The first weekend of the 2026 NBA playoffs was decidedly drama free with all eight Game 1s being decided by at least nine points for the first time in league history. The Knicks and Hawks game us our first barnburner on Monday as Atlanta flipped a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit into a 107-106 series-evening win in Game 2.
Elsewhere, the Cavs took a 2-0 lead on the Raptors. The Timberwolves closed out the night by handing the Nuggets a home loss and evening their series at 1-1. We'll have more on that game later, but for now, here are the winners and losers from Knicks-Hawks and Cavs-Raptors.
Five years after Trae Young took over New York in the 2021 playoffs, the Hawks have another MSG villain in CJ McCollum, who has been superb through the first two games and absolutely took over late in the fourth quarter on Monday as Atlanta evened the series 1-1.
After Game 1, McCollum made a comment that Jalen Brunson, an accomplished on-court thespian, "thought we were at a Broadway show" as a reference to what he deemed a Brunson acting job on a McCollum jumper that resulted in a technical foul and $2,500 fine for the Atlanta guard.
“I shot a jumper and Jalen thought we were at a Broadway show” — CJ McCollum on getting T’d up for kicking Jalen Brunson in the Knickerbockers pic.twitter.com/T7X0k6yCob
The combination of the foot to their superstar's nether region and the subsequent dig in the press conference had the MSG crowd chanting "f--- you, CJ" prior the start of and throughout Game 2.
McCollum responded with 32 points, including nine in the fourth quarter that New York entered with a 12-point lead. Down the stretch, McCollum cooked Brunson over and over. First, with just over two minutes remaining, he turned Brunson inside out before floating a high kiss off the glass to give Atlanta its first lead since the eight-minute mark of the third quarter.
CJ MCCOLLUM JUST FRIED JALEN BRUNSON.HAWKS TAKE THE LEAD. pic.twitter.com/I7Z2UPQ0Fq
Thirty seconds later, he blew past Brunson again to extend Atlanta's lead to three.
After Brunson answered with a 3-pointer to tie the score, McCollum flowed right back into a nasty fading jumper from the left corner to put the Hawks in front again.
CJ MCCOLLUM IS COOKING🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/S6STNlfcjw
Just for the drama, McCollum walked to the free-throw line with 5.6 seconds remaining with a chance to put Atlanta up three and bricked both of his attempts. Without a timeout, New York raced it the other way and got a pretty good look, but Mikal Bridges' jumper missed and Atlanta escaped with a shocking win.
There were a number of Atlanta heroes down the stretch. Nickeil Alexander-Walker hit a huge 3, and then after McCollum had put the Hawks up two with that baseline fader, NAW stripped Brunson and raced it the other way for a find-and-finish with Jalen Johnson, who was also big in closing time after a tough game.
But this was McCollum's night, and it has been his series for the Hawks. Through two games, McCollum has drained 23 shots for 58 points. He has pushed the pace consistently, and in money time, he has been the go-to player for the Hawks. He's no stranger to this. He's been one of the league's better one-on-one creators for years, and in his prime, there were few player you would trust more to get a bucket late in games. So far in this series, he's proving he's still got it on the big stage.
During the regular season, the Knicks owned the league's best fourth-quarter plus-minus by a wide margin. In Game 2, that dominance flew right out the window. The 12-point blown lead matched the biggest playoff fourth-quarter collapse in franchise history (tied with the Reggie Miller choke game in 1994).
After scoring 14 points in the third quarter, Karl-Anthony Towns went scoreless on just two shots in the fourth. He just wasn't a part of the central actions down the stretch, which was a strange decision by Mike Brown as Towns enjoys a size advantage in this series and was coming off such a hot third.
Brunson was getting trapped all over, and Towns would've been a natural outlet, but suddenly he wasn't being used in ball screens. Again, strange. As was Brown's decision to play the first four minutes of the fourth with both Brunson and Towns on the bench. The Hawks trimmed the deficit from 12 to nine in that stretch, which isn't terrible, but perhaps a different rotational deployment could've given the Knicks a chance to extend the lead and put the game away before it got tight.
Brown was asked about the non-Brunson/Towns minutes (coaches typically keep at least one of their stars on the court at all times whenever possible in playoff games, let alone in the fourth quarter), and he cited that the lineup in question performed well for the Knicks at the end of the regular season. But the end of the regular season is not the playoffs, and over the long haul, the numbers do not support Brown's claim.
Mike Brown about non-Brunson and KAT lineups: "I don't (think) the game got away there. We've played that lineup at end of regular season and it was pretty good." pic.twitter.com/Fl3KRF1vNH
Brown did the same thing in Game 1, and the Knicks also got away with in then as they only lost one point off their lead. But be wary of small-sample lineup data. Shot luck can make a bad decision look good, or at least defensible, from game to game, but for the Knicks to strip themselves of their two core offensive engines for crucial fourth quarter minutes is playing with fire.