NEW YORK 79, ATLANTA 66 ----------------------- NEW YORK (Ticker) -- The New York Knicks picked the best possible time for their longest winning streak of the season. Allan Houston scored 19 points and Patrick Ewing added 17 as the red-hot Knicks completed a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Hawks with a 79-66 rout and became the first team in NBA history to advance to the conference finals as a No. 8 seed. The Knicks won Game Five against the top-seeded Miami Heat to close out the first round and then embarrassed the fourth-seeded Hawks, who never hit their stride in the series. New York's five-game postseason run matches the longest in club history -- last accomplished in 1974. Steve Smith scored 14 points for Atlanta, which shot just over 30 percent for the series. The Hawks missed 16 consecutive shots and went without a basket for well over 11 minutes as the Knicks opened a 77-53 bulge during a stretch that spanned the third and fourth quarters. New York will face Indiana in the conference finals in a rematch of their 1994 series, which the Knicks won in seven games to advance to the NBA Finals, in which they fell to the Houston Rockets. The teams will be meeting in the postseason for the fifth time this decade, with Game One slated for Market Square Arena on Sunday. Latrell Sprewell capped a stellar series with 11 points off the bench for the Knicks, who posted their first four-game sweep since eliminating the Baltimore Bullets in 1969. After struggling to secure a playoff spot during the lockout-shortened regular season, New York appears to have saved its best for last.  