Brand Nubian. The Georgia Highway Patrol. Gregg Popovich. The Beatles. Clyde Carson. Steve Clifford. Selena Gomez. Loose Ends. Frank Vogel. Derek Fisher. All of them want you to Slow Down.

With tonight’s game (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth) the Atlanta Hawks will have played four of the NBA teams in the bottom half of the league for pace, and the fifth, Toronto, ranks 15^th. None are more gruelingly slow than the New York Knicks, who the Hawks play in a home-and-home series, the follow-up game on Monday in Madison Square Garden. Their 91.0 possessions per-48 is the lowest pace of play in the league. Before picking things up a little last night in Brooklyn, the Knicks’ pace would have extrapolated into the lowest by any team in the past six seasons.

It’s kinda nice to see Fisher in a suit and tie, and not flopping all over the hardwood and hitting the occasional backbreaking three. The rookie coach’s competitive goal is strangulation by triangulation. It’s going to take a lot of trial-and-error, and patience, for the Knicks to master the execution of the Triangle Offense, and gurus Fisher and Phil Jackson hope fans and opponents alike will Excuse Their Mess while they sort things out on the court.

Aside from two critical endpoints of the Triangle, Carmelo Anthony (career-lows of 37.9 FG%, 19.5 PPG and 4.0 RPG through six games; career-high 4.3 APG) and the injured Jose Calderon (calf strain), Fisher is relying on a lot of players who will not likely be around for the long haul. Whenever the Knicks wear down the shot clock, if nobody’s open for a decent shot, they’ll just kick the ball to Anthony, clear the heck out, and hope for the best. If the Knicks (109.8 defensive rating; 3^rd worst in NBA, worst in the East) can play just enough defense to keep teams close to the vest, they can get to Melo Time (43.5 FG% for Anthony in the fourth quarter, 8 of his ten FGs unassisted) and find out if it’s enough to eke out a victory.

It’s hard to tell if a return to modest mediocrity is in the offing anytime soon for the Knickerbockers. They seemed surprisingly impressive spoiling jittery Cleveland’s home opener about five or ten assists ago. But three of their four defeats have come by double-digits. The common thread in their two victories (against the Cavs and Hornets) so far was making at least half of their field goal attempts through sound team execution, whereas they’ve shot just 39.6% on 2FGs in their four losses. Former Yellow Jacket Iman Shumpert’s long-range shooting (60.0 3FG%) and scrappy Quincy Acy’s second-chance production (17.5 O-Reb%, 2^nd in NBA) have kept the offense from becoming a disaster of a Kobeian scale.

The Knicks are playing their fourth game in five nights and their third in four nights, technically, on the road, after dropping their inter-borough scrimmage with the Nets last night in Brooklyn. In that game, Fisher sat both Jason Smith (59.5 FG%) and Samuel Dalembert after early foul trouble. Both big men should be well-rested to play big minutes today, but the Knicks are imperiled if these two succumb to fouling issues again. Without their defensive presence in the paint, perhaps the one thing that’ll keep Atlanta from hanging 120 points on the Knicks is the double-overtime drama the Hawks went through right up I-85 less than 24 hours ago.

New York's defense against three-ponint shooters has gotten regressively worse with each game: 29.2 3FG% against the Bulls, 37.5% against Cleveland, 40% against Charlotte, 44.4% versus the Wizards, 47.8% against the Pistons (the Pistons!), and then the Nets went 14-for-24 from deep (58.4%) last night. It could be Bombs Away again tonight if the New York's forwards stay packed around the paint and leave it to Shumpert and Tim Hardaway, Jr. to close out on Hawks perched around the perimeter.

J.R. Smith returns after a one-game suspension for whacking Glen, Jr. in the Rice-a-Roni during the Knicks-Wizards game. Pablo Prigioni remains questionable after missing the Nets game with an ankle sprain. Andrea Bargnani would give the Knicks an offensive spark, but he’ll remain out for both games against Atlanta as he continues to deal with a strained hammy.

With Dalembert and Amar’e Stoudemire, the latter looking occasionally impressive with modest floor time (29.0 D-Reb%, 5^th in NBA), New York will want to exploit Atlanta’s league-low 17.2 offensive rebounding percentage to their advantage. That percentage may extrapolate out to become the lowest in recorded NBA history (i.e., since at least 1974).

While the Hawks’ shooting accuracy (52.8 eFG%, 6^th in NBA) could be used as an excuse, the five teams out-shooting Atlanta from the floor so far have O-Reb percentages ranging from 20.1% (Golden State, 28^th in NBA) to 29.1% (Houston, 7^th in NBA). Through four games and a combined 247 minutes, Pero Antić, Elton Brand, Kyle Korver and Shelvin Mack are still awaiting their first offensive rebound of the season. Korver and DeMarre Carroll must find ways to balance their sniping skills with the need to help the bigs on the interior.

Keeping the Knicks in the ballgame will involve keeping the Hawks offense limited to one-and-done possessions. With players needing rest, Fisher may try and Wear down the Hawks with a surprise pickup from training camp, 6-foot-10 forward Travis Wear, who started out Summer League with Atlanta before impressing the Knicks’ brass.

New York’s Triangle Offense is dependent on players taking up multiple roles in halfcourt motion, and so far Anthony and J.R. Smith (4.2 APG) lead their team in assists. Jeff Teague will need to apply defensive pressure on second-year point guard Shane Larkin (2.7 APG, 1.5 TO/G), who’s filling in admirably for Calderon and Prigioni, and make it difficult for the Knicks to get the ball to the forwards to set up the plays they want. For Atlanta to get their second win on the season, the best point guard on the floor for New York has to be Derek Fisher.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3