work on their games, I know they can shoot it.”

When Hart was asked about Towns in the fourth quarter, he made it clear that it would be one of several things the Knicks would look at ahead of Game 3.

“We have to make sure he’s more involved, find him on mismatches. Put him in action and make sure we use his skill and his gravity to our advantage,” he said. “That’s something we will look at film and be better with.”