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Game 2 of the NBA Playoffs first round between the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks was supposed to be over by the middle of the fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson led his team to a sizable lead but it all collapsed and the game ended with a 107-106 loss instead. There were a lot of factors for this defeat but Coach Mike Brown figured out what their fatal weakness was entering Game 3.
Coach Brown names Knicks' fatal NBA Playoffs weakness vs. Hawks
The NBA Playoffs necessitate teams to execute flawlessly in every possession. Else, their opponents would take over and a lead could vanish in such a short span of time. The Knicks now know what that's exactly like after dropping a game at Madison Square Garden to the Hawks. Coach Mike Brown pointed out that Jalen Brunson and the rest of the team were not so keen in perfecting their execution as Game 2 went by, via Ian O'Connor of The Athletic.
"We had a couple of possessions that weren’t fluid. So, I wanted to make sure that we had something that we wanted to get to, or to set something up offensively, because we had whiffed on the last couple of possessions," the Knicks head coach said.
Coach Brown is right. The Knicks were not making the most of their possessions even early in this NBA Playoffs game. They committed 14 turnovers as the Hawks stole the ball nine times from them. The Hawks also took advantage by turning their great defense into offense by scoring 18 points off the Knicks' turnovers. To top it all off, Coach Brown's Knicks also did not execute their halfcourt offense well enough. They only knocked down 44.8% of their field goal attempts which was way below their season average that clocks in at 47.7%.
Just like that, the 14-point lead by the Knicks disappeared because of how poorly they managed themselves on the offensive side. Will they be able to fix these woes entering Game 3?
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