CJ McCollum carried the Atlanta Hawks to one of the loudest road wins of the first round on Monday night, pouring in 32 points as the Hawks erased a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the New York Knicks by a single point at Madison Square Garden. Jalen Johnson added 17 points, Mikal Bridges' game-winning attempt rimmed out at the buzzer, and Atlanta walked out of the Garden with a 1-1 series heading home to State Farm Arena.
The veteran guard has embraced his postseason cameo role, and when asked about the hostile MSG crowd booing him every touch, McCollum laughed off the label.
"I am no villain. I'm a nice guy with two kids and a wife," he said postgame. "I think it's admiration — great, passionate fans and a really hostile environment. It's fun. It's basketball. It's the playoffs. If anything, I think it's a sign of respect."
The Knicks' fourth-quarter collapse continued a pattern that has now shown up in consecutive games. Jalen Brunson scored 29 but owned responsibility for a late turnover that effectively ended the comeback push.
"I can control what I can control," Brunson said. "Poor decision-making on my part and a couple of possessions. They played great defence, knocked the ball out of my hands. We got to play better with the lead. That's twice in the fourth quarter now that we've done that. We got to play better in the fourth quarter."
Atlanta's game-two hero was no surprise to Kendrick Perkins, who praised McCollum's composure on the road. "The Hawks stole that one. They went and got that one. They earned every bit of that win," Perkins said on First Take. "And it started with CJ McCollum. It started with his veteran leadership and his poise. He set the tone from the jump in Game 1 and he carried it on to Game 2."
Perkins was equally effusive about the Hawks' bench, where Jonathan Kaminga dropped 19 in his first real taste of a hostile postseason road environment. The former Warrior's performance reignited questions in the Bay Area about the mid-season deal that sent him to Atlanta.
"Jonathan Kaminga, by the way, somebody for Golden State needs to be fired for making that trade," Perkins said. "That's how tremendous this guy's upside is when you look at what he brought to the table last night — his athleticism, the 19 points off the bench, just his whole championship experience and everything he brought to the table."
Michael Wilbon, joining Perkins on the desk, argued McCollum's leadership — not just the scoring — is what shifted the series.
"He was the star of that last night because he's got a neophyte playoff team, a guy still figuring it out other than Kaminga," Wilbon said. "He sort of settled them down, dealing with the Garden, basically telling his own players: this is not too big for us. We're fine. We belong in this spot. Atlanta absolutely stole a game from the Knicks."
The broader concern for New York is structural. Atlanta outscored the Knicks 32-19 in the final quarter, the latest evidence that Tom Thibodeau's group is misfiring when the leverage spikes. With the series shifting to Atlanta, where Jalen Johnson has openly said he has yet to play his best basketball, McCollum's claim of admiration may be about to sound less like deflection and more like a warning.
