For all the strengths the Knicks possess — and, as a team that’s won 50-plus games each of the past three seasons, there are plenty — across their roster, their defining one also doubled as their most deadly.
They held the best fourth-quarter net rating in the NBA this season. They had Captain Clutch, a nickname Jalen Brunson ensured was a fitting one when he won the league’s Clutch Player of the Year award last season.
If there were ever a close game in the playoffs, whether against the Hawks in the first round or another team after that, the Knicks had their go-to player, but more than that, they had evolved into a team that could deliver down the stretch of games when it mattered. And it always mattered in the postseason.
But for one stunning Monday evening at the Garden, the Hawks beat the Knicks at their own game, and now it’s a series following the Knicks’ 107-106 Game 2 loss.
