The New York Knicks had their chances. They had them in Game 2 and they had them again in Game 3. And both times, they couldn't get it done when it mattered most. That's the part that's eating at this team right now, and it's not something you can just shake off between games.

Karl-Anthony Towns wasn't going to pretend otherwise after Thursday's loss. The emotion in that locker room was visible, and Towns explained it better than anyone could from the outside. The team was right there, and they walked out of that building with nothing to show for it again.

"Of course it hurts," Towns said. "It hurts when you give yourself a chance to win. It hurts more that we put ourselves in a position to win and we just didn't close the show. I think that's why everyone's emotional."

Towns gave Atlanta their credit. The Hawks found ways to win, and he acknowledged that directly. But what's eating at this Knicks group is simply how they lost. You can live with getting beaten by a better team on a given night. It's a lot harder to sit with leaving games on the table, especially back to back, especially in the playoffs. 

Atlanta is up 2-1 in this series right now because they have showed up in the moments that matter, capitalizing on everything New York gives them late in games. And right now the Knicks keep giving them plenty to work with.

Back-to-back clutch failures in a playoff series is a pattern, and patterns have a way of becoming identity if not addressed fast enough. This Knicks roster knows that, and every veteran in the locker room has been around long enough to recognize when a team is getting in its own way.

The margin for error in a playoff series is razor thin. One or two possessions can flip a game, and flipped games flip series. Atlanta has figured that out and they're executing on it. New York is still learning it the hard way, and they're running out of time to get the lesson.

Down 2-1, the Knicks don't have the luxury of a slow start in Game 4. Another fourth quarter collapse and suddenly they're staring at a 3-1 deficit against a Hawks team that's playing with all the confidence in the world right now. That's an incredibly difficult hole to climb out of, and this group knows it.

Still, Towns' honesty after the game actually suggests a team that's self-aware enough to make real adjustments. But self-awareness only gets you so far. At some point the adjustments have to show up on the court in the final two minutes of a close game, when the crowd is loud and the pressure is real.

This Knicks team has the talent to turn this series around. They're a few possessions away from being up 3-0 in this series. But they have to go out and prove they can execute in these moments in Game 4. Everything else is just talk.