The Knicks are witnessing their championship dream slip away right before their eyes. On Wednesday, the East Finals opener was theirs for the taking. All they had to do was hold on to their 17-point fourth quarter lead. But, as Tyrese Haliburton made clear with his end-of-regulation choke sign, Jalen Brunson and Co. crumbled under pressure and lost in overtime. Looks like the brutal loss did a number on the New York team’s psyche for the entire series.

Last night was no different. The Knicks came into MSG hoping to take revenge and tie up the series. But they failed to get over the hump once again, this time losing by five points because of a couple of crucial late game blunders by Brunson. First, he unnecessarily fouled Aaron Nesmith on an inbound pass when the Pacers were up just one point. That led to free throws for Nesmith, and he extended the lead to three.

Then, JB bricked his game-tying opportunity by rushing his shot. Although several other things went wrong for the Knicks in Game 2, Jalen’s mistakes seemed the most pivotal. And they surely proved Draymond Green’s concerns right. Following Wednesday’s game, the Warriors’ star feared that the Knicks might not be able to recover from this gut punch.

“Its tough man. When you win a game in a playoff series, like you literally win the game and you look up and your record has one more loss. It’s one thing to get outplayed and lose a game, it’s one thing for the ball not to go in, all of these things happen. But when you won the game and you lose in a playoff series, like completely just give the game away, it’s hard to come back from that.” He said on his podcast. Yes, the Knicks were clearly the better team in Game 1 for the majority of the night. But the way they crumbled in the final five minutes could haunt them for the entire series.

Green continued, “It’s one thing if you’re just a superior team and you lost focus, and you’re like ‘Alright man, we’re good.’ But when you’re remotely close teams, you’re gonna have one bad game throughout the series where the ball just don’t go in. So, you’re fighting an uphill battle for the rest of the series to try to make this game up.” That’s exactly what happened last night as the Knicks were unable to deal with the pressure and lost once again.

Draymond Green claims Knicks were “crushed” after Game 1 loss as Karl-Anthony Towns’ demeanor raises concerns

It looks like Draymond saw last night’s result going in the Pacers’ favor long before it happened. Thanks to his playoff experience, he can notice the slightest of details that hint at a team’s mindset. And what he saw from Karl-Anthony Towns after Game 1 did not look promising at all.

“When I look at the collapse the other day, you look at KAT, you know I watch interviews, like interviews tell you a lot. You look at KAT in the postgame, he can barely get through a sentence. Him and Jalen Brunson sat up there together. Jalen did most of the talking like you can just tell they were crushed and you gotta come back from that and I just don’t know if they can recover from that gut punch,” he said.

Yes, KAT seemed out of it during the postgame presser, which made it clear that the Knicks were crushed by the loss. Sure enough, his concerning demeanor showed in last night’s Game 2, as Towns had an awful night. He scored just 20 points on 6 of 14 shooting. His struggles were so glaring that Tom Thibodeau benched him for the majority of the fourth quarter. Although Brunson caught the brunt of the criticism because of his late-game mistakes, KAT’s underwhelming performance was also a major reason behind the Knicks’ loss. If Draymond’s prediction comes true, the Knicks’ season could end very soon. Do you think they can bounce back from the 2-0 deficit?