Relax! The de-evolution will NOT be televised! At least, not on TNT!

Hawks do occasionally lay eggs -- it’s in their nature. But I’ll turn on The Nature Channel if I want to see anything like last night’s egg-laying by the Hawks broadcast before an already-skeptical national audience again.

Thankfully, it should just be the SportSouth and MSG crews airing tonight's regular season finale. If the Hawks play their cards right and get some help from Randy Wittman's Wizards, they may go into the next couple of weeks without ever having to leave more than two area codes.

Kevin Durant pitched in to make a Melo-fest less likely tonight. OKC announced he won’t play in their final game, meaning Carmelo Anthony has this year’s scoring title, the first of his career, in the bag. Now without anything worth playing for, there will be no participation from Anthony in tonight’s game. He’ll join Amar’e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, and the rest of the 1991 McDonald’s High School All-America team on the bench tonight.

The Geriatknicks continue making moves to usher in (and out) guys who are more likely to be selling you term life insurance and Hoverounds and newfangled fitness gadgets on cable ads than hooping in NBA arenas over the next several years. Rasheed Wallace is officially retiring, ending (we think) the career of the greatest single-game Hawk ever. Quentin Richardson was newly signed from wherever the heck he’s been. In a bit of irony, Q was once acquired by the Knicks via a trade for former Hawk Dijon Thompson and Kurt Thomas, the latter player just waived by New York last week.

Yesterday, Coach Mike Woodson brought back into the NBA some names we all thought we wouldn’t type again, save for the occasional punch line, in Solomon Jones and Earl “Viscount” Barron. I believe Barron tried out for the Hawks in one of those offseason workouts that went nowhere. Solo actually started in the Knicks’ ten-point win against the Pacers on Sunday, so don’t be surprised to see a lot of these new-old arrivals lighting it up for fans’ amusement tonight.

The rest of the lineup tonight is likely to be a literal crapshoot, with plenty of crappy play and wild shooting going on. It’s hard to find legs that won’t need rest, so look for the only Knick born after January 1, 1990, Iman Shumpert (14 points and 5 assists but 1-for-6 on threes in a loss to Charlotte on Monday), to get some higher-than-normal usage. J.R. Smith and Ronnie Brewer, the only other Knicks not around before January 1, 1985, will get plenty of offense-defense substitutions, but look for Richardson to get a lot of Smith’s floor time late. Smith and Raymond Felton were rested in the Charlotte game as well. Pablo Prigioni is a safe bet to start alongside Shump, as he did on Monday.

Rookie Chris Copeland is the one guy with any real size aside from Solo and Barron to play tonight. So whoever the Hawks put out there in the frontcourt should have a field day, certainly relative to the bruising experienced last night against the Raptors. Assuming Josh Smith and Al Horford get “rested” tonight, expect a lot of rumble-young-men-rumble action from the likes of Mike Scott, Johan Petro, and Ivan Johnson. Scott shot poorly last night but still managed his first-ever double-double.

“Close out on shooters” practice will remain in effect for the Hawks, with Copeland and Steve Novak waiting in the wings. Don't be surprised to find five Knicks on the floor looking to fire away from long-range.

If Kyle Korver plays at all, he will play until he hits his first three-pointer, and then enjoy the remainder of his evening. Expect a lot more out of John Jenkins, who fizzled against the Raps (2-for-13 and 0-for-6 on threes).

Go Hawks!

~lw3