By: Jennifer Portee
4/24/2026
It didn’t feel like one of those games that would come down to a single shot until suddenly, it did.
It was a back-and-forth kind of night, loud and unpredictable, until everything suddenly tightened up and every possession started to feel tight. And when it got there, when everything slowed down and every possession started to matter just a little more, the ball found CJ McCollum.
It keeps finding him.
With the Hawks down and less than 15 seconds on the clock, McCollum didn’t rush. He created just enough space, leaned into a fading jumper, and let it go. Clean. Calm. The kind of shot that feels ordinary until you realize how much it actually means.
It dropped, and just like that, Atlanta had a 109-108 win, and a 2-1 lead in the series.
At this point, it’s not just about the makes. It’s the moments. McCollum finished with 23 points, but more than that, he’s now done this twice to New York in just three games. Same story, different night the Knicks get close, and McCollum closes it.
Still, inside Atlanta’s locker room, this wasn’t framed as a one-man rescue.
“This team earns those shots,” head coach Quin Snyder said. “It’s how they play together that puts someone in position to take it.”
And for most of the night, the Hawks looked like the more connected group. They jumped out early, playing fast, spacing the floor, and forcing New York to chase. Late in the first quarter, everything broke open threes started dropping, the bench came alive, and the energy spread through the whole building.
Mouhamed Gueye knocked one down. Jonathan Kuminga came in firing. The energy shifted, and Atlanta rode it.
But the Knicks never really let go.
They kept leaning on OG Anunoby’s scoring and Jalen Brunson’s control, slowly chipping away until it finally paid off. With just over a minute left, Brunson powered through a three-point play that gave New York the lead and, for a moment, the feeling that they had stolen it.
That moment didn’t last.
What came next was chance after chance, and nothing to show for it. A missed three. A possession that burned out. And then, in the final seconds, a turnover that ended things not with a shot, but with a quiet kind of frustration.
“You want that situation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We had it. We just didn’t finish.”
He also pointed to missed calls near the rim, but didn’t hide from the bigger issue execution, especially when the game tightened.
Atlanta, on the other hand, got contributions everywhere. Jalen Johnson led the way with 24 points. Kuminga brought pace and scoring off the bench. And even beyond the box score, there were small, timely plays like McCollum’s earlier defensive stop that kept swinging momentum back their way.
Now the series stays in Atlanta for Game 4, and the Hawks carry more than just a lead. They’ve got rhythm. Confidence. And a closer who seems to show up exactly when the game starts slipping out of reach.
Because right now, when things get tight and the noise fades just enough to hear the moment
CJ McCollum doesn’t miss it.