No NBA team can be a winning team without pulling off some victories on the road. Following a pair of close shaves last week, the Atlanta Hawks will try to avoid becoming the first Eastern Conference team this season to go Bagel-for-4 away from home. They’ve traveled to Manhattan for their second game in three nights against the New York Knicks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth in ATL, MSG Network in NY, NBATV), hoping to keep Spike Lee and Friends sitting on their hands a little longer.

While a 2-5 record sounds bleak for New York, they started out last season 3-13 before closing out the season 34-32. The Knicks have an opportunity to right their ship as they start their four-game homestand tonight at MSG, the Hawks being followed by the Magic, Jazz and Nuggets this week.

Knicks fans perhaps felt an uneasy yet familiar pang during Saturday’s loss to the Hawks, after their team squandered a 15-point lead they established just before a layup by Jeff Teague (8.2 APG, 4^th among active NBA players) ended the first half. In the midst of Atlanta’s February freefall last season, New York came to town and, despite a double-OT loss to Orlando the night before, built up a 17-point third-quarter lead on the Hawks, who were then without All-Star Paul Millsap. Then, the combination of Teague, Lou Williams, DeMarre Carroll and Mike Scott collectively brought the Hawks all the way back to win with relative ease, paving the way toward their sole victory in a 15-game stretch.

That February game started a losing string for the Knicks as well, and the winning streak that commenced two weeks later was not enough to overtake the Hawks for the final playoff seed, nor was it enough to salvage Mike Woodson’s coaching job.

Pablo Prigioni remains questionable for tonight, while Jose Calderon remains sidelined. Without their primary playmaking cogs to execute the Triangle Offense, the New Yorkers have struggled to find the horsepower to finish games. They’re still awaiting their first triple-digit offensive performance even despite hanging 61 on the Hawks through the first half on Saturday. Carmelo Anthony put up 14 points (6-for-10 FGs) in the first quarter, but after Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha were able to sink their teeth into Melo defensively (6 points the rest of the way, 2-for-10 FGs), his teammates proved to be hopelessly incapable of picking up the slack.

The offense let New York down in the third quarter (5-for-18 FGs), and their defense followed suit in the fourth. While they were able to play at their desired pace, once Iman Shumpert, Tim Hardaway, Jr., and Anthony started piling up fouls, the swingmen found themselves unable to either close out on Kyle Korver (27 points, 10 in the fourth quarter; NBA-leading 75.2 true shooting percentage) or create the transition turnovers they needed to wrest back the momentum (two Knick steals the whole game). Thanks largely to Korver, and to Joe Johnson and the Nets the game before, New York’s perimeter defense (48.3 opponent 3FG%) is now the league’s worst.

Courtesy of Samuel Dalembert, three Hawks (Teague, Carroll, and Millsap) continued to experience the bitter taste of Spalding leather on Saturday, the Hawks’ 7.2 shots-blocked per game second only to Orlando’s misfortune. Among active NBA guards, only Magic rookie Elfrid Payton (2.3 shots blocked per game) has been returned-to-sender as often as Teague (1.8 per game) so far this season.

However, dealing with a little rejection may be part of Mike Budenholzer’s intention to keep the trio of Jeff, DeMarre and Paul persistently going at the rim and forcing the action, particularly whenever an inexperienced, lackadaisical or slower-of-foot player is guarding them. The drives paid dividends in more ways than one on Saturday. Once the referee whistles started blowing, Teague and Millsap’s 12 made free throws eclipsed New York’s paltry 11 attempts. New York’s 19.6% FT rate (FTAs per 100 FGAs) is now the league’s worst.

Millsap continues struggling to find his shooting touch this season (11-for-38 away from the rim, 2-for-12 3FGs), but he did gather 10 of his 13 rebounds in the second half against New York.

Knicks coach Derek Fisher has continued to tinker with his starting lineup, and while the smallish lineup of Shane Larkin, Hardaway, Shumpert, Anthony, and Dalembert helped the Knicks race to a comfy first-half lead, the starting lineup of Larkin and Shumpert with Melo, Quincy Acy and Dalembert was the one set of starters during New York’s two victories. Fisher is reliant on Dalembert (1.6 APG; 0.5 career APG) to be “our best post passer out of our offense,” in which case one must pray for the Knicks.

Jason Smith will be looking to bounce back after a sloppy stint of three turnovers and four fouls in under 11 minutes of floor time. He, Anthony and the Knicks (10.9 second-chance PPG, 4^th lowest in NBA) have to work harder in the frontcourt to build a decided rebounding advantage. New York’s 30.3 PPG in the paint (fewest in the NBA) is inexcusable, especially for a team that’s committed to post play in a Triangle Offense.

On halfcourt defense, Smith, Dalembert, Amar’e Stoudemire and the Knick bigs could afford to hang around the rim and flail away at Teague and the assortment of driving guards, but in the Battle of Hispaniola, Dalembert will have to draw himself out of the paint if the mid-range shots of Al Horford (3-for-13 FGs on Saturday) start falling.

While the Knicks are supposed to be a team with a myriad of players contributing in unconventional ways, it was the Hawks who performed in that manner on Saturday night – Kyle Korver with three blocked shots, Dennis Schröder with five steals in twenty minutes off the bench, Thabo Sefolosha with four of Atlanta’s elusive 12 offensive rebounds. With Korver (team-leading 37.0 minutes per game) likely needing some rest, Budenholzer may look to several bench players to surprise tonight, perhaps Mike Muscala and Elton Brand, or Shelvin Mack and Kent Bazemore to get it going after some early struggles.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3