After two one-point losses, Mike Brown’s Knicks turn a 2-1 hole into a 13-game surge

The New York Knicks went into Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks in a fragile place, and they left it worse. On April 23 in Atlanta, the Knicks suffered a second straight one-point loss, falling 109-108 and moving to a 2-1 series deficit. The mood in New York was described as bleak that night, with Mike Brown’s future as head coach becoming a topic of conversation while the franchise sat in a familiar posture: close enough to hope, far enough to feel danger.

Brown, entering his first season as the Knicks’ head coach, tried to dampen the drama with the simplest message playoff coaches lean on when outcomes swing quickly. “Stuff’s going to happen,” Brown said, pointing to the way series can flip once a team string together the next few games. He also framed the turnaround as a matter of taking the next contest at a time, not reaching too far for conclusions while a best-of-seven still has six more chapters to write.

What followed has been treated as a near-constant reset of the storyline. Since that April 23 loss, the Knicks played 13 consecutive playoff games and won them all, a run that carried them through multiple rounds and ended with New York returning home in the NBA Finals holding a 2-0 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs. The streak has not only extended their title path, it has also altered the way the Knicks’ postseason performance is being measured: not just whether they can win, but how often and by how much they can control the game once they get momentum.

Brown’s own playoff history is part of why that streak has drawn attention. According to the Associated Press, Brown’s official record as a head coach is 64-42, and the same report notes that his path includes a comparable stretch in Golden State. Brown was an assistant on the Warriors staff during the 2016-17 run and, with Steve Kerr sidelined by back issues, Brown served as acting head coach and went 12-0 in the playoffs. The Knicks, by way of their own present run, are now being connected to that earlier “single-season winning run” standard when postseason-only streaks are compared.

The Knicks’ dominance during the surge has also come through in the numbers. Over the 13 wins, New York outscored opponents Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Antonio by 273 points, the largest 13-game playoff point differential listed in the Associated Press report for that span. The streak has been resilient even when the margin tightened: the report says all but two of the wins came by double figures, with the exceptions including a six-point win against Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals and a one-point win against the Spurs in the Finals.

On the road, the run has been just as blunt. The AP report says the Knicks went 8-0 away from home during the streak, with the final margin on average landing at 21.5 points in those games. It is that combination, not simply a string of victories, that has changed Brown’s narrative from “coach on the hot seat” to “coach whose teams keep showing up, and keep showing up bigger,” even after early setbacks.

For the Knicks, the immediate question is whether this can be sustained into the next stage of the postseason, when preparation tightens and opponents adapt. For Brown, the underlying challenge is the same as it was back in Atlanta: turn belief into execution game by game. The Finals are no longer about answering whether New York belongs, they are about finishing while the momentum is still in hand.

For the Hawks, the loss in Game 3 is now part of the series’ turning point history, a narrow game that slipped away and preceded a sudden shift to Knicks control. Watching how Atlanta responds in their offseason will likely reveal whether the Hawks can build a defense and shot profile capable of surviving a team that, once it starts rolling, is difficult to stop for long stretches.