This game didn’t just get away from the Hawks in the fourth quarter.
It vanished.
The Knicks opened the final period with a 23-9 run to turn a tie game into a rout. The result was a 95-82 Knicks victory over the Hawks Wednesday night at Philips Arena in a nationally televised game. The Knicks didn’t even need Carmelo Anthony in the final quarter. The forward scored four of his game-high 40 in the final 12 minutes. With his final two points, coming in the closing seconds, Madison South Garden bellowed with chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” Anthony, coming off a 50-point performance Tuesday against the Heat, has 82 points in two games against the Hawks this season.
“Right now he’s really on a tear,” coach Larry Drew said. “He’s playing at a very high level.”
The Hawks (42-34) had a two-game win streak snapped and lost a chance to move to a season-high 10 games over .500 for the third time this season. The Hawks fell two games behind the Nets for the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race with six games remaining. They lead the idle Bulls by just a half game in the fifth position.
Kyle Korver led the Hawks with 25 points. Josh Smith finished with 10 points and Al Horford finished with nine points. Smith was 5 of 13 from the field and 0 of 7 from the free-throw line. Horford was 4 of 10 from the field. He had his streak of consecutive double-digit scoring games snapped at 32, one shy of his career high.
The Knicks (48-26) won their 10th straight game. It is their longest win streak since the 1993-94 team won 15 straight.
The Knicks outscored the Hawks 27-14 in the fourth quarter. The Hawks had seven turnovers in the final quarter and had several defensive breakdowns. At one point, guard Raymond Felton converted three straight layups.
“I got a little upset,” Drew said. “Me and Jeff (Teague) had an exchange of words. It was an isolated incident. Emotions are high at that time. Jeff knows I’m going to ride him. I depend on him. At that particular time I did not feel we defended it the right way. … I just didn’t think that Jeff played it the way we went over how we are going to play the pick-and-roll.”
J. R. Smith and Felton each scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.
“Our pick-and-roll coverage was a little bad,” Teague said. “We lost our focus on Carmelo Anthony. We needed to sharpen up our coverage. A lot on my part. I thought I should have backed up a little bit on Raymond Felton and let him shoot a contested shot but I got up and little bit and he was able to use his speed to get by.”
The teams entered the decisive final quarter tied 68-68. The Hawks erased an eight-point deficit in the third quarter. Korver had 10 points in the period, including three 3-pointers. Anthony had 36 points after three quarters as he scored 12 of the Knicks’ 21 points in the period. The game was tied despite Smith (8) and Horford (4) combining for 12 points.
“The start of the fourth quarter we made too many mental areas and allowed them to create separation,” Drew said. “The margin for error against a team like this, particularly with Carmelo shooting the ball the way he is shooting the ball, the margin for error is very small. We just made too many mistakes.”
The Knicks took a 47-40 lead into halftime after ending the second quarter on a 9-2 run.
Anthony scored 24 first-half points, including 13 in the first quarter. He entered the game as the NBA’s leading first-quarter scorer with an average of nine points per game in the opening period.
“The rhythm was there and I wanted to see if I still had it going,” Anthony said. “I felt like the rhythm was still there. It was just one of those nights again. I’ve had games before where I felt like I had a great rhythm but I can’t remember having a run like this.”
The Knicks finished the first half shooting 47.5 percent (19 of 40) after starting the game making 1 of 8 shots. The Hawks built a 12-4 lead during that opening stretch. However, they failed to score a field goal for 7:04, managing just three free throws until Shelvin Mack hit a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left in the first quarter.
Korver kept the Hawks close after the Knicks built a seven-point lead. He had 15 first-half points, including 12 in the second quarter. He extended his streak to 69 games with a 3-pointer.
The Hawks conclude a four-game homestand Friday against the 76ers.
