{"id":204382,"date":"2026-04-21T05:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204382\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T05:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:55:12","slug":"heroes-zeros-from-knicks-game-2-loss-to-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204382\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes, zeros from Knicks&#8217; Game 2 loss to Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heroes and zeros from the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/20\/sports\/knicks-collapse-in-stunning-game-2-loss-to-let-hawks-even-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks\u2019 107-106 Game 2 loss<\/a> to the Hawks on Monday night:<\/p>\n<p>Hero<\/p>\n<p>CJ McCollum kicked the Knicks in the midsection again \u2014 only this time it was metaphorically. The veteran guard poured in 32 points, including the go-ahead jumper with just over 30 seconds remaining, as the Hawks evened this best-of-seven series at one game apiece. McCollum missed two free throws in the final seconds, but the misses didn\u2019t haunt him.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.44225352;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39148614\" width=\"851\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mikal-bridges-25-new-york-126076346.jpg\" alt=\"Mikal Bridges of the New York Knicks looks on after missing the final shot, surrounded by celebrating Atlanta Hawks players after their 107-106 victory.\" class=\"wp-image-39148614\"  \/>Mikal Bridges #25 of the New York Knicks looks on after missing the final shot at the buzzer as the New York Knicks lose 107-106 against the Atlanta Hawks during game two of the Eastern Conference first round NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden on April 20, 2026 in New York City.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Zero<\/p>\n<p>Mikal Bridges opted against attacking in the final seconds with the Knicks down one, and he paid for it. He settled for a pull-up jumper at the horn that came up short, and Atlanta left the Garden with a split. Bridges finished with 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Unsung Hero<\/p>\n<p>It was another poor shooting night for Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but he came up big when it mattered. Alexander-Walker stripped Jalen Brunson with the Knicks looking for the go-ahead basket with less than 30 seconds left, leading to a Jalen Johnson dunk that pushed the lead to four with 10.2 seconds left.<\/p>\n<p>Key Stat<\/p>\n<p>22.7: Knicks field goal percentage in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Quote<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a game we should\u2019ve won. In the playoffs, we can\u2019t give away games.\u201d \u2014 Josh Hart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heroes and zeros from the Knicks\u2019 107-106 Game 2 loss to the Hawks on Monday night: Hero CJ&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1262,21,56784,80162,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-204382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-playoffs","11":"tag-nba-playoffs-2026","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}