Shorthanded Knicks come up short against Hawks in one of their worst losses of the season

This was no way to start the new year.

The Knicks came out flatter than a pancake for their first game of 2026 and produced one of their worst performances of the season.

On what should have been the final possession of the first half, Jalen Brunson, who was not under pressure from the defense, walked the ball up the court too slowly and was called for an eight-second foul. That lack of focus on the unforced error perfectly summed up their uninspiring performance as the Knicks fell 111-99 to the Hawks on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

“I’m not going to lie, we just didn’t have it tonight,” Brunson said. “I know this is a horrible, lame excuse, but we let shot making affect our overall gameplay. That includes our pace, our sense of urgency. It just wasn’t our style of basketball today and it’s unacceptable.”

They were short of players, with a big hole in the middle without Karl-Anthony Towns (illness) and Mitchell Robinson (load management). And they were still without Josh Hart (ankle) and Landry Shamet (shoulder). That certainly turned out to be the case.

They trailed by 24 points after three quarters and even heard some boos.

The Knicks, coming off a three-game win streak, have lost two games in a row following a tough back-to-back with the 76ers coming to town on Saturday. And since their NBA Cup win, they’ve gone just 5-4.

It’s the first time they’ve lost two in a row since losing three in a row at the end of October.

They showed more life in the fourth quarter – starting the quarter with an 11-0 run to cut their deficit to 13 and provide the MSG crowd with some juice. But two straight threes from Luke Kennard restored a 19-point Hawks lead. The Knicks cut the deficit to 11 with just under four minutes left and nine with 1:29 remaining, but never got closer.

“At that point it was too late,” Brunson said. “We have to have that sense of urgency throughout the game. We can’t let it get to that point.”

Coach Mike Brown has repeatedly criticized the Knicks’ defense in recent games, and it has once again been lax.

“The shot’s not falling, where else are we going to hang our hat? And it has to be on the defensive end of the floor, and we didn’t do that for most of the game tonight,” Brown said. “And that’s why we lost in the end.”

But lately, the Knicks have sometimes rescued their poor defense with strong offense. They were brutal on both sides of the ball on Friday.

Brunson finished with 24, but got little help from healthy co-stars OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges until it was too late. Anunoby had 19 points – including seven in the fourth quarter when the Knicks were already trailing by a large margin – and Bridges scored 18 – including 12 in the fourth.

As a team, the Knicks shot just 36 percent from the field and a whopping 20 percent from three-point range. That was their worst goal of the season, and it affected their efforts.

They allowed the Hawks to shoot 48 percent from the field, led by Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Onyeka Okongwu, who each scored 23 points.

“I think it’s just a lack of energy defensively,” Bridges said. “I know we didn’t make shots, but that leaves no excuse not to defend and come back. We can’t let missing shots affect us on the other end.”

All the Knicks absences forced Brown to dig deeper into his bench again. But that expanded bank was struggling.

Jordan Clarkson played no role. Tyler Kolek failed to impact the game like he has done recently. Kevin McCullar Jr., who has entered the rotation in Hart’s absence, took a step back and was winless. Mohamed Diawara missed all three shots he made and was also scoreless. Pacôme Dadiet and Trey Jamison III even briefly saw the court.

Ariel Hukporti and Guerschon Yabusele were the only two members of the banking unit to largely hold out.

“It doesn’t matter how many men are in uniform or who is in uniform,” Brown said. “We’ve got to start playing the right way. Sometimes, if you play the right way, you’re going to lose and you’re okay with that.”

That was certainly not the case on Friday evening.

The Knicks flew for a few weeks, winning eleven of twelve games, including the NBA Cup finals. But suddenly they started to falter.

They have an immediate opportunity to respond.