ATLANTA – The word that popped up over and over in the Hawks’ locker room last night describing their play – although the word should have been “lousy” – was “anxious.”

As in “Steve Smith looked anxious” when he shot 2-of-16. As in “We were anxious to even the series” at one game each. As in Lenny Wilkens observing his team starting to hit and then “we got anxious again” when things didn’t go Atlanta’s way.

If they were “anxious” last night, what do you figure them to be on the road, in the cozy confines of the Garden, where opponents are afforded the same treatment as vermin?

“We just have to continue to work to get through this,” said Dikembe Mutombo, who hauled in a game-high 17 rebounds but gave a silent treatment in the scoring column, recording just eight points while shooting 3-of-10.

“We’re 0-2. We’ve just got to win in New York,” understated Steve Smith, whose dreadful 2-of-16 horror from the floor went a long way in directing the Hawks to a 24-of-81 shooting effort which brought a very cadaver-like .296 as Atlanta rang up a total of seven assists.

“We just have to put these two games behind us,” said Ed Gray, who put up 11 shots in 16 minutes and hit six of them en route to 13 points (only Mookie Blaylock had more for Atlanta). “It really doesn’t matter what happened out there a couple minutes ago. We’ve got to go on to New York.”

What was particularly galling for the Hawks is how each of these games – particularly last night – was so eminently winnable. Especially last night. The Hawks had chance after chance after chance throughout the night to make a run and pull away. And they couldn’t.

For instance, in the third quarter with the score tied at 42, Allan Houston turned over the ball in the paint – the Knicks’ third turnover in under two minutes. So what did the Hawks do? They sent Chris Crawford streaking ahead of the field. And Steve Smith sent the ball streaking just over Crawford’s outstretched hands.

There was more. The Hawks missed point-blank layups. Dikembe Mutombo found only the back iron when he tried a wide-open thunderous dunk in the second quarter with Atlanta down, 32-31.

“You look at both games and we played terrible and we were still in the game each time,” Smith said, noting how the Hawks were within two early in the fourth quarter, within six with just under three minutes left. “I just hope we can have any kind of game up there because each game we’ve played bad but we still had a chance to win.

“We just have to go up there and win.”