ATLANTA — The Knicks and Jalen Brunson again failed when it mattered most.
Finishing up a long road trip in terrible fashion, the Knicks were outscored by 10 points in the final 2:12 and fell Wednesday to the Hawks, 121-116, at State Farm Arena.
Brunson, coming off his dud at the end of Monday’s loss to the Rockets, was part of the collapse again. He managed just four points in the fourth quarter, unable to counter the strong finish by Trae Young.
It was a tight game throughout and a sloppy end as the struggling Knicks (3-4) wrapped up a 2-2 road trip. They were leading by five after a trey by Karl-Anthony Towns with three minutes remaining, their biggest advantage of the second half.
Then they missed on two straight possessions before Brunson hit one of two free throws to give the Knicks a one-point lead with 80 seconds left.
With the Knicks trailing by one on probably the game’s most important possession, Brunson had an open 3-pointer when isolated against Atlanta’s Clint Capela.
But he hesitated and dished it to the corner for a contested trey from Towns, who bricked it.
Atlanta got the rebound, dunked in transition and never looked back.
“I hope the New York fans exited really, really quick,” Young said after Knicks fans tried to take over the arena.
Brunson was locked up by defensive specialist Dyson Daniels, a rangy guard with quickness and size at 6-foot-5.
His first half was ride on the struggle bus with three turnovers, zero assists and eight points on 3 of 8 shooting.
As a ball-dominant scorer who often requires time and several dribbles to get his shot, the ball moved better when pass-first rookie Tyler Kolek was at point guard.
The 29 overall assists accumulated by the Knicks followed their offensive dud in Monday’s loss to Houston, where Josh Hart lamented the “stagnant” offense.
“Offensively, we have to be more decisive, more in tune with the game,” Hart said. “Teams see that they’re going to think that’s the blueprint [to stop us].”
So the ball moved better Wednesday but the defense turned suspect.
The Hawks made 15 treys while shooting 45 percent overall.
Young finished with 23 points and 10 assists. Rookie Zaccharie Risacher dropped a career-high 33 points.
The Hawks are stuck in between rebuilding and gunning for the playoffs.
They have an old Knicks nemesis in Young, 26, who is in the middle of a max contract extension.
They’re also starting Risacher, a 19-year-old rookie and first-overall pick who dropped 22 on Wednesday in the opening half. They traded Dejounte Murray for Daniels and rebuilding pieces.
They were missing Wednesday two of their top players, Bogdan Bogdanovic and DeAndre Hunter, both injured.
But the Knicks couldn’t capitalize and they better hope this is just growing pains.
A few hours before Wednesday’s tip-off, Brunson declared the Knicks were progressing positively regardless of any outside criticism about their uneven start.
“We’re trending in the right direction,” Brunson said. “I think for us we can’t really focus on the opinions of people outside of the organization. We have to focus on what we believe is going on, what we believe is right. How can we fix it together? We see each other every day, we work with each other every day. So we know what’s going on in between these lines.”
Brunson finished Wednesday with 21 points and three turnovers on 8 of 18 shooting.
Towns led the offense with 34 points and 16 boards.
