It’s Time for Woody Bowl IV!

On the heels of an epic rollercoaster win, Larry Drew and the Atlanta Hawks will face off this evening with Drew’s longtime teammate and the man he assisted on the floor and the sideline for many years.

Former Hawks coach Mike Woodson’s New York Knickerbockers took two of three contests against Atlanta last season, and strolls into Madison Square Garden with his charges (26-15) sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, but treading water lately.

Drummed out of Philadelphia in last night’s game versus the 76ers, featuring a 29-point deficit in the third quarter, the Knicks have dropped ten of their last 18 games. That’s the same record as the Hawks, who are just two games behind the Knicks in the East and getting their groove back with three

straight victories.

Woodson is crafting the Knicks in his desired image, controlling tempo by keeping turnovers low (10.9 team TOs/G, fewest in NBA), playing a slow pace (90.7 possessions per 48 minutes, 24^th in NBA), limiting second chances for foes (9.9 opponent offensive RPG, fewest in NBA), and

players calling their own number in isolation (54% of shots assisted, last in the league). A team with Jason Kidd on the roster that ranks 28^th in assists (19.6 per game) is unfathomable at first, until you peruse the rest of the club.

The Cereal Killer, Carmelo Anthony (career-high 29.0 PPG) is out to have a big day in his spouse’s (Redan High School’s LaLa Vasquez’s) former hometown. Despite playing the bulk of his

floor time at power forward, he is spreading the floor by taking three-pointers (6.2 attempts per game) and plunking them down (40.2 3FG%, a career 32.2% before this season) like never before. He’s already taken and made more threes through 34 appearances than in 55 games last year. Melo’s assists are down from prior seasons (career-low 2.6 per game), but again, that is by Woodson’s not-giving-a-crap offensive design.

Josh "Mad Max" Smith must not be cowed into trying to keep up with Anthony’s newfound long-range shot (or that of undrafted rookie Chris Copeland, who likes to step out as well). Instead, Smoove must strive to get threes for the Hawks the old-fashioned way, and by finding open shooters.

Out since Christmas with a fracture of the pinky on his shooting hand, Raymond Felton is back to boost the Knick offense. New York scored in triple digits in 21 of their first 27 games, but has failed to reach

100 points in eight of their last 15 games, including their last three.

A few weeks before Christmas, Felton suffered a bone bruise on his non-shooting hand but played through it, dropping 27 points each on the HEAT in Miami and the Bulls in Chicago. Last night in Philly, he took the fewest shots (2-for-8, for 8 points) of his season, and managed just three assists while he and Jason Kidd simply hung on defensively against newly minted All-Star Jrue Holiday (career-high 35 points).

Don’t expect Felton to be terribly active with his healing hands by gambling on defense. He will instead try to keep Jeff Teague, Devin Harris and Jannero Pargo in front of him. Mike Woodson is diminishing Kidd’s minutes to rest his sore back, and may lean more on 35-year old rookie Pablo Prigioni, himself limited in practice with a toe bruise, to create defensive pressure. Starting small forward Iman Shumpert, top-flight reserve J.R. Smith, and Ronnie Brewer are all needed to help with defense on the perimeter. Shump is just getting back into playing condition after returning from an ACL injury,

and if he’s calling for a pick, he means he needs it for his Kid-esque hair. The Hawks must consistently deploy penetrating lead guards to keep New York’s point guard platoon busy.

On offense, Felton will be targeting another first-time All-Star, Tyson Cleotis Chandler, who posted the third-highest field goal percentage ever (67.9 FG%) in 2011-12, and seems well on his way to at least matching that (67.5 FG% this season, career-high 11.9 PPG) with Felton back. Chandler was

shooting 74.1 FG%, which would’ve passed Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record until Felton got hurt. He then shot a “mere” 63.1 FG% as the Knicks went 6-7 in Felton’s absence. The Hawks need to use their wing players to disrupt the Felton-Chandler pipeline, taking pressure off of their bigs to make stops.

This game will feature two of the league’s five most accurate three-point bombers over the courses of their careers, and if we’re lucky, three of them. Kyle Korver made his bid to take over Andrew Toney’s

title as the new Boston Strangler, going off with eight triples on Friday in the Hawks’ wild comeback win. Kyle’s true shooting percentage (65.2%) is now up to third in the NBA behind Chandler and Kevin Durant.

By nailing 24 of his last 36 treys, not only has Korver wrested away the top spot in NBA three-point shooting percentage (47.1%), he’s also rocketed past Matt Bonner for 5^th in career 3FG% (41.8%) among active NBA players. He’s got his work cut out for him to catch the guy in 4^th place – Anthony Morrow (42.5%), who remains questionable with hip/back issues. Just for fun: John Jenkins’ current “career” 3FG% (41.3%) would rank 7^th among active players if he qualified.

With Marcus Camby and human basketball truth detector Rasheed Wallace out with injuries, the Knicks are turning to Amar’e Stoudemire to back up Chandler at center. In limited minutes, STAT is using his athletic advantages against rigid centers to get his offensive production (20.0 points per 36 minutes, 50.6 FG%) back to the quality of the pre-Melo period of his 2010-11 season.

J.R. Smith has been downright heroic at times this year, but the feeling of being passed over for a starting role may be gnawing on him. He’s mired in a shooting slump (28.7 FG% and 18.2 3FG% over his last eight games), and Knicks fans can only hope he has hit bottom after going 0-for-8 last night.

J.R. has to attack the rim more to keep defenses honest. Can the Hawks be his slumpbuster? His 46.3% career shooting against Atlanta is highest all but one other opponent, but he only shoots 53.8 FT% (lowest versus NBA opponents) when the Hawks send him to the line.

Say farewell to 50 percent free throw shooting for Al Horford. Just over two months after a 1-for-10 performance imperiled a victory against the Wizards, Horford came through with 10-for-11 shooting in the crucial comeback against the Celtics, rocketing his free throw percentage above the 60 percent threshold (61.5 FT%). His return to reasonable accuracy (79.8 and 78.9 FT% in his last two full seasons) has come right on time. He’s taken 18 shots from the charity stripe in his past two games, compared to a cumulative total of 14 shots over his prior 13 appearances.

Horford’s 52 points over his past two games has moved his scoring average to a career-high 15.9 PPG, while six straight double-digit rebounding games has upped his rebounding average to just a shade under his career high (9.9 RPG).

Horford’s career averages of 16.6 PPG and 11.6 RPG against the Knicks are higher than against any other Eastern Conference team. But after a 51-minute high-wire act against the Celtics, just two days after resting a sore hamstring and calf, it will be interesting to see how much rest he’ll need against Chandler and company. Zaza Pachulia is himself limited due to his Achilles, so expect judicious use of Johan Petro and Mike Scott to support Ivan Johnson, who will need to challenge the Knicks bigs under the hoop (11 points but just one rebound in 18 minutes against the Celtics).

Go Hawks!

~lw3