As banged-up as the Knicks have been for weeks — and forced to play without Jalen Brunson for all but the opening minute Sunday in Cleveland over their past two games — they also have faced two consecutive opponents who also were missing their best player.
One game after they were able to gut out a key victory with Donovan Mitchell sidelined for the Cavaliers, the Knicks were unable to do the same with nemesis Trae Young out for the Hawks in a 116-100 loss Tuesday night at the Garden.
Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 points but shot just 7-for-23 from the field — while missing 12 of 17 from 3-point range — for the Knicks, who lost for the eighth time in 11 games to drop to 36-26.
Bojan Bogdanovic contributed 19 points off the bench, and Precious Achiuwa finished with 15.
Jalen Johnson netted 26 points, DeAndre Hunter contributed 22 and Dejounte Murray had 21 for the Hawks (27-34).
Young was out for the Hawks after undergoing hand surgery last week, but Brunson didn’t play due to a left-knee contusion suffered early in the Knicks’ victory Sunday over the Cavs.
Newly signed guard Shake Milton did not play for the Knicks, with Tom Thibodeau sticking with an eight-man rotation and leaning heavily on Miles McBride, who has played 47 and 45 minutes the past two games in Brunson’s absence.
The Knicks missed 12 of their first 16 shots, and Johnson netted nine quick points in a 24-10 run to open the game for the Hawks.
McBride subsequently buried corner 3s, but DiVincenzo finished the quarter just 1-for-9 from long distance as the Knicks trailed 33-15 through one.
That deficit reflected a scoring change between quarters in which a 3-pointer by Bogdanovic in the final minute was taken off the board because it was ruled that he stepped out of bounds.
McBride got subbed out late in the first quarter.
Alec Burks (11 points) replaced him — rather than the newly signed Milton — and the slumping veteran missed his two shots in the period.
Burks did knock down two shots early in the second, including one from long range, but the Hawks extended their cushion to 22.
Still, the Knicks closed within 10 with under two minutes remaining in the half on DiVincenzo’s second made trey among his first 11 attempts, and additional 3-pointers by McBride and Bogdanovic to complete a 13-2 surge that reinvigorated the home crowd.
The Hawks netted the next five points, but Achiuwa got to the rim to close the hole to 61-50 at intermission.
He finished the half with 10 points, and Bogdanovic totaled 12, with Johnson pacing Atlanta with 17 on 8 of 11 shooting from the field.
Achiuwa’s traditional three-point play cut the deficit to eight in the opening seconds of the third, but Saddiq Bey’s 3 capped a 9-2 spurt to push the Atlanta advantage to 70-55.
The Knicks tightened up defensively, however, and they got within seven on Josh Hart’s 3-pointer — his first points of the game — and McBride’s baseline dunk moments after he’d drawn a charge by Bruno Fernando.
Hart also was fouled driving to the bucket following a steal, and he sank one of two from the line to pull the Knicks within six.
Hart later found Bogdanovic cutting to the hoop for an and-1, and then he drove the length of the court to finally forge a 76-76 tie with 1:47 remaining.
But Atlanta’s Bogdan Bogdanovic drilled a 3-pointer from the left side in the final seconds to complete a 7-2 closeout to the quarter to put the Hawks up 83-78 entering the final period.
The Knicks trailed by nine early in the fourth, before Hart (14 points) nailed two consecutive 3-pointers for a four-point game with 6:27 to go.
But they were outscored 21-9 the rest of the way.