New York Knicks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Carmelo Anthony's 36 Wasted in Loss

It was a valiant effort by Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks, but they simply couldn't overcome a 15-point deficit to beat the Atlanta Hawks and lost, 100-90.

Anthony, once again, tried to put the team on his back and dropped 36 on Atlanta, along with nine rebounds and five steals in another all-around solid effort.

And for the second night in a row, Iman Shumpert stepped up and scored 25 points.

But the rest of the team couldn't match Melo and Shump's effort.

The fact that those two were the only Knicks in double-figures is a testament to that.

The Knicks cut the lead to two, but squandered their chance to tie when Baron Davis was denied wildly driving to the hoop.

Free throws were also a problem down the stretch, and New York missed plenty of key free ones in the fourth quarter.

Joe Johnson (28 points) and Josh Smith (23 points) helped the Hawks early and combined for the team's first 22 points of the game.

Smith dominated in the paint early and often. New York is clearly lacking the necessary size down low and as a result, Tyson Chandler looks just plain tired.

Amar'e Stoudemire and Jared Jeffries' size are sorely missed.

Johnson was nearly lights-out tonight and was hitting the open looks and the contested ones. Landry Fields played tough defense on him, but Johnson was simply too much and too hot to stop. 

Willie Green was Atlanta's unsung hero and single-handedly put the Knicks away in the fourth quarter by scoring 15 of his 20 points on New York's defense.

At that point, it looked like the Knicks' defense was rundown and Green took full advantage of it.

It looks like Anthony and Shumpert are ready to do what they need to in order to fill the voids left by Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.

The only question moving forward will be if the rest of the team can do the same.

During the post-game press conference, head coach Mike Woodson said we could expect to see Toney Douglas re-inserted into the rotation to help alleviate some of the fatigue this team is feeling.

It isn't the first time Woodson has mentioned Douglas, we'll see if he follows through this time.