Hawks 76 Knicks 73 ATLANTA – The night of failure ended with Jeff Van Gundy stalking off the court and screaming at official George Toliver.

Van Gundy should have been yelling at somebody because this was one of the ugliest all-around games – played and officiated – in NBAhistory and it had a hard-to-believe dead ball foul call as the Knicks dropped a critical, 76-73 decision to the Hawks at the Georgia Dome.

Fresh off the lowest scoring third quarter in the shot-clock annals of the NBA in which the two teams combined for 19 points with the Knicks scoring all of eight points, the Knicks staged a furious and futile comeback in the final 1:28 that fell short and left Van Gundy steamed at Toliver. The referee had whistled Allan Houston for an dead-ball foul before the ball was inbounded by the Hawks after Larry Johnson hit a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 69-68.

That enabled Steve Smith to take and hit a free throw as the Hawks retained possession. Essentially, a one-point game became a four-point game after Smith hit two more free throws when the Knicks fouled him when the ball was inbounded. Van Gundy was livid as the Knicks are fighting for their playoff lives.

“I’ve never seen that called in 10 years in a close game,” Van Gundy began. “George Toliver is a good guy, but that’s not an NBA call, that is not an NBA call. That’s what’s great about NBA officiating. They make that guy go down there, make his two free throws and you get a chance to have a 3-point shot. There’s a lot more pressure on him if he’s shooting to make it three than to make it four. That’s a bad call … That’s what makes NBA officiating great, they don’t make calls like that.”

No doubt Van Gundy will be fined for his comments.

The loss snapped the 24-22 Knicks’ three-game winning streak and left them half a game ahead of Charlotte for the eighth and final playoff spot. For the third straight game the Knicks did not have Patrick Ewing (aching Achilles) but Ewing is expected to play tonight against the Sixers at the Garden. The victory was the Hawks seventh straight.

The Knicks were down eight with 1:28 remaining as they staggered through the game offensively. They then got hot and made a charge, cutting the lead to 69-68 with 9.5 seconds remaining on Johnson’s three-point shot. Before the ball could be inbounded, Houston was whistled for grabbing Smith.

“That was a big call, but that was not the only thing that went wrong tonight,” noted Latrell Sprewell, who led the Knick attack with 29 points in 34 minutes off the bench. The Hawks won despite shooting 31 percent from the field. The Knicks made 20 turnovers.

Said Houston, “They made a call that I thought was questionable.” Van Gundy repeated that the foul never should have been called.

“They were locked up,” Van Gundy said of Smith and Houston, who had a dreadful game, committing five turnovers and missing seven of 11 shots. “It’s not an NBA call right there … The other two [referees] know that was a terrible call, too, you don’t make that call but they are not going to say anything,” he added of Scott Foster and Bernie Fryer.

Toliver’s call was a judgment call so the Knicks cannot protest. Said lead official Fryer of the call, “George got the guy holding onto his wrist under the basket.” Toliver, one of the infamous IRS refs, did not address the situation.

Said Van Gundy, “That’s a judgment thing and no matter what his lack of judgment was there was no rule infraction … We fought hard to get a chance to win and … ” he didn’t finish the comment. “We still have a long way to go to make the playoffs.

“We were terrible efficiency-wise in transition the whole game,” Van Gundy added. “We were fierce defensively and we competed hard, but the turnovers, that’s a killer.”

The Knicks started this game in a daze and found themselves down by 11 early in the second quarter. It could have been worse for the Knicks made an astounding 10 turnovers in the first quarter. Houston had four of those giveaways.

By halftime, the Knicks were back in the game because the Hawks joined the turnoverfest, committing seven turnovers in the last nine minutes as the Knicks closed to 41-39. Then came the third quarter follies. The 19 points was just one point shy of the NBA lowest scoring quarter ever when Ft. Wayne and Syracuse scored 18 points on Nov. 29, 1956.