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Knicks try to bounce back at home vs. Hawks

Dec 14, 2013 - 3:57 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Knicks have no time to dwell on their recent loss and will play host to the Atlanta Hawks Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks were hoping to exact revenge on a Boston Celtics team that embarrassed them, 114-73, last Sunday at MSG. However, the Knicks blew an 11- point lead in the fourth quarter to suffer a 90-86 loss in Boston Friday night and fell to 6-16 on the season.

New York made a valiant effort to erase a 17-point deficit in the first half, but has dropped three of the last four games.

"We kind of got stagnant a little bit," Knicks head coach Mike Woodson said of his team's offense in the fourth.

Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points and Andrea Bargnani added 22 for the Knicks. Amare Stoudemire scored a season-high 18 points and the oft-injured forward played 30 minutes for the second straight game.

New York will play two in a row at home and will also host Washington. The Knicks are 3-8 at Madison Square Garden and could be without forward Kenyon Martin Saturday because of an abdominal strain. He suffered the injury during the fourth quarter against the Celtics.

Knicks center Tyson Chandler is recovering from a broken right fibula and could be nearing a return soon. He has been out since early November.

Meanwhile, the Hawks enter this matchup in New York fresh off Friday's thrilling 101-99 overtime win versus the Wizards in the finale of a four-game homestand (3-1).

Hawks forward Al Horford hit the game-winning jumper off an inbounds pass and poured in 34 points on 15-of-23 shooting. He also grabbed 15 rebounds and made two key free throws late in regulation for the Hawks, who blew a 15-point cushion in the fourth quarter.

Horford talked about the inbounds pass from Pero Antic, who had nobody guarding him when he heaved the ball toward the basket.

"We work on that in practice," Horford said. "That's a play that we've worked on. We have three options. It was going to be me, Paul (Millsap), or Kyle (Korver). I think they over-played both of those guys and Pero saw me and he gave me a great pass. It was just supposed to be a lob for a dunk, but (Trevor) Booker did a good job pushing me away, so as soon as I caught it, I just shot it. Since we've worked on it before, I was comfortable taking that shot."

Millsap scored 16 points with 11 rebounds and Korver also netted 16 points. Jeff Teague added 12 points and seven assists for the Hawks. Korver has made a 3-pointer in an NBA-record 92 games in a row.

The Hawks have lost three in a row on the road and are 4-7 outside of Philips Arena this season. After visiting the Knicks Atlanta will head back home for three straight games versus the Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento and Utah.

Atlanta and New York have split a pair of meetings already this season with each team winning as the visitor. New York, though, has won eight of the past 10 matchups with the Hawks, who are 5-10 in the last 15 games at MSG.

The Hawks did post a 110-90 road win in this series on Nov. 16.