Right now, there’s a dude looking in Dacula poring over the neatly-pressed orange-and-blue threads on his bed. He’s never set foot in the 212 area code. But he is prepping to head to the Highlight Factory and join a capacity crowd in pulling for “his” Knickerbockers on a nationally-televised game to extend their win streak to ten. Will he go home happy, or will he be left sitting on his hands?

Mike Woodson’s Knicks are rolling after riding Carmelo Anthony’s hot hand (career-high 50 points) to a win against shorthanded Miami last night. And they’re not only striving to secure homecourt advantage in the first two playoff rounds. Since the Nets crossed leagues from the ABA in 1977, the Knicks and Nets have played 35 seasons together, in the same division, without ever finishing 1^st-and-2^nd. Up five games on Brooklyn with nine games to go, they’re looking to be in that 1^st spot as soon as possible. The Knicks have not won the Atlantic Division since 1994, and have only done it four times since 1970.

Closing out on three-point shooters… hey, there’s a novel concept! Even if Tyson Chandler plays tonight (he was out during this entire streak with a neck injury, then experienced stiffness when he returned last night), let the Knicks’ interior players try to beat you. The Hawks have the league’s eighth-best defense on two-point shots in terms of shooting percentage (47.2 2FG%), but they have the third-highest opponent shooting percentage on triples (37.8 3FG%), as only Phoenix and Charlotte do worse.

New York takes - and makes - the most threes in the league, hitting 37.8% of them (6^th in NBA). And last season’s leader in three-point percentage, Steve Novak, hardly has to lift a finger. Once a horrendous three-point shooter, the NBA’s second-leading scorer Carmelo Anthony has 75 more treys than last season in just 5 more games, now shooting 37.7 3FG% after a March swoon (25.5 3FG% last month). He plopped 7 of them on 10 shots last night in Miami with Shane Battier glued to him much of the game, and not one shot he took all night was in the paint. It was the most threes in a game for Anthony since his season high of 9 (on 12 shots) on his way to 42 points and a two-point win against the Hawks on January 27.

Even if Melo isn’t in the mood to light up Atlanta like Georgia Power tonight, he has J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd firing away, not to mention Iman Shumpert, Novak, Chris Copeland, and Pablo Prigioni all shooting well from deep-range. Atlanta’s forwards should look for opportunities to disrupt and pick off telegraphed passes to the three-point arc.

If you wonder where Josh Smith gets his motivation for Threes R Us basketball, you need look no further than the newly-added skill of his Oak Hill Academy alum on the Knicks. As usual, the temptation will be there to match Anthony shot-for-shot, but Smith and Al Horford must force the action inside on Kenyon Martin, Copeland, and Marcus Camby, drawing the wing help defenders that free up Kyle Korver, DeShawn Stevenson and Anthony Tolliver.

Gotham's ability to pick teams apart from the perimeter keeps the turnovers down a ton (11.8 TO/G, fewest in NBA). With Amare Stoudemire (knee) and Kurt Thomas (foot) still out, forcing Melo to put the ball on the floor find his offense on the inside will create the turnovers the Hawks will need to create transition opportunities. The Hawks cannot rely on a halfcourt slow-paced game to stay competitive, but must run the floor off rebounds and turnovers, putting Geriatknicks on their heels defensively.

Whether it was Felton or Kidd or Shumpert, all of whom started against the Hawks, Woody could find no answer for his former point guard, Jeff Teague, in the January 27 game (27 points, 6 assists). But Teague could use some backcourt help tonight, with Devin Harris and John Jenkins likely unavailable, Backup duties will fall to Shelvin Mack, while Stevenson (15 points against the Knicks on January 27) could put up big numbers off the bench. How about a cool 32 to match that birthday, DeShawn?

Some random guy is calling out to that dude in Dacula. @SpikeLee says:

“Orange N Blue Flock Gotta Show Up In ATL Tonight. Turn Phillips Into Madison Square Garden South. And Dat's Da "10th Win In A Row"Truth,Ruth”

Sorry, Spike, but you’re in Tyler Perry country now! Don’t you have any more two-star box-office bombs to direct?

Go Hawks!

~lw3