SLUMPING HAWKS STUNNED BY KNICKS AS NATE ROBINSON RETURNS TRIUMPHANTLY TO ROTATION IN ATLANTA

The Atlanta Hawks, one of basketballs best teams, is beginning to weaken. And the New York Knicks, a team seeded well outside 2010 playoff contention, is beginning to turn some heads. With a 108-104 overtime victory Saturday in Atlanta the Knicks have proven themselves in a game coach D’Antoni saw as an experiment. In the Knicks’ universe, controversies do not end — they merely morph and adapt as circumstances dictate. So Nate Robinson’s electrifying 41-point performance on Friday merely shifted the debate. There is no longer any question about his role: Robinson is back in Coach Mike D’Antoni’s rotation after a much-debated 14-game exile. The question now becomes, did D’Antoni wait too long? When D’Antoni benched Robinson on Dec. 2, he was searching for lineup combinations that worked, that provided a balance of offense, defense and consistent effort. It was hard to argue with the initial results. The Knicks won four straight games and seven out of nine with Robinson on the bench. They beat some quality teams, including Atlanta, Portland and New Orleans. (They also routed Phoenix on Dec. 1, with Robinson playing sparingly, a prelude to his benching.) The Knicks had gone 1-9 to start the season with Robinson in the rotation.