NBA playoffs 2026: Can the Knicks rely on Jalen Brunson/Karl-Anthony Towns two-man attack in Game 2?

NEW YORK — Teams can spend months, years, lifetimes searching for that one perfect possession: the play where everything the front office envisioned in the offseason, everything the coaches drew up on the whiteboard, and everything the players run through in the install comes together to create the high-percentage scoring chance that everybody’s hunting for at this time of year. For a New York Knicks team that has moved heaven and earth — not to mention Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, a handful of first-round draft picks and about $820 million — over the past two years, the wait ended about five minutes into Saturday’s Game 1. With the Knicks leading the visiting Atlanta Hawks 14-13 in the early going, Jalen Brunson dribbled across half-court and around a high ball screen from Karl-Anthony Towns.

Two Atlanta Hawks defenders — Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker — tracked Brunson as he dribbled to his left, unwilling to give the All-NBA point guard any daylight after he’d already made his first five shots of the 2026 NBA playoffs. That left Towns, who had slid to his right after setting the screen, wide open above the break of the 3-point arc — an area where the 7-foot marksman has routinely knocked down more than 40% of his attempts over the course of his career . The Hawks didn’t want to give him any daylight, either; when Brunson calmly made a behind-the-back pass to Towns, Atlanta guard CJ McCollum, the nearest defender, quickly shifted over, closing out to prevent a clean 3-point look.

“Those closeout situations — if they're long, you know, you think you're on him, and he’s 7 feet tall, and you’re not,” Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said before Game 1. “Then, you think you've done a good job of that, and he makes a quick read. ” On this play, Towns read McCollum, who was guarding Josh Hart, who was reading everything.

As soon as Brunson threw that behind-the-back pass, Hart saw the dominoes falling; knowing that McCollum’s going to have to rotate to KAT, he began to cut from the slot. With only one Hawks defender left on the weak side of the floor, Hart knew his cut would force center Onyeka Okongwu into a choice: stay at home on Mikal Bridges in the corner and potentially give Hart an open layup, or rotate to pick up Hart and leave Bridges — who made the third-most corner 3s in the NBA this season — wide open to catch and shoot. McCollum shifted.