CJ McCollum is filling the exact role the Atlanta Hawks had in mind when they acquired him in January. The veteran is not only scoring plenty of points, but he’s also providing an experienced presence for a young team.
McCollum scored 32 points on Tuesday to spark Atlanta’s fourth-quarter comeback and 107-106 road win against the New York Knicks. The best-of-seven first-round series is tied 1-1 and shifts to Atlanta on Thursday for Game 3.
“I really liked CJ’s leadership as much as the shot making,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “CJ’s leadership was really good with the ball in his hands.”
The Knicks had been 40-1 in the postseason since the advent of the shot clock in 1954-55 when leading by 12 or more points after three quarters. The only loss was when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth for Indiana in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals.
“It’s something that we’ve talked about over the course of the last couple of months,” Snyder said. “It’s a different type of leadership in my mind than he’s had at other times, because he’s got to find a balance of communicating and talking to the guys but still not losing his aggressiveness scoring the basketball.”
The mild-mannered McCollum also stepped into an unfamiliar role as villain. The crowd at Madison Square Garden, turned their vitriol — formerly directed at ex-Hawk Trae Young — toward McCollum. He just shrugged it off.
“I ain’t no villain, I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,” McCollum said. “I think it’s admiration. Great passionate fans in a really hostile environment. It’s fun, it’s basketball, it’s the playoffs.”
The Knicks lost the game despite 29 points from Jalen Brunson. He scored 10 of the team’s 15 fourth-quarter points when New York shot just 5-for-22 from the floor.
“We got the ball in the right people’s hands down the stretch and we didn’t convert,” New York coach Mike Brown said.
Brunson has been outstanding in both games. He scored 28 in the series opener. But Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 25 in the first game, scored only 18 — and none in the fourth quarter in Game 2. Brown blamed 14 turnovers, which led to 18 Atlanta points, and shooting 63 percent (17-for-27) at the line.
“At the end of the day we’ve got to lock in at the free-throw line, and we’ve got to take care of the ball,” Brown said. “And in that fourth quarter you could tell they were playing with a level of desperation. They got three of four 50-50 balls in the fourth quarter, which is what we use to measure the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter their aggression stepped up.”
The competition between the teams has been close all season. New York won the first playoff game 113-102, the most lopsided score this year. The Knicks won two of the three regular-season games by three points, while Atlanta had a two-point win.
“Atlanta did what they wanted to do. They came in here and took one from us at home,” Brown said. “In my opinion, you’ve got to be able to win on the road if you expect to get where you want to do. So, for us, we’ve got to go win on the road.”
