ATLANTA — The Great Carmelo Crisis is not over. There were signs it was going to go Carmelo Anthony's and the Knicks' way Saturday at Philips Arena, but they blew a 15-point lead and Anthony disappeared after a hot start.
After a 14-point first quarter, Anthony scored just six points the rest of the way, ending the night with a 3-pointer off the back iron with 1:14 left as the Hawks rallied for a 103-96 victory, sending the Knicks to their fourth straight defeat.
Anthony was 2-for-10 in the final three quarter despite showing up on hour earlier than usual to the arena, lifting jumpers. Normally, Anthony is in the trainer's room getting extra massage treatment, but he knew he needed extra shots as he entered Saturday's amidst his worst three-game shooting patch of his career.
"I wanted to put shots up,'' Anthony told MSG Network. "I got to get my feel back again."
Anthony finished the night with 20 points on 8-for-20 from the field. He's 26-for-84 in the past four games. Kyle Korver emerged as the Hawks' hero, finishing with 23 points, including going 6-of-9 from 3-point range. The Hawks took over in the third quarter, outscoring the Knicks 27-13 in that stanza.
Coach Derek Fisher decided to help Anthony and put him more in his comfort zone of the past two seasons when he played mostly power forward. Anthony started at power forward as Fisher used his fifth starting lineup in seven games. The Knicks record is Larry Brown's usage of 43 different starting lineups.
Fisher used an extremely small lineup with Shane Larkin and Iman Shumpert in the backcourt and Tim Hardaway Jr. at small forward, Anthony at power forward and Samuel Dalembert at center.
Things seemed different with Anthony from the outset. On the first possession, he drained a lovely left-wing 3-pointer, setting the tone for a 14-point first quarter during which he made 6 of 10 shots. That was more make than his performances in each of the last two games, when he had 5 field goals.
Without Jose Calderon perhaps giving Anthony a lift in several ways, Anthony has had one of the worst shooting stretches in his career.
"He's embracing what we're doing [on offense], and it may make him look different right now," Fisher said Saturday before the game. "He doesn't get as much credit for buying into what we're saying about putting the team first and hitting the first open man.
"For guys that score as well as he does, it's hard to go seven or eight possessions without getting a chance to score. The rhythm's not the same, the shot opportunities are not the same, so he's struggling with that right now, but not because he can't still play at that level. We're not worried about where he may be as the season goes on. It's about our team.''
In the new alignment, Anthony seemed more comfortable early. The three-guard backcourt also worked well in the first half with Iman Shumpert (4-for-4, six assists), Tim Hardaway Jr. (nine points) and J.R. Smith (eight points, 4-for-6) all contributing when the Knicks grabbed a 61-48 lead. They shot 58.7 percent in the half.
The Knicks went up 59-44 — their biggest lead — late in the second quarter when center Samuel Dalembert blocked point guard Jeff Teague at the rim and Hardaway scored in transition on a pull-up jumper.
Rallying from 15 points down in the first half, the Hawks took the lead on a fastbreak bucket by Thabo Sefalosha when J.R. Smith's behind-the-back pass was picked off near midcourt in the final minute of the third quarter. That gave the Hawks a 75-74 lead entering the fourth.
Anthony came out with 2:30 left in the third quarter as Fisher played the new hot hand of rookie Cleanthony Early. Hardaway Jr. hit a big 3-pointer that put the Knicks back up 85-79 with 7:40 left. But the Hawks rallied to tie it at 85 and took an 87-85 lead on a Korver to Horford alley oop.
Kyle Korver buried a 3-pointer with 5:20 left to put the Hawks up 92-88 with 5:09 left. Jeff Teague scored on a layup through Dalembert for a 94-88 lead with 4:07 left.
After Shumpert took a bad shot with 1:30 left, missing the rim and smacking it off the glass, DeMarre Carroll sank a 3-pointer for a 97-90 lead with 1:25 left.
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