A late-game power outage three weeks ago would have done the Hawks in for sure.

But that was before Mike Bibby showed up.

With Bibby at the controls late Friday night at Philips Arena, the Hawks rallied in the final minutes for a much-needed 99-93 victory over New York, their second straight win at home since returning from a Western Conference road trip with bruises from a 1-4 grind.

"We still get in slumps sometimes, and we get a couple turnovers or whatever and we can't score the ball but that will come in time," said Bibby, who is undefeated in a Hawks uniform at home. "But the last couple of games when we needed it, guys have stepped up big, Big Al [Horford], Marvin [Williams], Josh [Smith]. Everybody's playing hard. And you can't teach playing hard."

The Hawks scored only nine points in the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. Rather than panicking and tossing up errant shot after errant shot, the Hawks fought their way through the rough patch and pounced when the game was on the line.

"It was important we kept our composure when we didn't score," Horford said. "I felt like the effort on the defensive side was the important thing. They took the lead, but we took it back, and made a couple plays down the stretch to seal the win."

Plays like the one where Bibby found Josh Smith on an alley oop out of a timeout with 1:12 to play, giving the Hawks a 92-91 lead. Bibby then nailed the go-ahead jumper, a 20-footer, with 35.6 seconds to play for a 94-91 lead, helping push the Hawks' season record to 24-32.

Bibby made only four of his 11 shots from the floor, but he finished with 11 points, 10 assist and five rebounds. He turned the ball over only twice, and when the Hawks needed his steady hand and leadership most, with the game on the line, he was right there.

"I see this team, and it should be tough to get us down," Bibby said. "When we play hard, there are not many teams that should be able to stop these young guys. They can go to the basket, they got jump shots. And they play hard. They should be tough to stop."

The Knicks found out the hard way Friday night. Horford finished with a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, battling Knicks big man Zach Randolph for every inch the entire night on offense and defense.

Smith had a team-high 25 points on 11-for-19 shooting and also grabbed nine rebounds, had two steals and two blocks, one a spectacular mid-air stuff of fellow former slam-dunk champion Fred Jones.

Joe Johnson added 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists, chasing a triple-double for the fourth straight game, to help offset another sleepy night form the bench — the Hawks' reserves managed 14 points.

"I wanted to try and establish myself early on and get off to a good start, and hopefully that gave my team a spark," said Smith, who played sick for the second straight game. "Me and Al, we knew we were going to be at a disadvantage with Randolph and Eddy Curry on the defensive end. But we also knew that we would have an edge on the offensive end, being able to face up and drive and just try and make things a little easier for Joe and Mike."