Death, taxes, and the final game of a long road trip.
The Knicks concluded their four-game, eight-day swing with a trip to Atlanta to face the Hawks, and after winning in Miami and Detroit, then losing in Houston, the Knicks found themselves in a dogfight on Wednesday.
And after a particularly disappointing loss in H-Town, courtesy of a physical Rockets defense that deployed Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet to pressure Jalen Brunson at the point of attack, the Knicks got a second dose of the same medicine before heading home: Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, acquired as part of the Dejounte Murray trade with the New Orleans Pelicans, a hard-nosed, 6-7 guard known less for his offense and more for using his length, athleticism and tenacity as a hound on defense.
It worked, and opposing defenses — particularly how they approach guarding Brunson after an all-world scoring season for the Knicks last year — continues to be a theme for the new-look Knicks, who dropped their second in a row with a 121-116 loss at the State Farm Arena.
The Knicks split their four-game road trip, 2-2, and will return to Madison Square Garden to face the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.
And while the Knicks offense has been infused with new life through their pair of offseason trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, the team will go as their captain goes.
Brunson finished with 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field to go with four assists in 37 minutes of action. Faced with familiar defensive pressure, he got off the ball more often than not, reading and reacting to the opposing defensive scheme and accepting what the defense gave him.
The Knicks captain is not going to force something that isn’t there, and instead funneled the offense through a more favorable matchup: Towns, who exploited Hawks center Clint Capela to the tune of 34 points and 16 rebounds, including 5-of-9 shooting from downtown.
The other Knicks starters were the beneficiary of a more diplomatic captain, whose willingness to work the ball around resulted in all five starters logging double-digit scoring: Bridges scored just 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field; Josh Hart added 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists; and OG Anunoby scored 15 points and hit three 3s.
Even Miles McBride, who shot 0-of-9 from the field and 0-of-5 from downtown in Houston against the Rockets, came alive for 16 points and 7 assists off the bench against the Hawks.
The diplomacy, however, failed in the final seconds of regulation, when the Knicks trailed one with the ball in Brunson’s hands, and instead of making a play to score, he dished the ball to Towns — the night’s hot-shooting hand — who forced a corner three that missed and led to a transition bucket that put the Hawks up, 114-111, with 47 seconds left.
And on the following possession, out of a timeout, Brunson forced up a contested three that didn’t fall. The Hawks made a free throw on the other end to make it a four-point game.
Hawks rookie Zaccharie Risacher scored both a game- and season-high with 33 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field, and Hawks star Trae Young shot poorly from the field for 23 points on 21 shot attempts but tallied 10 assists on the night. Jalen Johnson double-doubled with 23 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for the Hawks, who advanced to a 4-5 record as the Knicks fell to 3-4 on Wednesday.
And if the Knicks are going to fix their issues, they start in part with Brunson, but also fall to a defense that gave up more than 60 points in the paint in Houston, then 58 more to the Hawks on Wednesday.
