Jalen Brunson stared at the floor for a long beat before he answered the first question. There was nothing he wanted to give the New York reporters at Madison Square Garden, and there was nothing he wanted to take from himself. Atlanta had just walked out of his building 109-108 on Wednesday night with a 2-1 lead in the first round series, and the Hawks had done it because his last possession ended with the ball in the wrong hands.
"Wish a better answer for you. I got nothing right now," Brunson told reporters when asked to walk through the final two possessions, per the SNY postgame stream.
The sequence that ended the game was a CJ McCollum dagger followed by a Brunson collapse. With New York up 108-107, the Knicks point guard fired a contested three over the McCollum switch and missed badly. McCollum came back the other way, found himself one-on-one with Miles McBride after Atlanta switched on the screen, rose up and buried the shot that put Atlanta in front 109-108 with 18 seconds left.
What happened next is what Brunson could not bring himself to relive on camera. The Knicks burned their final timeout. Atlanta still had one. Mike Brown's set was designed to feed Brunson on the right side of the floor against Onyeka Okongwu, and on paper, that was the matchup New York wanted.
"I made a lot of plays going right," Brunson said. "And just clearly didn't make one this [time]."
The inbound was a problem from the jump. Dyson Daniels, the Hawks defender who had hounded Brunson all night, went down on the play, which left Okongwu switched onto the New York star with the clock ticking.
"Coming up the screen, I went all the way to the back court to try to get some space. Josh passes on Cat and Cat gives it back, and then he looks to come screen for me. Dyson falls and then starts to flare off to the open side of the court and got the ball," Brunson recounted. "Started the drive on Okongwu, and peeked up at the clock. There was about six-ish, seven-ish on the clock. Tried to get around him, saw a double, and was looking for a corner outlet, and then just kind of saw Josh cutting and knew I was behind the basket. I needed to do something to give us a chance. So I ended up turning the ball over."
The ball never reached Hart. Josh Kuminga read the desperation pass to the baseline, smothered it, and Atlanta walked off with the win.
It was the second straight late-game heartbreak for the Knicks, who had already coughed up Game 2 at home. Brunson refused to soften his self-assessment when asked how he was playing in the series.
"Not good enough," he said. Asked what specifically had to improve, his answer was one word: "Everything."
McCollum carried the Atlanta offense down the stretch and finished the night as the closer his teammates expected when the series began. He had been picking on whichever Knicks defender was switched onto him in the fourth quarter.
"When CJ McCollum has seen either McBride or Brunson on him, he has been able to just get to his spot and elevate over the top," the broadcast crew noted as the play unfolded. "He struggled a lot more with Josh Hart, but small lineup here for the Knicks, and he was just able to get up over the top."
The Knicks now travel back to Atlanta for Game 4 down 2-1, with an offense that has gone cold in two straight fourth quarters at home and a star guard who is taking the losses on himself. Brunson made clear he plans to do exactly that in private before he returns for the next game.
"For me sometimes I like to move on, live on with this day, and then go to sleep and then wake up tomorrow as a brand new day," he said. "Look at the positives, look at something to look forward to. Find a way to bounce back."
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*Originally published on [NBA News](https://nbanews.global/article/cj-mccollum-game-winner-knicks-hawks-game-3-brunson-turnover-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
