Knicks 95 Hawks 83
The slummin’ is over for the Knicks. Now they go West for nine days and five games and face the real threat of being out of the race for first place in the Atlantic Division by the time they return.
“It’s going to be the best challenge of the year to date,” said Jeff Van Gundy of the trip that begins tomorrow in Portland.
All the Knicks did the last two games was hold serve at home, surviving hapless Chicago Wednesday night and finally beating Atlanta, which had taken out the Knicks in the prior two meetings this season. But that was before the Hawks (25-43) went into an evaluating mode, playing the kiddie corps. Might as well call them the “Kittyhawks.”
“The objective of the two teams are different,” Van Gundy said after the Knicks posted a 95-83 victory. “We’re fighting for playoff position, they’re trying to evaluate players for the future. We are playing veterans against young guys and that gives us the decided edge.”
With center Dikembe Mutombo (three points) playing sparingly and not serving as a constant clog in the middle, without Allan Houston or Latrell Sprewell having to worry about released Isaiah Rider, the Knicks had a relatively easy go of it last night at the Garden, cruising away in the second half led by Sprewell’s 15 third-quarter points.
Spree (30 points) and Houston 27) combined for 57 points, although the Knicks were sweating it out during a dismal first half. They trailed most of the second quarter, by as many as six, and led by only three at intermission.
Midway through the second, the Hawks were shooting 57 percent. If the Knicks play like they did in the first half out West, they will come home from their five-game trip 1-4 at best and likely be looking at the first-place Heat through a telescope. After Portland, the Knicks face Sacramento, Seattle, Vancouver and Shaq again. The Knicks have lost 12 of their last 15 road games.
Last night’s victory kept the Knicks in stride with the Heat, whom they trail by one game.
“I like the way we’re playing right now, the second half was a good sign,” Chris Childs said. “This was a game we could’ve easily gone through the motions. The second half we came out with good intensity.”
Indeed, the Knicks outscored Atlanta 21-9 to begin the third quarter with Sprewell taking control of the game, with help from Houston.”We wanted to really treat this like it was the start of our road trip and in a way it is,” said Houston, who shot 12 of 19 from the field. “We want to set a tone how we want to play out there. At this point of the season, we’re third in the East. If we lose focus now, something’s wrong. I don’t care who you’re playing. There’s no excuse now for not being focused. We knew they beat us twice. We needed to get this win to start the road trip right on the right foot.”
The Hawks beat the Knicks twice when they weren’t in training-camp mode, when Mutombo played enough minutes to be a major factor, when Rider was still launching rainbows and making Spree and Houston work on defense.
“J.R. is going to come to play definitely,” said Sprewell, who was 12 of 23 and seemed to be having a ball out there, giggling at times during stoppages. “We didn’t have him to worry about. But Jim Jackson got off to a good start and the fouls made him tentative on defense without Rider. It definitely takes pressure off us as far having to guard those guys.”
Mutombo played just 24 uninspired minutes, shooting 1 of 5, grabbing six rebounds. Mutombo averaged 22 rebounds in the prior two Knicks’ games, embarrassing Ewing both times. Coach Lenny Wilkins gave time to Lorenzen Wright and he actually was schooling Ewing for a part of the second quarter when he scored eight of his 10 points and kept the Hawks in the lead.
Power forward Alan Henderson, another lane-clogger, also was held to just 26 minutes. “Not having them kind of opened up some of those drives for myself and I was able to get in the paint without Mutombo,” said Sprewell, who converted three 3-point plays on drives to the hole and also drained two 3-point goals.
Patrick Ewing wasn’t much involved on the offensive end. Probably taking too many shots in recent games, Ewing deferred to Houston and Sprewell. Ewing took just eight shots, making four of them for eight points.
The Knicks are probably best when Houston and Spree are the show. “I think back to the playoffs when he and I were playing really well together,” Sprewell said. “It really put a lot of pressure on the other team’s stopper. When we are playing that way, it is really difficult.”