Atlanta Hawks lose consecutive games to Knicks, 107-101

The Atlanta Hawks lost again to the New York Knicks, 107-101 on Tuesday night at Philips Arena. Atlanta split the season series with the New York Knicks at two games apiece.

The Atlanta Hawks lost twice in three days to the New York Knicks. While Tuesday evening’s home game was by a closer margin than the debacle Sunday afternoon, the Atlanta Hawks fell to the New York Knicks, 107-101 at Philips Arena.

Since Atlanta played New York for the third time in 10 days, of course this game got a little feisty and overly physical with four technical fouls between the two Eastern Conference foes. Atlanta trailed by as much as 16 points in this home game, as the Hawks were ice-cold from the field in the first half with only 49 points. Yet, they trailed by only five points heading into halftime.

New York pushed their lead to 13 by the end of the third quarter. While the Atlanta Hawks outscored the New York Knicks 30-23 in the final frame, Atlanta could not get the key stop it needed defensively inside of three minutes.

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The Knicks relied largely on four players tonight to defeat the Atlanta Hawks. Carmelo Anthony played a strong, cerebral game despite not shooting well. He had 23 points on 8-22 shooting, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. Kristaps Porzingis is well on his way to become a star in this league. He had 17 points on 7-12 shooting and 11 rebounds. Arron Afflalo netted 23 points in his consecutive beat-downs of the Hawks and Derrick Williams had 15 points of the New York bench.

For Atlanta, all five starters were in double figures scoring. Kent Bazemore continues to shoot the basketball from the outside, as he had 15 points on 6-11 shooting, including 3-6 from three. Bazemore also had five rebounds Tuesday night.

Paul Millsap forced his way to 19 points and seven rebounds, despite shooting poorly from the field (6-17). Even on nights when he clearly doesn’t have it, he is still one of the best power forwards in the game today. His sheer will propelled the Atlanta Hawks down the stretch in their near comeback.

Al Horford had a near triple-double Tuesday night. Horford had 13 points on 6-13 shooting, 10 rebounds, eight assists, and two rebounds. It was a quiet near triple-double, but Al Horford did enough to at least help make this game competitive for the Atlanta Hawks into the final frame.

Kyle Korver had 12 points despite another poor shooting night from the field (4-14) and from long distance (2-9). Eventually, these outside shots are going to start falling at a ridiculous pace for Korver. The law of averages indicates he’ll get back to shooting well above 40% from three here soon.

Jeff Teague 16 points, but didn’t have an assist tonight. He sat on the bench in crunch time as Dennis Schroder played in final minutes of the fourth quarter. Schroder had seven points and eight assists in his 25+ minutes of playing time Tuesday night.

Atlanta will have Wednesday off before heading to the Wells Fargo Center to play the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers now have four wins on the season, all against the Western Conference. Atlanta went on a six-game winning streak the last time they played Philadelphia.

Next: Atlanta Hawks play the New York Knicks again

Hopefully that ignites the Atlanta Hawks who have now dropped three of their last four. Odds are that Atlanta does not want to give the Sixers their first win over an Eastern Conference opponent this season. Philadelphia may end up winning more than five games this season after all. For now, it is good to not have to play the New York Knicks for the rest of the regular season. Let’s Go Hawks!

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