The New York Knicks posted a pair of big victories early in the season, but they’ve fallen in a recent slump, including a home-and-home loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

After the second of those losses Monday night, Knicks head coach Derek Fisher took his team into the locker room at Madison Square Garden with a bit of a different approach. Rather than pointing out the recent pitfalls of his team, he came with a positive postgame speech—and his players appreciated that approach.

“I think anytime you’re going through something we’re going through and dealing with what we’re dealing with, it’s always good to hear some positive energy and in the locker room, and kind of reinforcing the things we did from a good standpoint,” Anthony said. “It’s easy after several losses to come into the locker room and keep hitting the nail on the head and saying what we didn’t do, so for (Derek) it was more of just trying to keep the morale up.”

SATURDAY IN ATLANTA

Following a Friday night defeat at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets, Fish’s Knicks headed down to Atlanta in search of a turnaround, and through the first half, that bounceback victory looked to be within reach.

New York stormed out of the gates, as Anthony dominated the action. Melo tallied 14 points and eight rebounds, nearly outrebounding the Hawks single-handedly. He started the game off with a big triple off a feed from Iman Shumpert. The Knicks star then returned the favor, dishing out a nice assist to Shumpert on a high-flying dunk.

Shumpert had four dimes in the first quarter, as the Iman-Melo duo had New York out to a 32-20 lead on the road. Shumpert’s strong play continued in the second, where he tallied four points and two more assists. Meanwhile, J.R. Smith contributed eight points off 4-of-4 shooting.

Atlanta’s star shooter, Kyle Korver, responded with eight points of his own, but the Knicks were still able to add a point to their lead and head to the half ahead 61-48.

After the break, Shumpert’s strong night rolled along, as he poured on eight more points, including two threes. However, he didn’t have much help offensively. The Knicks shot just 27.8 percent from the field, while Korver continued to heat up for Atlanta, adding two more threes.

New York managed just 13 points in the third and Atlanta erased its deficit, taking a 75-74 lead into the final frame. That third quarter, Fish said, was the team’s ultimate downfall.

“The third quarter is what really cost us,” Fish said. “We’ve had that happen to us a couple of times in the preseason and early on in the regular season so far with that one big quarter is turning the game. The effort was there, we had a chance to win the game, we just didn’t get it.”

In the final frame, Korver put the finishing touches on the comeback. He dropped two more trifectas and 10 total points to close out Atlanta’s 103-96 win. He finished with 27 points and shot 6-of-9 from three.

For New York, Anthony tallied 20 points, Shumpert turned in 19, Tim Hardaway Jr. contributed 18 and Amar’e Stoudemire added 14 off the bench.

MANHATTAN MONDAY

After being sunk by the hot-shooting Hawks in the closing stretch Saturday night, the Knicks turned around and played host to Atlanta Monday, and Fish came back with a different strategy.

Derek called for an increased physical presence from his squad and gave more minutes to big men Jason Smith and Stoudemire off the bench, and on the surface, it worked.

Atlanta’s shooting percentages from the field and from three dropped below 40 percent, resulting in 12 fewer points. The Knicks were called for 26 fouls, which kept the Hawks out of their rhythm, but the visitors succeeded at Basketball 101: making free throws. Atlanta went 27-of-28 from the charity stripe, which just did make the difference in a 91-85 final.

Despite the result, Coach Fish had no regrets about the strategy, as it allowed the Knicks to stick right with the Hawks throughout. Overall, Derek left the contest feeling content with his team’s performance.

“I think tonight was a little different than the other nights, I think before we had to foul a little bit more to extend the game … overall I thought we were much better tonight in defending without fouling,” Fish said. “That’s what really allowed us to remain in the game, and at times control the game and really keep them from being able to score.”

That defensive mindset was apparent right away, as Fish’s crew held the Hawks to just 17 points in the first frame. Things opened up just a bit in the second, but seven points from Hardaway helped the Knicks to stay neck-and-neck with their foe and take a 38-38 tie into the break.

Out of halftime, Hardaway, Shumpert and Anthony teamed up to create a surge of momentum early in the frame. The triangle offense was clipping early in the first frame, as Hardaway nailed a three and dropped in a tough reverse layup off a feed from Anthony to give New York a seven-point lead.

However, Paul Millsap and Korver answered with back-to-back threes to give the momentum, and the lead, right back to Atlanta. However, strong defensive play from the Knicks wouldn’t allow the Hawks to stray too far.

The Hawks continued to break away in the fourth, but Melo refused to let the team falter, as he knocked down multiple shots in the clutch to keep his team alive. Melo put up a game-high 25 points, breaking an uncharacteristically bad string of games were he only eclipsed 20 points once.

Melo’s breakthrough game put the Knicks in position to take the lead, but couldn’t hold on after a few key turnovers and missed jumpers late in the game stifled any chance of completing the comeback, and the Knicks fell 91-85.

Even with the loss, morale remains high for the Knicks, who have continued to fight and scrap through each minute of their cold streak.

“We’re out there trying. It’s not like last year. This year, we’re actually out there trying to give it our all,” Hardaway said. “You can see the frustration on our faces if we make a mistake.”

Despite seeing his team fall into an early-season slump, team president Phil Jackson was proud of the way the Knicks have performed, and the way Coach Fish and his staff have worked to keep the squad competitive through mounting injury issues.

“I think the coaching staff has done a great job,” Jackson said of the team’s performance despite the setback injuries. “I see growth in this team, and I think it’s not always the final score, it’s sometimes how you play.”

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