And the way things were going, Brunson was set to call his own number yet again in an effort to prevent an epic playoff collapse.He finished with 29 points on 10-of-26 shooting. Over the final 7:53, he shot three-of-eight and had the ball stolen on the Knicks’ second-to-last possession. No other Knick took more than three shots in the fourth.

Karl-Anthony Towns, who went six-of-seven in the third quarter alone, took just two shots and didn’t score in the fourth.And the Knicks cited a “stagnant” offense down the stretch — the standstill nature of the scoring flow the chief reason Brown called the timeout many say iced his own All-Star point guard.“I think [our offensive flow] could have been better,” said Mikal Bridges. “It’s definitely got to be better.”“I agree. It was a little bit slow,” added Anunoby.

“Not a lot of ball movement.”Maybe that would have changed on this possession had Brown not uncharacteristically halted play as Brunson made his move to the paint. Anunoby was available in the corner for a play his point guard has made time and time again this season.But not on this night.“We had a couple of possessions that weren’t fluid, and so I wanted to make sure that we had something that we wanted to get to or to set something up offensively,” Brown explained as his reasoning for the timeout. “Because we had whiffed on the last couple of possessions.

It just didn’t look right or didn’t feel right.”***Brown wants pace. He’s signaling it from the sideline, waving his players forward to attack an unset Hawks defense.Brunson, instead, is methodical — deliberate — working against Dyson Daniels’ pressure before even crossing half court.Atlanta leaned all the way in: traps, blitzes, doubles near mid-court. The goal was to get the ball out of Brunson’s hands and see what happens next.What happened next decided the game.

It’s been a season-long question under Brown: What do the Knicks look like when Brunson isn’t the one creating offense? Game 2 was the clearest version yet — and the ugliest.The Knicks unraveled possession by possession: Bridges rimmed out two threes on the same trip, Anunoby got stripped on a drive to the rim, Towns left a late-clock three short, and Bridges missed the game-winner at the buzzer.Even their best non-Brunson possession — a Hart-to-Anunoby lob — ended with two missed free throws. Moments later, C.J.

McCollum isolated Brunson and put the Hawks up three, a matchup he said he found advantageous for obvious reasons (“What do you think?” he responded after the game).“Down the stretch we got some pretty good looks… we just didn’t convert,” Brown said. “They hit their shots. We missed ours.”There’s another layer Brown won’t fully concede — but Thibodeau understood: The Knicks struggle when Brunson and Towns sit together.New York led by 11 in the first quarter.

Brown sat both stars early in the second. The Hawks took the lead minutes later.It happened again in the fourth. Up 14, both stars went to the bench.

By the time they returned, the lead was nine — and shrinking. The lineup Brown turned to — Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet and Anunoby — had barely played together all season. It’s been effective in small samples, but Game 2 exposed the risk.Brown didn’t see it that way.“No, I don’t think so.

We’ve played that lineup quite a bit since the end of the season, and that lineup’s been pretty good,” he said. “We weren’t good tonight and we turned the ball over a few too many times during that period.”Thibodeau rarely let both stars sit at once. Last postseason, Brunson and Towns shared just 35 total minutes on the bench together — and those minutes were a disaster.Through two playoff games this year, that number is already climbing.

Towns didn’t put the loss on those stretches.“The time when we were off the court wasn’t where we lost,” he said. “It was the time we were on the court at the end.”***Even when Brunson had the ball, things weren’t right. He’s not the same late-game force he was last season.By the NBA’s definition, clutch time is the final five minutes of a game within five points.

Last season, Brunson led the league with 5.6 clutch points on 51.5% shooting.This year: 3.6 points on 49%. The difference is subtle, but real. Brown has pushed Brunson to trust his teammates more.

The tradeoff has been rhythm — knowing when to attack and when to defer.Brunson hit a tying three with 1:21 left. Another to cut it to one with nine seconds r