17 seconds left, tie game. Tim Hardaway, Jr. collects the pass from the top of the arc after an offensive rebound. Hardaway backs up and drives left, springing free from a confused Elfrid Payton as the Magic’s interior defense sags. Sensing an opening, Hardaway, who shot 3-for-15 from the field to this point, lofts up a 25-foot bomb. This one goes swish! The Knicks are gonna win!

And the fan reaction, from back home from Manhattan? “BOO!”

The poor, poor New York Knicks can’t even win for winning these days. In olden days, Spike Lee would be on Twitter imploring ATL’s many New York sympathizers to pack Philips Arena to the gills and chant his favorite team onto a chest-puffing victory. Today, those same sunny-day Knick fans are more likely to keep their butts at home. From the basements of mothers’ dwellings all over town, they’re on their knees praying the Hawks bother to show up for their own home finale (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, MSG Network) and save the Knicks from themselves.

Junior’s game-clincher helped the Knickerbockers wind up in a literal tie with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the worst record in the NBA (16-64). If that holds through Wednesday, the Knicks will have gone from holding the clear-cut top lottery odds to being subject to a tie-breaking coin flip with the Wolves later this week. New Yorkers have their eyes on four top-tier draft options, and are now freaking out over the possibility that their Knicks will squander their shot at any of them. Because now, somehow, the players want to go out on a winning note.

“I’m not worried about (lottery implications). I’m worried about the win,” Hardaway boasted to Newsday after earning the victory in Orlando on Saturday, without so much as a hint of self-awareness. “I hope we win the rest of these games.” Tim, literally, wants the Knicks to improve the harder way. After fooling themselves for the better part of two months, Phil Jackson and the Knicks management don’t seem to share Hardaway’s sentiments.

Andrea Bargnani was left back in NYC with an illness, presumably obtained while watching his teammates playing from the bench. Melo exited stage left at mid-season with a knee injury, but not before enjoying some hometown All-Star Weekend shine. J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert were sent packing for Cleveland in January. Amar’e Stoudemire was granted a mercy waiver in February, just what Samuel Dalembert received the month before, while Jose Calderon was shelved for the season with an Achilles strain. The only veteran that was playing halfway decently for the Knicks, trade-deadline newcomer Alexey Shved, broke a rib in March and won’t be back.

All of that makes Jason Smith (7.8 PPG) the highest-salaried Knick on the floor today, and mid-season pickup Langston “Go For Yours” Galloway (11.6 PPG and 39.1 FG%; 4-for-16 @ ORL on Saturday) the highest-scoring one.

These players don’t grasp the concept of throwing in the towel merely to enhance the likelihood of the Knicks acquiring their certain replacement via the draft. They recognize that New York City remains a high-profile location to audition for next season’s NBA gig. If they can’t make it there, there’s still 29 other teams that may have their eye on them. So, flawed as they are, they’re out playing to win. It’s up to Knicks coach Derek Fisher to stop them.

Fisher is trotting out a lineup of Cole Aldrich at center, Galloway and Hardaway (April: 9.2 PPG, 28.6 FG%) at the guard spots, and Smith and former OKC Thunder backup Lance Thomas as the forwards. If there’s any doubt about Fisher’s directive from management to do whatever he can to tank, Aldrich had a career-high 19 points and 14 rebounds in Orlando, but that included 16 points and 10 boards at the half, 14-and-7 in the opening quarter, before D-Fish started to rein him in.

Cole slew the Magic at the start, but he was about the only thing either team had going for them in the first half. The Magic and Knicks managed just 15 points between them in the second quarter, the lowest cumulative scoring for a single quarter in shot-clock-era NBA history among two teams. Almost 210,000 quarters of NBA regular-season basketball were played before the Knicks and Magic took everyone back to the days of peach baskets and set shots. There were 105 missed field goals on Saturday, and only Orlando’s own offensive ineptitude (35.7 team FG%) gave the Knicks (37.8 team FG%) a shot at winning a ballgame.

If the Knicks get to play against any conventional starters tonight from Atlanta (60-20), coming in on the second night of their final back-to-back this season, it will likely be a fleeting experience. The Hawks’ starters have few items left on the docket, aside from maybe knocking some of the rust of off Paul Millsap, who’s missed the past three games to rest his mildly sprained and bruised shoulder. As Paul is active tonight, he could get a final regular-season run in with Al Horford, Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll, and Kyle Korver. The other four starters sat out of yesterday’s 108-99 loss in Washington.

Realistically, the Hawks’ top line can’t glean much more from scrimmaging with the Knicks than they can running the practice floor with their own bench corps. John Jenkins (season-high 17 points and 3 steals @ WAS), Dennis Schröder, Mike Scott, and Shelvin Mack didn’t shoot the ball or defend Washington’s starters terribly well in the opening half yesterday. But they adjusted very well at halftime and caused palpitations for fans of the Wizards (66 first-half points, 42 in the second half). The reserves’ poise in elevated minutes, largely against teams jockeying for playoff position, has been commendable.

Look for Schröder (8-for-13 FGs against NYK in November)and Kent Bazemore (DNP vs. NYK in prior 2 meetings) to lead the offensive charge for the Hawks, particularly in the second half, to offset the scattershot Knick guards. On the heels of his first subpar game in over a week, look for a bounceback performance from Mike Muscala, although both he and Austin Daye contributed four assists against the Wizards. After six consecutive appearances with less than 20 minutes of floor time, Pero Antić (2-for-3 3FGs, 7 rebounds in 18 minutes@ WAS) may get a lot of floor time tonight. Hopefully, he won’t see all that New York Blue and feel compelled to lie on the floor.

A victory in the home finale tonight would raise the homecourt-advantaged Hawks' record to 36-5 in their own building, matching the franchise records set at the Omni by the 1993-94 and 1996-97 teams. Winning won't be a priority for the Hawks tonight, but beating New York at any time of the year feels good.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3