If the New York Knicks were searching for a sympathetic audience after squandering a 12-point fourth-quarter lead at home, they did not find one on First Take. Kendrick Perkins and Michael Wilbon spent long minutes Tuesday morning dismantling New York's late-game offensive approach, accusing the coaching staff and point guard of the same crime: forgetting about Carl Anthony Towns when the series was there to be taken.
Towns attempted two shots in the fourth quarter of Game 2. He finished with a strong all-around line on both ends. And then, with the Knicks trying to close, Atlanta didn't even have to double him because nobody asked him to touch the ball.
"I thought they were past the point of not involving Cat late in games," Wilbon said. "Jalen Brunson is the best player on the Knicks. Cat at times will have to be the most important player in a series. And when you have two shots on your Carl Anthony Towns in the fourth quarter, not enough."
Wilbon went further, pushing for the double-big look New York leaned on earlier in the regular season.
"Can you go with double bigs? Mitchell Robinson was terrific early," Wilbon said. "And then he and Cat just sort of — I don't want to say they disappeared. Whether it was focus, whether it's something that Mike Brown will have to do, whether it's something Jalen Brunson as a floor general will have to do, those guys have to be incorporated or we can see the same thing in Game 3 in Atlanta."
Perkins, never one to soften a percentage, split the blame down the middle.
"Fifty per cent of the blame goes to Mike Brown and the other 50 per cent goes to Jalen Brunson," he said. "You're the head — far as getting Carl Anthony Towns involved more, especially in the fourth quarter. He is the most important player on the Knicks team. If the Knicks are trying to go to the promised land, they're going to have to feature Carl Anthony Towns. He's one of the best shooting bigs to ever play the game. He's one of the most skilled bigs to ever play the game."
Perkins argued that the absence of a true defensive answer in Atlanta's frontcourt makes the omission even more damning.
"They had nobody that could stop him, nobody that could guard him on the Hawks team," Perkins said. "So I'm not understanding — as the point guard, big-body Brunson, you're out there on the floor — how about slowing up the game and saying, 'Hey, get your big behind down here on this low block, run the play to get you downhill, get you in isolation, put you in the spot to be successful.'"
The Knicks looked sharper in the second half of the regular season running more two-man action with Brunson and Towns, but the first two playoff games have trended the other way. The result, Perkins argued, is a structural identity problem that the Hawks are already exploiting.
"I just don't understand why the Knicks have been battling this whole identity crisis offensively when it comes down to featuring Cat in the offence," Perkins said. "We see his numbers this year took a dip. I thought they got it right towards the end of the season because we were seeing more two-man action and Cat being involved. But Cat — you can't blame this one on him. He played his behind off on both ends of the floor."
Wilbon echoed the confusion around New York's rotations, noting lineups that pulled both Brunson and Towns off the floor simultaneously before the lead slipped. "Same thing," he said. "They had them both on the bench and then you let the lead slip away, and then they went back to it again late."
The series shifts to State Farm Arena for Game 3 with the Hawks riding the confidence of a road win and the Knicks riding the uncomfortable reality that their second-best player is being played like a third or fourth option at the moment the postseason arrived.
