ATLANTA – This thing might not go four games.

After Game 1, the Hawks talked about playing better defense. Now after Game 2, they’ll be talking about playing better offense. Betcha after Game 3, they’ll be talking about what flight home they’ll be taking after Game 4.

”We haven’t played a complete game,” offered forward Tyrone Corbin.

Last night’s Game 2 performance in a 77-70 loss was nothing near complete. The Hawks shot a pathetic .296 from the floor, committed 20 turnovers that led to 19 Knick points and scored no more than 20 points in any quarter.

”When you shoot 25 percent, it’s very, very tough to win,” said an exasperated Lenny Wilkens, who watched his team race out to leads of 7-0 and 13-2 and then go belly up in an unbelievable totality.

”Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s part of the New Jersey Nets will be played by the Atlanta Hawks…’

The Hawks found whatever passed for offense on their end of the court from Mookie Blaylock, who shot 7-of-20 (hey, that’s 35 percent, downright fiery by other Hawk standards) and scored 17 points. It got so bad Wilkens had to summon Ed Gray, a .291 regular season marksman. Gray at least made more shots, six, than he missed, five and scored 13 points. That made him a frontrunner for the next mayoral race here.

”I thought both sides played really good defense,” Wilkens said.

He was right. But both sides also played really bad offense. And it was just that one side was worse than the other. A lot worse.

”Unexplainable,” said Dikembe Mutombo. ”We played good defense but…”

‘Nuff said.

It was suggested at one point that the Hawks relied too heavily on the outside shot. Perhaps.

”But it really didn’t matter,” said Steve Smith. ”We missed inside, outside, everywhere.”