ATLANTA — The Knicks blew a 17-point third-quarter lead and likely their season Saturday. Their disastrous four-game Southeast road trip ended in a spectacular collapse against the Hawks, 107-98, at Philips Arena.
The Knicks finished the trip 1-3 and fell 5 ½ games behind the eighth seed, occupied by Brooklyn, and it looks as if Carmelo Anthony is on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in his career.
The Knicks blew a 14-point, third-quarter lead in Orlando on Friday and put on an equally depressing encore after seizing control against the Hawks, then folding, which has been their modus operandi this season. They are 21-35 — sinking to a low mark of 14 games under .500 — and have no lottery pick as saving grace.
The Hawks were in freefall, losers of eight straight before finding a club more broken than them.
There’s almost a numbness in the locker room now.
“We’re just giving away leads,’’ said Anthony, who finished with 35 points one night after racking up 44. “We’re giving away games at this point.’’
Anthony, 3 of 11 in the final period, could see something bad coming. After the Hawks made a nice run to cut the lead to 73-68 after three quarters, Anthony said he felt the Knicks took the court with the body language of losers.
Anthony had left the contest with four fouls with 1:40 left in the third and the Knicks up 10. He returned 1:38 into the fourth down four.
“Coming to the fourth quarter, they had made a run,’’ Anthony said. “We were up [five]. Guys just seemed like we were down 20. I’m trying to tell them we’re on the road, the home team made a run. We’re still winning. It seemed like we couldn’t bounce back. Our body language out there was like we were losing the whole game. We were winning the majority of the game.’’
Atlanta second-year man Mike Scott set his career high of 30 points, becoming the sixth player this season to set his career high against the Knicks this season. He was 11 of 14 and hit six 3-pointers. The list of career nights against the 2013-14-Knicks also includes Brandon Knight, Jimmer Fredette, Lance Stephenson, Marco Belinelli and Evan Turner.
Ironically, Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, whom the Knicks passed on before the trade deadline for cap reasons, destroyed them in the second half, with 20 of his 28 points and finishing with six assists, outplaying Raymond Felton (16 points, 10 assists).
“Same thing. different day,” Anthony said. “It’s starting to be tough to handle. It’s definitely testing me. We’re losing the same way over and over and just not learning from that. ’
“Hopefully it will turn around before it’s too late.’’
Coach Mike Woodson was back in his old haunt, and if he continues to survive this, he’s the coaching cat with nine lives.
“It was about the same as [Friday] night, Woodson said. “We ran out of juice. It was a carbon copy of [Friday] night’s game. I just got to keep coaching, get them over the hump and out of this funk we’re in.’’
The Hawks closed the game by outscoring the Knicks 50-26, and notching 39 fourth-quarter points. A shell-shocked Amar’e Stoudemire sat on the bench with his head down for the final minute.
The Knicks started the day with Metta World Peace announcing on Twitter he was being bought out, as was Beno Udrih, and they both left Atlanta on Saturday afternoon. Both had been out of the rotation, but it was surprising the move wasn’t done after the trip.
Anthony might have antagonized the Hawks some in the third quarter when the Knicks were rolling. He put the moves on DeMarre Carroll in draining a 3-pointer, then jimmying and started trash-talking. Carroll jabbered back, and Anthony got a technical foul — as did Woodson, who stepped onto the court.
In the second quarter, the Hawks sprinted out to a 9-0 run to make it 33-23 but the Knicks roared back on a 25-3 spurt to go up 48-36. The Knicks led 52-39 at halftime. Anthony and Felton began the third quarter with jumpers as the Knicks went up by 17 points, 56-39.
But, following their season-long tendency, the Knicks blew the lead. The Hawks closed the third quarter strong as Lou Williams nailed a 3-pointer to cap a run and it was 73-68 after three quarters.
Atlanta opened up the fourth quarter by draining three 3-pointers in the opening two minutes. — two by Williams and one by Scott.
“Right now we’re digging ourselves a much deeper hole,’’ Anthony said. “It’s not really early in the season anymore. We can’t use that as an excuse.’’