Knicks choked away Game 2 in stunning fashion. Can the Hawks end them?

NEW YORK — Downstairs, the call was being made for the first bus to leave Madison Square Garden. Jonathan Kuminga, fresh off a 19-point outburst off the bench, was seated at his locker, shirtless, eating a plate of chips and guacamole (with one chocolate chip cookie on the side), listening to “If I ruled the World” by Nas, featuring Lauryn Hill. Veteran guard CJ McCollum, fully living out his villain arc, rested both his feet in an ice bath.

Just minutes earlier, he had irritated the crowd here to the point of repeatedly serenading him with a chant whose first word rhymes with truck. As in: “Truck you, CJ. ” And as Atlanta Hawks staffers bundled towels and closed down the locker room, general manager Onsi Saleh was sighing.

“We’ll take it,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “My heart rate needs to recover, but we’ll take it. ” Somehow, the Hawks stole this one in the Garden.

Atlanta erased a 12-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to stun the New York Knicks , 107-106 , evening its first-round playoff series at one game apiece. This was a game New York controlled. In 48 minutes, the Hawks held a lead for just 1:25, a 14-second slice in the second quarter and the rest in the game’s final minutes.