Hawks coach Mike Woodson believes he has a cure for complacency.

And he was passing out heavy doses of it on the practice floor Saturday while the Hawks were busy preparing for this afternoon's game against New York at Philips Arena.

New wrinkles were added and there was plenty of "teaching" going on. What else would you expect after Woodson watched his team squander leads of 19 and 22 points before surviving Chicago by three points Friday night.

"Just because we're down to the final [three weeks] of the season doesn't mean we're not still teaching and tweaking the things we do," Woodson said. "We're still working to get to where we want to be."

The physical grind of a tough season has no doubt taken a toll on the Hawks' starters and rotation players.

The Hawks are two games ahead of New Jersey for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot, but they can't afford to let up now.

"It's tough on everybody right now," said Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson, who ranks second in the league to Denver All-Star workhorse Allen Iverson at 41 minutes played per game. "But somehow, some way, we all have to dig down and do whatever it takes to keep fighting to get this done.

"We let that fatigue get the best of us against Chicago, and that allowed them to get back into the game and made things a lot more complicated than they should have been."

The Hawks missed free throws, by Johnson, Josh Smith and Josh Childress, which would have helped seal the victory. And they struggled to contain Ben Gordon in the game's final minutes, breathing a collective sigh of relief when Gordon's potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer rolled around and off the rim.

"There's no question we got a bit shaky down the stretch," Smith said. "We didn't finish as strong as we would have liked. We made it much more interesting than it should have been."

Woodson argues that the Hawks' struggles were attributable less to his team than to the play of the Bulls.

"Let up is not the word to be using," he said when asked after the game why his team appeared to ease off the gas. "They didn't let up. Chicago just played a little bit better, and we couldn't make shots. They made shots, and defensively they got after it and turned it up. We struggled in the third quarter somewhat, and early in the fourth when they made their run.

"But our guys held it, they made the plays we had to make. I have to give my guys credit. Chicago played great, but we were the better team at the end."

They were Friday night. Whether they'll be good enough to survive their own fatigue and mistakes every night, though, remains to be seen.

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: vs. Knicks

> When: 4 p.m. today

> TV; radio: Fox Sports Net; 790 AM