NEW YORK _ It was in the final minute of the first half when Mitchell Robinson, the high-flying Knicks center, picked up a loose ball and soared for tomahawk jam.
That gave the Knicks 75 points in the second quarter. Seconds later _ just before the first-half buzzer _ Dennis Smith Jr. nailed a fadeaway. It capped an 8-0 run over 68 seconds to give the a 24-point advantage.
Total domination.
The bar was set extremely low during the David Fizdale era, and interim coach Mike Miller has the Knicks leaping over it with plenty of room to spare.
Tuesday's 143-120 victory was a complete annihilation of the Hawks (6-22), the type of throttling that was occurring too often the other way under Fizdale. It's way too early to make any real conclusions about Miller's Knicks, but here are the early returns: They have three victories in six games, improving to 7-21 while climbing out of the Eastern Conference basement. Two of their defeats could've gone either way. Fizdale, over his 104 games in New York, only twice won three times in any six-game stretch.
So what has been the difference? Statistics suggest, simply, the Knicks are more efficient on both ends of the floor. Offensively, they're markedly better. They're playing faster with a better flow. As far as in-game management, Miller has opted to call timeouts at the first inkling of the opposition building momentum.
"One of the things we talked about is we're not going to set limits on our ability," Miller said. "If we keep taking that same basic approach _ we're going to work every day to get better, we're going to be consistent in our play and do those things, then I don't see any reason why we can't have the type of success in each possession and be efficient. We have guys that can play, we have guys that can score the ball, they're playing well together, they're helping each other out. Hopefully, as I said, as basic as it sounds, we keep growing with what we do."
With a microphone, the vanilla Miller is the opposite of loquacious Fizdale. But entertaining press conferences didn't win Fizdale many games, or superstar free agents, in New York. This is not to suggest the Knicks have toppled juggernauts. Their victories have come against opponents with a combined 23-60 record.
The Hawks are awful and dropped five straight. But the Knicks did what NBA teams are supposed to do to the Hawks at home: bury them.
RJ Barrett and Marcus Morris were efficient with 25 and 22 points, respectively. Robinson was an electric pogo-stick with 22 points and 13 boards. The Knicks shot 56% and led by as many as 31.
Atlanta's Vince Carter made his final appearance at MSG before retiring after this season. He dropped 15 points in 24 minutes and left the game in the fourth quarter to a standing ovation.
