Managing the minutes of his starters has been one of Hawks coach Mike Woodson's toughest tasks this season.

Early foul trouble to Al Horford or Josh Smith means Woodson has to maneuver his players to keep opposing defenses honest inside.

It happened Tuesday in Indiana. Horford picked up his second foul with the Hawks leading 20-18 with 5:46 left in the first quarter.

Woodson sat him and the next time he saw the floor, at the start of the second half, the Hawks had been outscored 49-32. They trailed by what turned out to be an insurmountable 15 points.

So don't expect Woodson to yank his starters at the first sign of trouble Friday night in New York. There's too much on the line for the Hawks. They need to do whatever it takes to win and hold off Indiana for the eighth and final Eastern Conference postseason berth. The Hawks lead Indiana by two games with four to play, but the Pacers have the tie-breaker advantage.

"Certainly, if you take him out, you have to bring him back at the seven- or eight-minute mark of the second quarter [rather than sitting him out until the third quarter]," Woodson said. "A lot of it depends on the situation in the game. When Al got his second Tuesday night it was still a back-and-forth game.

"But he came out and then they just took off. We couldn't even get out of the first quarter, so you don't want to risk that again going into the third quarter."

Horford's impact on the game, a 29-point blowout before a late Hawks rally, was non-existent. He finished with four points and five rebounds in under 20 minutes, an unacceptable performance for one of the Hawks' most important players.

"We can't dwell on what might have been," Horford said. "It's too late in the season for that. But I agree that we have to start playing through whatever comes up, whether it's foul trouble or anything else. After you sit that long it's tough to come back into that type of game in any kind of rhythm.

"I know I felt out of it at the start of the second half. We were already down big and it wasn't easy trying to get back into the flow."

With little room for error, the Hawks can't even count on the schedule to help them now. A colossal disappointment for most of this season, the Knicks are playing some of their best basketball now. They've won three straight games and pose matchup problems.

The Hawks need to get point guard Mike Bibby going after three straight disappointing shooting efforts.

"Listen, the bottom line is that we've got to have a total team effort," Woodson said. "Everybody has to pitch in and do their part, starters and bench guys. No matter how many minutes you play, they have to be positive minutes.

"Getting Bibby going is a big part of that. And he's a veteran. He knows when he's not playing well. But just like when we [beat Philadelphia Saturday], he makes one or two key shots and we're good."