{"id":716925,"date":"2026-04-24T03:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716925\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:27:18","slug":"heroes-zeros-from-knicks-game-3-loss-to-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716925\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes, zeros from Knicks\u2019 Game 3 loss to Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heroes and zeros from the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/23\/sports\/knicks-lose-another-heartbreaker-to-hawks-to-fall-into-nba-playoffs-hole\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks\u2019 109-108 Game 3 loss to the Hawks<\/a> on Thursday night in Atlanta: \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hero<\/p>\n<p>CJ McCollum was limited to seven points in the second half, but the final two mattered most \u2014 hitting the game-winning jumper for Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>As the Hawks built the core of their lead across the first 24 minutes, he collected 16 points. And there weren\u2019t any <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/21\/sports\/hawks-cj-mccollum-revelling-in-the-boos-as-gardens-latest-villian\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cF\u2013k you, CJ\u201d chants this time<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39182941\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/atlanta-hawks-guard-cj-mccollum-126280013.jpg\" alt=\"Basketball players CJ McCollum and Miles McBride jump for the ball during an NBA Playoffs game.\" class=\"wp-image-39182941\"  \/>CJ McCollum hits the game-winning shot. AP<\/p>\n<p>Zero<\/p>\n<p>So much for elevating his game for the postseason again. <\/p>\n<p>Mikal Bridges was benched for the final 9:48 of the third quarter after struggling defensively and going scoreless offensively, and even after returning for part of the fourth, he spent the final 9:25 on the bench.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Unsung hero<\/p>\n<p>After managing just 14 points and only nine shots in Game 2, OG Anunoby poured in 19 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 29. <\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t matter in the end, but this is the blueprint for Anunoby.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Key stat<\/p>\n<p>2: The combined points from Bridges and Josh Hart \u2014 two of the Knicks starters. Hart only scored on a dunk with 7:35 remaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heroes and zeros from the Knicks\u2019 109-108 Game 3 loss to the Hawks on Thursday night in Atlanta:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,7046,304,1260,6,11,56381,1136,191,3810,3806,741,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-716925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cj-mccollum","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-mikal-bridges","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-playoffs","14":"tag-nba-playoffs-2026","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkknicks","19":"tag-og-anunoby","20":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}