The Season in 8 Segments: The Hawks first 52 games can be cut up into 8 fairly distinct segments (or at least that’s what I’m claiming). The details section gives a brief recap of the games. If you don’t want to read all of those recaps then you can just scroll down to the next segment.
The Dream Start (10/29-11/11)
Record During Segment: 6-0
Record to Date at End of Segment: 6-0
Details: One of the reasons I was so pessimistic about the Hawks carrying the momentum they built in the playoffs over into this season was that their early schedule looked very unfriendly. I was really bummed when I looked over the Hawks schedule and saw how tough things were right out of the gate. I feared that if the Hawks came out and struggled in the first few weeks it would take away all of the positive feelings, the hope, and also the interest that had been stirred up locally by the playoff performance. I didn’t think there was any chance the Hawks would get off to a great start and frankly I thought we’d be lucky if we were within 5 games of .500 after 25 games. My fears were valid. Our first 4 games were against 2007-2008 playoff teams and 12 of our first 21 games were against 07-08 playoff teams. 14 of our first 22 games were on the road and 9 of those road games were against 07-08 playoff teams. But it was clear right away that the Hawks had come away from that series against Boston with something very tangible and invaluable: confidence. And thus, the momentum would indeed carry over into this season, big time. Not only did the Hawks survive the start of the season, they got off to as good of a start as any team in the NBA. Look, I was at Game 6 of the series with Boston; I know it happened. Still, this dream start blew me away.
The Hawks drew a brutal opening matchup, on the road at Southeast Division favorite Orlando, and the Hawks would be without Marvin Williams who was serving a 1 game suspension for a flagrant foul in game 7 of the playoffs. But the Hawks quickly put a damper on the Magic’s opening night, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back, bringing boos from the home crowd, and sending many home early. The Hawks doubled up the Magic 26-13 in the 1st quarter, led by 19 going to the 4th, and came away with a stunning, 99-85 victory on opening night. How about that?
The atmosphere at Phillips Arena for the Hawks’ home opener was unlike any that had come before at the team’s newest home. But the mood would soon be dampened as Hawks were outscored by the visiting 76ers 34-18 in the 1st quarter. Philly and Elton Brand were supposed to contend for that 4th spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs and the Hawks went down by as much as 23 but Joe Johnson would lead the Hawks all the way back. The deficit was down to 9 going to the 4th quarter and the Hawks grabbed their first lead of the game on a JJ dunk with 1:53 to go. Joe sealed it with a 3-pointer as the Hawks outscored the Sixers 29-13 in the 4th and won it 95-88 to start 2-0 for the first time since the 1998-1999 season.
The Hawks had a few days off before they had to go out to New Orleans to play Chris Paul and the Hornets. Despite the impressive performance in the first two games, I didn’t think the Hawks were capable of winning this game. But they outscored the Hornets by 8 in the 1st quarter and went to the half up by 6. As you expected, the Hornets came out and took over in the 3rd, outscoring the Hawks by 10 to take a 4 point lead to the 4th, but the Hawks didn’t fold. Quite the contrary, they outscored the Hornets 29-17 in the final period for an 87-79 victory, sending the home team to their first loss of the year. It was one of the bigger wins this franchise has had in a long time and got them to 3-0.
I never expected this. Wins by 14, 7, and 8 points at Orlando, against Philly, and at New Orleans??? 85, 88, and 79 points allowed??? Wow! Defense, hustle, confidence, swagger from Mike Woodson’s Hawks, ladies and gentlemen! The year before the Hawks had gotten out to a good start and had maintained a level of near decency all year. We finally had a legitimate professional basketball team that could compete and had a chance. But they were still under achieved and they still played at times like the Hawks of the 2000’s. They were still well below .500 at season’s end. Then that shit went down against Boston in the 1st round of the playoffs. Something had clicked and it was now clear to me that this team had taken a permanent step up. It was hard to believe but it looked like we had ourselves a team. A team that would have to be respected by the opposition. That playoff series had been a magical time, when basketball returned to Atlanta, but that was just a couple of weeks. It now looked like basketball might be back in Atlanta for good.
Of course though I was shocked by the Hawks’ dream-come-true first 3 games, I wasn’t at all surprised when things came crashing down to Earth late in the 1st quarter of their next game, against the Raptors at home. Josh Smith came down wrong on his left leg and had to leave the game with what looked like it might be a bad injury. I pulled my head out of the oven after it was learned that it was Josh’s ankle they were looking at and not, as I had feared, his knee. But the initial prognosis wasn’t good. As Hawks fans, didn’t we kind of know this was going to happen? This team has been hit by injuries throughout Woodson’s tenure and just when it looked like his team was becoming great you just knew that one of the irreplaceable members of the team was going to go down. In the immediate future it left the Hawks without one of their big men against Toronto’s formidable front court combo of Chris Bosh and the impossible not to hate Jermaine O’Neal. Making matters worse, Al Horford was virtually negated by foul trouble. But this team was just rolling and the Hawks met the challenge and did so with ease. Solomon Jones came off the bench for 6 points and 9 boards and the Hawks led throughout and ran away with it. The Hawks outscored the Raptors in every quarter, led by as many as 23, and went on to win 110-92 to go to 4-0 on the season.
They had faced 4 playoff teams, 2 on the road, and had gone 4-0, winning all 4 games by at least 7 points, and allowing no more than 92 points in any game. Wow. I was worried that after beating 4 playoff teams the Hawks might stumble in Oklahoma City. We didn’t know how bad the Thunder were at this point and the Sonics had given us fits recently. Plus it was on the road and we were without Josh Smith but everything looked good early as the Hawks led by 8 after 1. But after a poor 2nd quarter the Hawks found themselves trailing by 3 at halftime and they were behind by 4 points heading to the 4th quarter. The Hawks were down by 7 points with 6:37 left when Ronald “Flip” Murray stepped up and rescued us. Flip outscored the Thunder 9-2 over the next 1:47 to tie the score at 77. Joe gave the Hawks the lead moments later and then scored again to make it a 4 point cushion and the Hawks hung on to win 89-85. 5-0, baby.
The Hawks were now 3-0 on the road which was as amazing as anything else they had done in their first 5 games. But I still thought it would probably end in Chicago. For one thing, we always struggle against the Bulls, particularly in Chi-town. And even though they bombed the year before, the Bulls still had a ton of talent. In addition, there was no way that our boys weren’t looking ahead a bit to the next night when they would return to Boston for the first time since getting raped by the eventual World Champions in Game 7. Plus, at some point not having Josh was going to hurt us. But it wouldn’t be that night. Big Al would see to that. Horford stepped up his game with his team shorthanded, scoring a career high 27 points, grabbing 17 boards, and blocking 6 shots. The Hawks led at halftime and went to the 4th ahead by 10. The Bulls made a run to cut it to 2 and you could feel it slipping away. But the Hawks unleashed a barrage of trey bombs on the Bulls to bury them. Mike Bibby hit from behind the arc 3 times over the next 5 minutes and then Mo Evans hit Chicago with 2 trey balls in a 30 second span as the Hawks pulled away again and went on to win it 113-108. The Hawks were 6-0, the best start for the franchise since beginning the 1997-98 season 11-0.
A Tough First Loss Leads to the First Slump (11/12-11/18)
Record During Segment: 0-4
Record to Date at End of Segment: 6-4
Details: Well it was pretty neat that by the time the Hawks and Celtics met in Boston on November 12th we were 1 of only 2 remaining undefeated teams in the NBA. Once again I thought we had no chance. Our guys were excited for the game and the fans were too but I didn’t even want to watch. We’d played them 4 times in Boston in the series and not one of the games had been remotely close. We were playing without Josh Smith and were playing for the 2nd day in a row, coming off of a road game in Chicago the night before which was competitive throughout. The Celtics, meanwhile, had begun the season looking like they wanted to win 70 games. They were 7-1 so far, 4-0 at home, and playing defense with a playoff level intensity. Plus, they were fresh, coming off of a home game and then an off day the day before. We were catching them at the worst possible time and I thought we were going to get blown out. But again I would be surprised. The Hawks put up 31 in the 1st quarter for a 7 point lead. A 13-4 run to open the 2nd put the Hawks up by 16 points, 44-28, midway through the period. But the Celtics outscored us 23-7 the rest of the quarter, taking the lead for the first time in the game in the final minute of the half. It was 51-51 at halftime. Again, I figured this was as far as it would go. I thought Boston would beat us down in the 2nd half. But this would end up being one of the best, if not the best game the Hawks have been involved in all season. The two teams traded blows in a fantastic 3rd quarter that ended with the Hawks holding on to a 1 point lead, 77-76. We were still in it. As the 4th quarter wore on we refused to go away. The game was tied up 88-88 with 4:56 to play. After a Boston timeout, Kevin Garnett scored 4 straight points and the Hawks called a timeout with 3:31 to go, now down by 4. Moments later, Mo Evans hit his 3rd 3-pt bucket of the quarter to cut the deficit to 1 with 1:56 on the clock. Boston pushed it back to 4 before a pair of free throws by Joe Johnson made it a 2 point game with a minute remaining. I didn’t think we would win but I felt like it really didn’t matter. We had proved something here today. But then the Hawks got a stop and Joe hit a running jumper to tie her up at 99 with a half minute left. Paul Pierce hit a pair of free throws to give the Celtics a 2 point lead with 21 tics left. We of course put the ball in Joe’s hands and he tried to create but the Celts knew well enough that they had to bring everything to stop him and Joe found Marvin open in the left corner and he put it in the air for 3, bang! Hawks lead by a point with 7 seconds left. Wow. We had the lead. We were on the verge of winning in Boston and staying undefeated. Just how good was this team? We were just a defensive stop away. Boston in-bounded at mid-court and just as everyone knew that the ball would be placed in Joe’s hands at the other end of the court, everyone knew that the ball would be placed in Paul Pierce’s hands here. The Hawks played great defense and didn’t foul. There was nothing there, but with a hand in his face, fading away, Pierce hit a 20 footer with no time on the clock to steal it away from us, 103-102.
It was a heartbreaking loss, not because we lost, but because we had the win and it was snatched away from us. However, the main feeling I took out of that game was that this team was not afraid of anybody and that this team could beat any team in the League, anywhere, any night. But it seemed like most people were taking the loss harder than even I was. The fans were bummed, the people thinking about jumping on the band wagon were bummed, and worst of all, it seemed that the team was super bummed. Though there was now a 1 in our loss column, a 1 point loss on a last second shot at Boston without Josh Smith was really more impressive to me than anything the Hawks had done during the 6-0 start.
But the team would struggle to get past the heartbreaker in Boston. During the 6-0 start, the team got road wins over the Thunder (formerly the Sonics) and the Bulls, two teams that had given us fits in the recent past. The next game would be on the road against another team that has caused us a lot of problems over the last few years, the New Jersey Nets. But this was a Nets team that no longer had Jason Kidd or Richard Jefferson and was just 2-5 so far on the year. It didn’t matter. Getting off to good starts had been a stable of the Hawks fast start to the season, but in this one they were down 5 after 1. We came back to lead by 5 in the 2nd quarter and went to the half up by a point. Midway through the 3rd quarter we were down by 6 but by the end of the period we had a 3 point lead. Another thing the Hawks had done consistently during the 6-0 start was play well in the 4th quarter and it looked like they were again going to get it done, as they pushed the lead to 5 early in the final period. But this time the Hawks would not have the upper hand in the 4th. And it was their defense—the thing that had spearheaded their great start to the season—that let them down. The Nets went on a 19-6 run to take an 8 point lead with barley 5 minutes remaining. Al hit 2 free throws to cut it to 3 with 2:40 left but the Nets went down and got an easy dunk on the other end to make it a 5 point game again and the Hawks would not get any closer, eventually losing 115-108 for their 2nd straight loss. And it was their first “bad” loss of the year. Yes, it was on the road, but they lost to a bad team, blew a 5 point 4th quarter lead, and (worst of all) they gave up 42 points in the final period to lose by 7.
The Hawks didn’t have to wait long for revenge as they played the 2nd half of the home and away series with the Nets the following evening, this time at home. I figured the home cooking would get the Hawks back on track but the Nets did it to them again. Playing without Smith and Zaza Pachulia (“sore shoulder”), the Hawks led by 5 early but the Nets were ahead by 1 at the end of the 1st. NJ went on a 14-0 run in the 2nd quarter and led by 5 at the half. The Hawks tied it up at 63-63 early in the 3rd but the Nets outscored them 22-10 the rest of the quarter to take a 12 point lead to the 4th. For the first time this year the Hawks would fall out of the game before the final minute, as New Jersey pulled away. The Nets led by as much as 20 and eventually won by 12, 119-107. It was the Hawks’ worst loss of the season, their first loss at home, and their 3rd straight defeat since starting the year 6-0.
After getting swept in the home and home series with the Nets, the Hawks headed to Indiana to play the Pacers, yet another team that has given them problems in the recent past (You know, it seems like there are a shit load of teams who have had the Hawks’ number over the last few years, and I guess that would only make sense). The Hawks had been able to keep winning for the first few games without Josh Smith but his absence was taking its toll now as any additional loss left the team very thin. In this one Al Horford left with a right ankle injury midway through the 1st and did not return. The Hawks never led and trailed by as much as 17. The Pacers led by 7 after 1 and by 13 at halftime. The Hawks entered the 4th trailing by 15 and fell down by 17 early in the final period before going on a 15-5 run to cut it to 7 with still 8 minutes left. The Hawks had 4 shots to get within 5 or 4 but they wouldn’t get any closer and the Pacers finished on an 18-8 run to beat the Hawks 113-96. 4 losses in a row, a 2nd straight double digit loss, and (again, perhaps worst of all) another very troubling defensive effort.
Beating the Teams They Should to Get Back on Track (11/19-12/5)
Record During Segment: 6-2
Record to Date at End of Segment: 12-6
Details: The dream start to the season was in danger of being completely negated. After winning their first 6 games, the Hawks had lost 4 straight to fall to 6-4. During the 6 game win streak the Hawks had given up an average of 89.5 points per game. In their 4 straight losses they had allowed 112.5 points per game. This was not a good sign. They desperately needed to get back on track and fortunately they had a very winnable home game against the Wizards coming up next. Washington had been a playoff team the last few years and even though Gilbert Arenas was hurt they still had Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. But the Wizards came into the game just 1-7 on the season. However, the Hawks would be without both Josh Smith and Al Horford, as their two starting big men were suffering from ankle injuries. Thankfully, both Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia stepped up to help get the Hawks a much needed win, with Marv going for 21 points and 14 rebounds, while Z pulled down 18 boards himself. Early on it did not look good as the Wizards ran out to a 13-4 lead. The Hawks led by 2 after 1 but they trailed by 9 late in the 2nd quarter before Flip Murray threw one in from half court at the buzzer to cut it to 6 going to halftime. The Hawks charged back in the 3rd quarter to lead by 6 before Butler heaved in a long 3 point shot at the buzzer to cut it to 3 heading to the 4th. Washington opened the 4th on a 12-5 run to take a 4 point lead with 5 and a half to go. The Hawks came back to take the lead briefly before falling behind again. A 3 by Evans tied it with 1:53 to go but moments later it looked like the Hawks were headed for a 5th straight defeat, as they found themselves down by 4 with only 1:05 remaining. Had the Hawks lost you could have cited the injuries to use as excuses but the bottom line was this was a game the Hawks really needed to win to stop this downward spiral. It didn’t appear as if it would happen but then Joe drilled a 3 to cut the lead to 1 with 56 seconds left. The Hawks forced the Wizards into a shot clock violation and then Joe found Marvin open behind the line and he sank a 3 to put the Hawks up 2 with 26 seconds left. The Hawks got another defensive stop and Murray hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to ice it. The Hawks ended the game on an 8-0 run to win it 91-87, snapping the 4 game skid.
The Hawks next game was against Charlotte, another team that had enjoyed a lot of success against them in recent years (look, I know it’s getting silly, but they came into the game 11-5 against the Hawks in their 4 years of existence), but again they would be at home. Once again the Hawks got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 21-8, before outscoring the Bobcats 39-22 over the remainder of the half to take a 4 point lead to intermission. The Hawks pushed their lead to 6 late in the 3rd before the Bobcats closed out the period on a 7-0 run to take a 1 point lead to the 4th. The Hawks would find themselves down by a point with only 2 and a half minutes remaining in the game after Raymond Felton buried a jump shot but Marvin banged in a 3 on the other end to give the Hawks the lead for good with 2:12 left. The Hawks finished the game on an 8-2 run to win it 88-83.
The Hawks had rebounded from the 4 game skid to win 2 straight but they weren’t going to go to Cleveland and beat Lebron and the Cavs, especially when they were playing for the 2nd day in a row while the Cavs were coming off a 2-day break. Nobody has beaten the Cavs in Cleveland this season and the Hawks didn’t come close. Cleveland scored the game’s first 11 points and led 29-11 after 1. The Hawks were down 40-15 midway through the 2nd and trailed 50-31 at the half. Things got out of hand in the 3rd as the Hawks fell down 69-39. It was 80-57 at the start of the 4th quarter. The Hawks were able to cut the deficit to 98-85 with 4:05 left but they got no closer and eventually lost 111-95 to fall to 8-5 on the season.
The Hawks came back from the loss in Cleveland with a win at home over the Bucks who were playing without Andrew Bogut. Though the Hawks led almost the entire game they never led by double digits. They were up 4 after 1, went to the half tied at 48, and took a 4 point lead to the 4th. With the Hawks up 2 late in the game, Big Al scored, got fouled, and hit the free throw to put the Hawks up 94-89 with 1:48 on the clock. Flip drilled a 3 to put the game away with the Hawks up 99-91 with only 54 seconds remaining. The Hawks went on to win 102-96 to get to 5-1 at home.
The Hawks next game was on the road against Toronto. The Hawks had beaten up the Raptors in Atlanta earlier in the year and they would be without Jermaine O’Neal in this game. After the Hawks whipped the Magic and Hornets on the road and then nearly won in Boston there was every reason to believe that the Hawks had largely gotten over their road game woes and would be much better away from home this year. But those thoughts were starting to look premature, as the Hawks fell to the Raptors in Canada for their 5th straight loss on the road. The Hawks trailed 35-23 early in the 2nd but they went on a 27-11 tear to finish the half and go to the lockers with a 4 point lead. They were down by 4 going to the 4th and Toronto quickly increased the lead to 10. The Hawks were down 9 with less than 4 minutes to go but they battled back and a lay up by Mike Bibby with 1:02 remaining made it a 3 point game. The Hawks forced the Raptors into a shot clock violation to get the ball back with 39 seconds left but Marvin missed a jump shot at the other end and that was it, as the Hawks went on to lose 93-88.
The following day the Hawks had another chance to snap their road skid, as they were in Washington for a matchup with the Wizards who came into the game just 2-11 on the season and had already made a coaching change. Early on it looked like the Hawks might roll, as they finally got off to a good start, doubling up on Washington 28-14 in the game’s first 10 minutes. They led by 10 at halftime and scored the first 7 points of the 3rd quarter to go up by 17 but the Wizards didn’t quit. The Hawks began the 4th quarter leading by 9 but Washington hit a couple of 3’s to cut the lead to 3 early in the final period and they just refused to go away. 2 free throws by DeShawn Stevenson tied the game at 89 with a little less than 5 minutes to play. The Hawks scored 5 straight points but Washington came back again, with Caron Butler hitting a 3 to tie it with a little over a minute remaining. Butler took a shot to try and give the Wizards the lead with 30 seconds left but he missed. Washington got the rebound but turned it over. Big Al scored and got fouled with 12 seconds left and then hit the free to make it a 3 point lead. The Hawks fouled with 6 seconds left to keep Wash from trying a 3 and they missed both free throws and Atlanta went on to win 102-98 to snap a 5 game losing streak on the road.
After missing 12 games, Josh Smith was finally back in the lineup as the Hawks hosted the Grizzlies on December 3rd. The Hawks jumped out to a 10-2 lead but the score was 24-24 after 1. By halftime the Hawks had taken control of the game and built an 11 point lead. The Hawks went on a 24-9 run to open the 3rd quarter and led 74-48. The 26 point lead was down to 14 by the end of the quarter and midway through the 4th the lead had been cut in half again. The Grizzlies hung around, getting within 6 on a 3 pointer by Hakim Warrick with a minute to play. Big Al put the game away with a jumper to make it an 8 point lead with 40 seconds to go and the Hawks went on to win 105-95.
The Knicks were the next team to come to town. As a lifelong Hawks fan (and therefore, sufferer) I really appreciated this particular game because of the way the crowd at Phillips was. It was so nice to hear everybody cheering on the Hawks and rooting against New York. That may sound like a silly statement to anybody not familiar with the history of the Atlanta Hawks, but just trust me, there have been many times when it was the exact opposite: the home town fans not only cheering for the Knicks but even rooting against the Hawks. On this day if you were watching on TV you didn’t detect the presence of any New York supporters at all. And in the end the home crowd helped the home team defeat New York. It was great to see. The Hawks led by 7 at 1 point in the 1st quarter but the period ended with the Hawks up by only 1. They led by 10 at one point in the 2nd quarter but they went to halftime leading just 57-55. They had a 3 point lead going to the 4th and they quickly stretched it out to 10 and looked to be pulling away but the Knicks stayed within shouting distance. A 3 pointer by Bibby with 5 minutes left gave the Hawks a 9 point lead but the Knicks reeled off 8 straight points to cut the Atlanta lead to 1 with 3 and a half minutes to go. Bibbs drilled a trey to make the score 96-92 with 2 and a half to play but Quentin Richardson answered with a 3 to cut it back to 1 with 1:44 left. Joe Johnson scored to give the Hawks a 3 point lead with a minute and a half remaining. The Hawks would then get 3 defensive stops in a row to finish the job. First they stopped Chris Duhon from scoring on a drive to the hole. Then Al Harrington looked to tie the game with a 3 with 32 seconds left but he couldn’t connect. It was still a 3 point game with 5 seconds left on the clock and the Knicks had time for another 3 point attempt by Harrington to try and send it to OT but he missed again and the Hawks hung on for a 98-95 win, their 6th in their last 8 games, and their 7th win in 8 games at Phillips so far this year.
Oh-fer-Texas (12/6-12/10)
Record During Segment: 0-3
Record to Date at End of Segment: 12-9
Details: After offsetting their 6-0 start with a 4 game losing streak, the Hawks had gotten back on track by taking care of business against a bunch of middling teams at home, but it was now time for them to embark on a much more difficult part of their schedule. Prior to the start of the season I was looking at how tough the early part of our schedule was and I felt like the Hawks really needed to be around .500 prior to the Texas road trip because I thought it was highly likely that they would lose all 3 games. At one point in time the west coast trip to play the Lakers, the Kings, the Blazers, etc. seemed like the most difficult. But in recent times there has been no more brutal swing than the Texas trip to play the Mavs, the Rockets, and the Spurs. The Hawks would not be catching the Mavs at a good time. After a horrible 3-7 start, the Mavs had won 8 of their last 9 despite being without Josh Howard. Al Horford had sprained his ankle the day before against the Knicks and even though he was able to play out that game he was a late scratch against Dallas. While the Hawks were having to travel to play the Mavs after playing a tight game the day before, Dallas had been off the day before and had been home for a week. Still, the Hawks hung with Dallas for much of the game. We led by 2 at the end of the 1st quarter and by 2 at the half. The Hawks led 45-43 early in the 3rd but then the Mavs went on a 9-0 run to take a 52-45 lead. The Mavs later went on another 9-0 run and they led by 15 going to the 4th. The Mavs appeared to have the game wrapped up, leading 84-65 with just 7:35 left on the clock. They still led by 16, 88-71 with just over 5 minutes left, but then the Hawks caught fire and scored 11 unanswered points in only 2 minutes to cut the score to 88-82 with over 3 minutes remaining. The Mavs responded, pushing the lead back out to 10 with now less than 2 minutes remaining but the Hawks would eat up more than half that lead in a span of 5 seconds. Joe hit a 3 with 1:14 on the clock, Dirk Nowitski threw the ball away, and Bibbs hit from 3 land to make it a 4 point game at the 1:10 mark. The Hawks got a defensive stop and Bibbs scored to make it 94-92 with 44 tics left. Josh Smith stole the ball from Nowitski but instead of getting it to one of the ball handlers he tried to push the ball up the court and Jason Kidd stole it right back and the Mavs scored to make it a 4 point game again with only 26 seconds to play. Bibbs knocked down a 3 to cut it to 1 and the Hawks fouled to send Jason Terry to the line with only 18 seconds on the clock. Terry hit em both to make the lead 3. Joe put up a 3 to try and tie it up with 8 seconds to go but he missed and the Hawks went on to lose it 100-98.
The Hawks got 2 days of rest before they had to play the Rockets in Houston but it didn’t seem to help early as they fell down 13-0. They trailed 27-16 after 1 and they were down by 15 early in the 2nd quarter but the Hawks then went on a 14-4 run to get within 5. They went to halftime down 46-38. The Hawks were trailing by 9, 49-40 early in the 3rd when they matched Houston’s run to open the game by scoring 13 unanswered points to take a 53-49 lead. The Hawks took a 2 point lead to the 4th quarter. This time the Hawks hadn’t had to expend quite so much energy fighting to get back in the game and they looked like they had a really good shot at snapping their 9 game losing skid in Houston. Josh Smith’s 3 point heave found the bottom of the net to make it 76-68 Hawks with 8 minutes remaining. The Hawks looked to be in command but suddenly the Rockets roared back with 9 straight points to go ahead 77-76 with 5 minutes to go. Al Horford put the Hawks back in front by a point with a bucket at the 4:20 mark but that was really Atlanta’s last gasp. For the second time in the game the Rockets would go on a 13-0 run to put the game out of reach, up 90-78 with only a minute and a half left on the clock. Incredibly, from the time that Smith’s 3 put the Hawks up 76-68 with 7:58 on the clock to the 1:27 mark the Rockets had outscored the Hawks 22-2. The Hawks went on to lose 84-72, once again seeing a great comeback go for naught in the Lone Star State.
There was only one more stop on the Texas trip and this one was the hardest of all. The Hawks had lost 10 straight in San Antonio going into this one and they would be playing the day after a hard fought game in Houston but the Spurs had played a double overtime game at Dallas the night before so neither team was coming in very fresh. The Hawks scored the first 4 points of the game but the Spurs responded with a 24-6 run to go up 24-10. The Hawks cut it to 25-17 by the end of the 1st quarter but the Spurs had the lead back up to 14 by the middle of the 2nd. The Hawks trailed by 8 at the half but the Spurs pushed the lead back out to 13 midway through the 3rd. Manu Ginobili scored to give the Spurs a 15 point lead, 61-46, with 3 minutes left in the 3rd but the Hawks outscored the San Antonio 9-1 the rest of the quarter to cut the deficit to 7 going to the 4th. Once again the Spurs began the quarter by extending their lead and the Hawks trailed by 11 with less than 10 minutes to play. Minutes later, Bibby hit a 3 to make it a 6 point game with 8 minutes to go. Joe hit from 3 point range 30 seconds later to pull the Hawks within 3. The Spurs would push their lead back out to 6 but Joe scored and hit a free on an and-1 play to make it a 3 point game again with still 4 minutes left. Bibby shot to try and trim the lead to 1 moments later but he missed and Tim Duncan got the rebound and on the Spurs next trip down the court the referees high jacked the game. Al Horford was called for a foul on Manu. Mike Bibby let loose with a “come on, man” and the ref decided to hit him up with a tech. Horford was confused, thinking the tech had been called on him and he yelled “what happened, man?” and the ref decided to hit him with a tee as well. Ginobili hit both technical free throws, the Spurs got possession, Duncan scored, and just like that the Hawks were down by 7. Ginobili hit a 3 to make it an 8 point lead with only 2 minutes left. Flip answered with a 3, and then after Duncan hit only 1 of 2 frees, Flip hit a jumper to make it a 4 point game. Manu then made an uncharacteristic mistake, getting called for traveling to give the ball back to Atlanta with a minute on the clock. Joe scored to make it a 2 point game with 54 tics left. Ginobili drove to the hole and scored to make it a 4 point game with half a minute left. Flip drove to the hoop but couldn’t convert and Ginobili hit 2 free throws to ice it. The Hawks lost 95-89. They finished the Texas trip 0-3 as you probably should have expected. In each game they fought to stay in it, made a huge comeback, grabbed the lead, and then lost.
Three Weeks of Stability and Success (12/12-1/3)
Record During Segment: 10-2
Record to Date at End of Segment: 22-11
Details: No rest for the weary, the Hawks did not get to go home following the nightmare Texas Trip, but instead had to go to Miami to play the Heat, who had won 4 straight and beaten the Hawks in 22 of their last 23 meetings in Florida. This was a pretty important game. The two teams came into play tied for 2nd in the Southeast at 12-9 and they appeared to be heading in opposite directions. The Hawks needed to get back on track and stop their losing skid and they also needed to prove to themselves (again) that they could beat a good team on the road. They got off to another dreadful start, as the Heat scored the game’s first 11 points and jumped out to an 18-5 lead. The Hawks got the lead down to 5 by the end of the opening quarter but Miami held on to the lead until late in the 2nd. A Mike Bibby 3 at the 2:16 mark in the 2nd quarter gave the Hawks their first lead of the game, 39-36, and they would hold onto the lead the rest of the way. The Hawks destroyed the Heat in the 3rd quarter, outscoring them 32-15 to take a 20 point lead to the 4th. The Hawks went on to win 87-73, snapping their 3 game losing streak and winning on the road for just the 2nd time in their last 10 away contests.
After 4 tough road games, the Hawks finally returned home after more than a week on the road, and who should be waiting for them but Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs entered the game riding an 11 game win streak and sporting a 20-3 record. Both teams would be playing the 2nd day of a back to back. The crowd at Phillips was fired up for this one. Lebron scored 14 in the 1st but the trio of Johnson, Bibby, and Smith drove the Hawks to a 31-24. The Hawks turned up the defense in the 2nd quarter, holding James to a single point and taking a 9 point lead into intermission. The Hawks remained in control of the game in the 3rd quarter. A Mike Bibby 3 with 7:11 on the clock in the 3rd made the score 60-46 Hawks. Lebron scored only 4 points in the 3rd but the Cavs outscored the Hawks 16-4 over the final 5 minutes to cut the Hawks lead to 2 heading to the 4th quarter. The break between periods did not slow down the Cavs, as they scored the first 4 points of the 4th to take the lead for the first time since early in the game. The lead would change hands between the two teams several times during the 4th quarter. A little jumper from in the paint by Bibby put the Hawks up 84-83 at the 4:39 mark. Marvin hit a 3 to make it a 4 point game but Lebron scored, got fouled, and hit the free to make it a 1 point game again with 3 minutes to go. Moments later Lebron hit a pair of frees to put the Cavs up 90-89 but Bibby went down and drained a 3 to put the Hawks back on top, 92-90. After James missed from 3 point range, Joe scored to make it a 4 point game. Lebron took it to the hole to make it 94-92 with a minute and a half to go and the Cavs got a defensive stop and had the ball down 2 with a minute to play. Delonte West tried to hit a 3 to give the Cavs the lead with the shot clock running down and Josh Smith blocked it into the crowd. Mo Williams missed from 3 point land and the shot clock ran out to give the Hawks the ball with 43 seconds left, leading by 2. Bibbs missed a long jay but Al came up with a huge offensive rebound. Marvin was fouled with 18 seconds left and went to the line but he hit only 1 of 2 free throws, leaving the door open for Cleveland. The Cavs got off 2 3-pt attempts in the final 9 seconds but neither were on target. Marvin sunk 2 free throws to ice it as the Hawks prevailed 97-92 to snap Cleveland’s win streak at 11 games.
Having snapped the Cavs’ win streak on Saturday night, and with the Celtics bringing their 15 game win streak to town on Wednesday night, it was not that surprising that the Hawks slept on the Bobcats, who brought their 6 game losing streak into town on Monday night. The Hawks trailed Charlotte 27-23 after 1, fell behind by 9 points during the 2nd quarter, and went to halftime trailing 48-42. The Hawks again fell down by as much as 9 points during the 3rd quarter but they finally started to get going and Al Horford hit a jumper at the buzzer to tie the score at 68-68 going to the 4th. Al then opened the scoring in the 4th quarter to give the Hawks their first lead of the game, 70-68. The Hawks scored the first 6 points in the 4th quarter and opened the final period on a 12-3 to pull away, going up 80-71. The Hawks hung on to win 83-79.
Everyone was fired up for the Celtics return to Phillips Arena where the Hawks had beaten them 3 times in the playoffs last year. And it seemed like the Hawks were in good position to knock them off. The Hawks players, the fans, and the city was treating this thing like a big deal. The Celtics, on the other hand, see that kind of thing every night as defending champs. They had won 15 in a row and they were due for a loss. The Hawks were a play away from beating the Celtics in Boston earlier this year and they were 9-1 at home this season. The Hawks had just stopped the Cavs’ win streak and they had a raucous sellout crowd behind them. But on this night the Celtics would again show why they are champions. While the Hawks played well and again showed that they can play with any team in the League (particularly at home) they also showed why they still have a long way to go to be a serious contender for a title. The Hawks fell in a quick 8-2 hole but by the end of the 1st quarter they were down just 22-21. The Celtics increased their lead to 26-21 but then the Hawks got into a groove. Zaza scored with 7:11 left in the 2nd quarter to give the Hawks their first lead of the game, 30-28. The Hawks went on a 20-8 run to build a 41-34 lead. The Celtics outscored the Hawks 8-2 over the final few minutes of the 2nd quarter, however, and the Hawks led just 43-42 at halftime. The play by both teams in the 3rd quarter was excellent and the Hawks took a 62-59 lead to the 4th. A 3 by Flip Murray gave the Hawks a 67-61 lead with just under 10 minutes to go. Joe Johnson hit a 3 to make it 72-66 Hawks with just under 7 minutes to play. But then the Celtics came alive. Paul Pierce tied the score at 72 with 5:35 on the clock and then Rajon Rondo scored on a layup to give the Celts the lead, 74-72 with 5 minutes left. Bibbs nailed a 3 to end an 8-0 Boston run and put the Hawks back up by a point at the 4 and a half minute mark. The Celtics retook the lead, Josh Smith tied it up on a dunk, and then Johnson hit a pair of free throws to make it 79-77 Atlanta with 3 minutes left. KG put it in the hoop to tie the score at 79 moments later. The teams continued to trade blows, with Johnson, Rondo, Garnett, and Pierce all making clutch shots. After Joe gave the Hawks a 1 point lead with 48 seconds left on a pair of free throws, Garnett took the ball and scored easily to put the Celtics on top 85-84 with 30 seconds to play. The Hawks put it in JJ’s hands and he drove in and put up a shot that was no good. He grabbed the rebound and went back up but this time he was blocked by Perkins and Rondo corralled it. He went to the line with 9 seconds on the clock. Rondo missed the first free throw and made the second, giving the Hawks a chance to tie the game, down only 2, with 9 seconds to work with. Again Joe tried to create and Perkins went up to contest and Joe got the call with 2 seconds on the clock. So if Joe hit these the game was likely headed to overtime. He nailed the first one and then shockingly missed the second. Garnett rebounded and called a timeout with 2 seconds left. There wasn’t time enough left for the Hawks to do anything. The Celtics in-bounded the ball to Ray Allen and the Hawks fouled right away. Allen hit both free throws to make it a 3 point game (I’m not sure why; if he had made the first one and then missed the second it’s seems unlikely that the Hawks would have been able to get the rebound, call timeout, and then still have time for a catch and shoot). The Hawks called time to advance the ball and Bibby got a shot off towards the basket from 3 point land but it was no good and the Hawks lost 88-85.
While the loss was disheartening, I again thought everybody was making too big of a deal out of it. I was again encouraged by most of what I saw from the Hawks even though they didn’t win. I hoped that the loss wouldn’t send the Hawks on another losing skid the way the first loss to the Celtics had. And I hoped choking on that free throw wouldn’t do anything to the psyche of Joe Johnson. Thankfully struggling Golden State was coming to town next. Early on there was no visible sign of a carry over effect from the Boston loss, as the Hawks outscored the Warriors 31-21 in the 1st quarter. The Hawks led 43-33 with just over 5 minutes left in the 2nd but then the Warriors went on a 21-9 run to close out the period and the Hawks went to the half trailing 54-52. The Warriors led by as much as 6 in the 3rd quarter but the Hawks had the deficit down to 2 by the start of the 4th. Led by a 14 point final period by Flip Murray, the Hawks retook the lead early in the 4th and held on the rest of the way. It was still just a 2 point lead for the Hawks, 90-88, with 7 minutes remaining, but the Hawks outscored the Warriors 25-11 the rest of the way and went on to win 115-99.
Next up was a matchup against a perennial Eastern Conference heavyweight that was having more trouble at the moment than they had seemingly at any other point in the decade, the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons had owned the Hawks in recent times and I thought it was pretty important that the Hawks take the opportunity to beat down the Pistons when they could. The Hawks would handle the Pistons in a way which they had not since…probably since that first round playoff series back in the mid-90’s. Suddenly it occurred to me that the Hawks were actually probably better than the Pistons for the first time in maybe 10 years. Mike Bibby led the way with a fabulous performance, scoring 27 points on 10 of 13 shooting, including 6 for 6 from beyond the arc, also dishing 5 assists and notching 3 steals. Detroit led by as much as 8 in the 1st and led 25-22 after 1. Flip Murray scored to give the Hawks their first lead early in the 2nd and by the end of the quarter we were winning by double digits. The Hawks outscored Detroit 30-16 in the quarter and led 52-41 at the half. The Hawks scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half and for a moment it looked like a serious blowout was coming, as the Hawks led 59-41. But then the Pistons went on a 9-0 run and by the end of the 3rd quarter the Hawks lead was down to 69-63. The Pistons got within 4 points several times in the 4th but the Hawks always had an answer and the eventually won 85-78.
The Oklahoma City Thunder—perhaps the worst team in the entire NBA—were the next visitors to Phillips. The team that was high jacked from Seattle came into this one having lost 9 of 10, with a record of 1-12 on the road, and just a 3-25 record overall. The game was actually not out of reach until late and the Thunder actually led for much of the night. But the Hawks always seemed in control of things and they eventually pulled away, led by a brilliant performance by Joe Johnson, who produced his 2nd career triple double. Johnson scored 20 points and had 11 boards and 11 assists. The Thunder led by a point after 1 and had a 37-29 lead with just over 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. But the Hawks outscored the Thunder 16-6 the rest of the period and took a 45-43 lead to half. The Thunder continued to hang around in the 3rd. A 3 pointer by Kevin Durant gave Oklahoma City the lead in the final minute of the 3rd quarter. But the Hawks had a 69-68 lead going to the 4th and they scored the first 7 points of the final quarter to go up 76-68. Still, the Thunder wouldn’t quit and Durant had them within 4, down just 85-81 with a little over 3 minutes to play. However, the Hawks finally put the Thunder away at that point, outscoring Oklahoma City 14-7 the rest of the way to win 99-88.
The Hawks were rolling as they welcomed the Bulls into town. This one turned into a shootout, with the Hawks upping their usual offensive output to outdo Chicago. Joe Johnson led the way with 41, topping a 33 point night by the annoying Ben Gordon. The Hawks trailed by as much as 7 points in the 1st quarter and trailed 35-32 at the end of 1. It was 41-35 Chicago early in the 2nd but then the Hawks exploded for 16 straight points. They went on a 21-2 run to take a 56-43 lead. But by halftime the lead was cut to 68-63. Chicago was going nowhere. They cut the lead to 1 on numerous occasions in the 3rd quarter. The Hawks led 98-95 going to the 4th. The Hawks lead was just 107-105 with around 8 minutes to go. It was still just a 116-112 game with a little over 3 minutes to play but at that point the Hawks went on a 7-0 run to up 123-112 with only 59 seconds left, putting the game away. They went on to win 129-117, their highest scoring game of the season.
The new and improved Denver Nuggets rolled into town next and the Hawks beat them soundly to get to 20-10 on the season. Joe Johnson had 25 points, 5 boards, and 7 assists, while Bibby scored 20, going 5 for 6 from behind the arc, and dished out 9 assists. The Hawks ended the 1st quarter on a 7-0 run for a 29-24 lead. We led 51-42 late in the 2nd but then the Hawks got outscored 11-3 the rest of the quarter and went to halftime leading by just a point, 54-53. The 2nd half began with the two teams exchanging baskets back and forth and the lead changing several times. Denver took a 66-65 lead with about 6 and a half minutes remaining in the quarter, but the Hawks outscored the Nuggets 13-5 over the remainder of the period to take a 78-71 lead to the 4th. The Hawks buried the Nugs in the 4th, outscoring them 31-20, and cruising to a 109-91 win. For the first time since the 1987-1988 season the Hawks had reached the 20 win mark before January 1st.
After going 7-1 on the longest home stand of the season, the Hawks went up to Indiana for what would be their final game before the new year. In their previous game at Indiana earlier in the season the Hawks had been blown out 113-96 and they had lost 4 straight at Conseco Field House. But the Pacers had been a bad team so far this year and they were the type of team that the Hawks needed to be able to beat on the road. This time the two teams played a back and forth 1st half that included 12 lead changes and 9 ties. The Hawks led by a point after 1 and took a 4 point lead to halftime. The game remained competitive in the 3rd quarter. Every time the Hawks would start to increase their lead and it looked like they might pull away, the Pacers would narrow the gap again. Indiana scored to tie the game 5 times in the 3rd but were never able to take the lead and the Hawks had an 85-83 lead going to the 4th. We stretched the lead out to 7 midway through the final period but the Pacers would not let the game get away from them. A drive, a layup, and a free throw for a 3 point play by Jarrett Jack cut the deficit to 1 again with just a minute and a half to play. The Pacers got a defensive stop and Danny Granger took a short jump shot that would have given the Pacers the lead with less than a minute left but he missed and Joe drilled a 3 at the other end to put the Hawks up 4 with 32 tics remaining. The Hawks stopped Indiana on their next possession and then Joe hit a pair of free throws to seal the deal, as the Hawks won their 6th straight, 110-104. The Hawks were now 21-10 (.677).
The Hawks had won 9 of 10 but now they had to travel to a place that they had had almost no success at over the last 6 or 7 years, and play the team whose domination of them over the same time period seemed inexplicable. After getting swept in a home and home series against the Nets earlier this year, the Hawks were now 5-19 in their last 24 games against the Nets and they were just 1-13 in their last 14 games in New Jersey. Still, the Hawks were playing so well right now that I thought this time we’d be able to handle New Jersey just like any of the other middling Eastern Conference teams. For most of the game it looked like I was right on the money. Flip Murray hit a 3 pointer to give the Hawks a 21-16 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. Then Atlanta scored the first 12 points in the 2nd quarter. The 15-0 run put the Hawks up 33-16. The Nets scored just 2 points over an 11 minute stretch and coach Lawrence Franks was ejected. The 1st half ended with Mario West stealing an inbounds pass under the Nets basket with 4.1 seconds on the clock and then chucking a shot from half court that went through at the buzzer to put the Hawks up 20, 49-29. As awful as the Nets were during the final 17 minutes of the 1st half, they came out like a team possessed following intermission. New Jersey scored the first 8 points of the 3rd quarter and went on a 22-5 run to cut the Atlanta lead to 54-51 just 4 and a half minutes into the period. The Hawks recovered to push the lead back out to 10 and they led 69-61 going to the 4th. But New Jersey began the 4th the same way they started the 3rd, scoring 10 straight to take a 71-69 lead less than 4 minutes into the 4th quarter. The game went back and forth over the final 8 minutes of the game. Amazingly, it looked like the Hawks had let the game slip away with 2:15 on the clock, as they now trailed 85-80. But Atlanta would score the final 5 points of regulation. With the Hawks trailing by 2, Big Al scored and got fouled, tying the game with 47 seconds left. But he missed the free throw and the game stayed tied. The Hawks got a defensive stop but then New Jersey matched that stop. With just a few seconds left, the Nets got the ball in the hands of Vince Carter and he had a straight on shot from 21 feet out but it clanked off the rim and the game went to OT tied at 85-85. In OT, the teams were deadlocked at 87 until Jarvis Hayes sank a 3 pointer with 1:35 on the clock to put the Nets ahead 90-87. The Hawks needed to answer but they turned it over on their next possession and then Josh Smith missed a layup on the possession after that. The Hawks were able to get another stop and Bibby was fouled in the act of shooting a 3 with 20 seconds left. This seemed like a god awful foul by Devin Harris but it didn’t seem all that bad once Bibby missed the first free throw. He made the next 2 to cut it to 90-89 but there were just 20 seconds left. Bibby had let Harris off the hook but he wouldn’t get off that easily. The Hawks had to foul immediately and the Nets got the ball in-bounded to Harris but instead of fouling him Mo Evans stripped him of the ball and then fed Josh Smith who laid it up and in to give the Hawks the lead, 91-90, with 11 seconds to play. The Hawks had a foul to give and they fouled Vince with 5.3 seconds left. On the final play of the game, Marvin Williams tipped Hayes’ inbounds pass, sending it bouncing back over half-court with the clock ticking. Carter ran the ball down in the backcourt. At this point Josh Smith made a critical error in judgment. Not wanting to risk being called for a foul or letting Vince drive past him, Josh did not press Carter. This would have kept him from being able to go straight forward and would have made him tricky dribble and he would have been too far away to get it there with a normal stroke and wouldn’t have been able to treat it like just a long 3 pointer. Also he would have had to make the shot with a man in his face. And a player is just much more likely to shoot a bit sooner than they have to if there is someone up on them and closely guarding. But when the ball was tipped and Carter had to go all the way over half-court to retrieve it Josh decided to play off him. In theory this makes sense. Again, you don’t want to unnecessarily risk a foul and you don’t want him to be able to blow by you, especially when he’s going to have to hit a shot from way out in order to beat you other wise. The problem was that in this case the guy with the ball was Vince Carter. When Smith didn’t press him, VC was able to bring the ball up into the front court, get his feet set, and with no defender offering interference at all, take a shot from about 10 feet behind the 3 point line, which was close enough that he didn’t have to alter his stroke to get it there. He nailed it to send the Hawks to a heart breaking 93-91 defeat in OT. That snapped their 6 game winning streak and left them 0-3 on the season against the Nets.
The Hawks didn’t have to wait long to try and get the taste of the NJ defeat out of their mouths, as they faced the Rockets at home the next day. Even though the Hawks were playing for the 2nd straight day, had gone to OT the day before, and would be playing without Marvin Williams (sore shoulder) they were still catching the Rockets at a very good time. Houston had played in Toronto the day before and would be playing their 3rd game in 4 days. More importantly, the Rockets were playing without Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest, and Shane Battier. It wouldn’t be easy of course. The Hawks had no answer for Yao Ming. Houston led 27-22 after the 1st and had a 7 point lead early in the 2nd. The Hawks used a 12-4 run to take the lead and then scored 8 unanswered to push their lead to 9. Atlanta led 54-46 at halftime. The Rockets came out in the 3rd quarter and went on a 12-4 run to tie the score midway through the period. The two teams traded blows for the remainder of the quarter and the Hawks went to the 4th with a lead of just 2. The Rockets outscored the Hawks 14-8 over the first 5 and a half minutes of the 4th quarter to take a 91-87 lead. The Hawks answered by outscoring Houston 13-5 over the next 3 minutes to go up 100-96 with only 3 and a half minutes to play. The score stayed that way for a couple of minutes until Zaza turned the ball over and Luis Scola laid the ball up and in to cut the deficit to 2 with 1:25 on the clock. Josh Smith then threw the ball away but Von Wafer turned it back over to the Hawks. With less than a minute to play, JJ lost the ball and Wafer laid it up and in to tie the game at 100 with 52 seconds left. On the next Hawks possession Joe turned it over again and Houston called a timeout with 38 seconds left. Rafer Alston drove in the line but missed a layup attempt and Bibby grabbed the rebound with 20 tics left. The Hawks played for the last shot and put it in Joe’s hands. He drove in the lane and then sent the ball out to Bibby in the corner who let it go for 3 and hit it to put the Hawks up 103-100 with 1.5 seconds remaining. The Rockets had a chance to tie it but Aaron Brooks’ 3 from the left corner didn’t go down and the Hawks had the win, 103-100. So that helped make up for the NJ loss and put the Hawks 11 games over .500 again at 22-11.
Ugliness and Injury (1/7-1/13)
Record During Segment: 0-4
Record to Date at End of Segment: 22-15
Details: The Hawks had proven that they were a capable bunch and established themselves as legitimate contenders for that #4 spot in the Eastern Conference Playoff standings. The Hawks had made it clear that they were capable of playing with any team in the League and (especially at home) beating any team in the League on a given night. But there were 3 teams in the East that had established themselves as being on a different level than the rest of the conference; they had established themselves as being legit threats to win the Eastern Conference Championship. The Hawks were not 1 of these 3 teams. Those 3 teams were the Celtics, the Cavs, and the Magic. But maybe the Hawks weren’t that far off. They had beaten the Cavs at home. They had beaten Boston 3 times at home in the playoffs the year before and could have easily won either of their games against the Celtics earlier this season. And they had blown out the Magic in Orlando. But that was the first game of the season and since then Orlando had gone 27-7, while the Hawks had gone 21-11. Orlando was 15-3 at home and the Hawks were 15-2 at home, but while the Hawks were just 7-9 on the road, the Magic were 12-5 on the road. The Magic were in 1st place in the Southeast Division, 4 games ahead of the 2nd place Hawks. With all of this in mind, the home and home series the Hawks had with the Magic early on in January was pretty big. At didn’t think it was at all realistic to hope for the Hawks to sweep the series but I was confident that we’d win 1 of the 2. But when I thought about, I realized that we’d better win the first game, the one at our place, because we were probably not going to beat the Magic at their place again. This put a bit of pressure on the Hawks to take care of business in the first game, at Phillips. The Hawks had the advantage of being the fresher team in this game. While Orlando was playing for a 2nd straight day, the Hawks were coming into the game off of 3 consecutive off days. While the Magic would be playing their 3rd game in the last 4 days, the Hawks would be playing their 1st game in the last 4 days. Unfortunately the Hawks weren’t quite playing at full strength. Zaza Pachulia was suffering from the flu and would not play. Acie Law was unavailable due to personal matters. The Hawks had been pretty good at filling in and stepping up when someone whenever someone went down this. This time they didn’t have quite enough to get the job done. The Hawks fell behind right away, as the Magic took a 21-9 lead in the 1st quarter. We outscored them 15-8 over the remainder of the period to cut it down to 29-24 by the end of the 1st quarter. We scored the first 5 points of the 2nd quarter to tie it up at 29 but the Magic then went on a 12-2 run to go up 47-35. Rashard Lewis hit a trey at the buzzer to send the Hawks to halftime trailing 60-45. Orlando increased their lead in the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Hawks 16-10 during the first half of the period to make the score 76-55. The Hawks had not taken this kind of a beating at Phillips Arena so far this year. The Hawks outscored the Magic 15-10 during the remainder of the 3rd but they still trailed 86-70 going to the 4th. The Hawks were trailing 93-74 with only 10 minutes left in the game. But they didn’t throw in the towel. The Hawks went on a 12-0 run to cut the deficit to 93-86 with still 8 minutes left. The Magic scored the next 4 points and then the Hawks scored 4 in a row. It was a 97-90 game with just over 5 minutes on the clock. The Hawks cut the lead to 5 with 3 minutes left but Lewis scored to make it a 7 point game again with less than 2 minutes to go. Big Al scored, got fouled, and hit the free to cut the deficit to 4 with only 1:23 remaining. The Hawks needed a big defensive play and they to it, as Marvin stole the ball and threw it to Bibby as he ran down the court towards the basket out in front of everyone. But there was something that just didn’t look right about the way Bibbs took the ball and went to score. It looked like maybe he thought someone was right on his tail and that he needed to be concerned with not allowing the defender to block his shot from behind. He gave a look behind him just as he got to the hoop and then instead of softly dunking or laying the ball off the glass and in, he went straight up at the hoop and tried to lay the ball in without using the backboard. But he flubbed it, hitting the back of the rim, and it bounced back towards the foul line where Jermaine Nelson corralled it to give the Magic possession still up 4 with 55 seconds left. Bibby’s layup would have made it a 2 point game and the Hawks would have been able to just play defense and try and get a stop without fouling.
An offensive foul by Lewis actually gave the Hawks the ball back with 45 seconds on the clock but they were still down 4 and it just seemed like so much had been expended to get back in this game and that botched layup had stopped the momentum. If you’re going to pull off a 19 point 4th quarter comeback you can’t have plays like that. JJ missed a jump shot and the Magic rebounded with 32 seconds left and that about wrapped her up. The Hawks ended up losing 106-102 for just their 3rd defeat in 18 games at Phillips this season.
So in order to get a split the Hawks were going to have to do it the hard way by winning in Orlando. After an off day, the two teams met up again, this time in central Florida. Acie Law was back for this game but the Hawks would again be without Pachulia. But it’s unlikely that Z’s presence in the game would have been enough to get the Hawks the win in this one. In what was easily, without a doubt, by far and away, their worst performance of the season, the Hawks got raped, abused, and defiled, 121-87, losing by 34 in a game that was nowhere near as close as the score suggested. Al Horford scored during the first minute of the game to put the Hawks up 2-0. Orlando scored the next 8 points and they would hold the lead for the remainder of the game. Mike Bibby scored with just over 2 minutes gone in the 1st quarter to make it 8-4 but the Hawks wouldn’t score again for another 3 and a half minutes and during that time the Magic would score 14 points to take a 22-4 lead. But this was just the beginning. 3 minutes later it was 33-12. The Magic ended the period on a 7-0 run and when it was finally over they had scored 41 points and they had a 23 point lead. Incredibly, the Magic would score the first 11 points of the 2nd quarter, building the lead to 36, with the score 54-18 and still almost 8 minutes left until halftime. The Magic doubled up the Hawks in the quarter, 30-15, and they had a 38 point halftime lead. The mind boggling score was Orlando 71, Atlanta 33. Nothing changed in the 3rd quarter, as Orlando outscored the Hawks 18-7 over the first half of the period to make the score 89-40. Late in the 3rd Dwight Howard made a free throw which brought the score to 101-51. The Hawks were down by 50 points and there was nearly 15 minutes of basketball still to be played. At the end of 3, the Magic led 103-60 and then Orlando called off the dogs and allowed the Hawks to outscore them 27-18 in the 4th to make the final score look believable. I didn’t think this Hawks team was capable of something like this but on this night they turned back into the team that won just 69 games over 3 seasons. The Hawks shot 35.0% in the game and missed 10 free throws. Orlando shot 48.8% and went 16 of 28 from behind the arc. The Hawks were out rebounded 54-38, out assisted 28-16, and out blocked 5-1. The Hawks turned it over 10 times. It was embarrassing and inexcusable.
As awful as the Hawks’ performance was, that wasn’t even the worst thing to come out of the trip to Orlando. The injury curse had struck again. Al Horford left the game in Orlando during the middle of the 3rd quarter and never returned. It turned out that he had suffered a bone bruise on his right knee and he would be out indefinitely. Zaza took Al’s place in the starting lineup. The Hawks next game was two days after the debacle in Orlando, as they hosted the 76ers. At least the Hawks would be at home where they had had so much success this season. But Philly had been playing better lately and they came and took it to the Hawks. We suffered yet another awful start, as Philly scored the game’s first 10 points. The Hawks actually came back to take the lead in the 1st quarter and it ended with the teams tied at 30. The Hawks led 35-32 early in the 2nd but then the Sixers went on a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. It was 59-52 Philly at the half and the Hawks fell behind by 12 during the 3rd quarter before cutting the deficit back to 5 heading into the 4th quarter. The Hawks brought the score to 83-81 early in the 4th but the Sixers went on an 8-2 run to make the score 91-83 and the Hawks could get no closer than 5 points back of Philly the rest of the way, eventually losing by 15, 109-94.
The Hawks had now lost 3 straight and 4 of 5 and they had even lost back to back games at home. This was not a good time to be going on a west coast road trip without your starting power forward but that’s what the Hawks had to do. The trip began in Phoenix. Once again the Hawks got off to an absolutely awful start. This was becoming the team’s most consistent trait. The Suns scored the game’s first 7 points and led 9-1 less than 4 minutes into the game. The Hawks struck back with an 8-2 run to cut the score to 11-9 but then Phoenix went on a 20-5 run to put the Hawks down 31-14. The 1st quarter ended with the Hawks down 15 and then the Suns scored the first 4 points of the 2nd quarter to go up 35-16. But the Hawks fought back as they usually do and by halftime the Hawks were within 4, down just 50-46. The Hawks kept it close early in the 3rd before falling behind by double digits again, 69-59 with 5 minutes to play in the period. Then suddenly Atlanta went on a 13-3 run to tie the score at 72. Moments later Marvin put the Hawks ahead for the first time on a 3 point play but the Suns scored the last 8 points in the quarter and we were down 6 going to the 4th. The final period was excellent, with both teams going back and forth, the Suns managing to stay just ahead of the Hawks until Bibby hit a 3 to tie the game at 98 with just over 2 minutes on the clock. But over the next 90 seconds the Suns outscored us 5-0 and held us off to win it 107-102. This road trip to play the Western Conference was starting out just like the last one: start the game dreadfully, fall in a big hole, fight and fight and fight and come all the way back and then lose to make it all worth nothing.
Pulling it Together to Weather the Storm (1/14-1/23)
Record During Segment: 4-1
Record to Date at End of Segment: 26-16
Details: Following the loss in Phoenix the Hawks continued their west coast road trip, heading up to play LA’s other team, the Clippers. Regardless of the fact that they were riding a 4 game losing streak, that they were just a 7-11 road team, that they were playing the second part of a back to back, or that they were without Big Al, this was a game that the Hawks should win. It helped that this time they managed to avoid playing their worst in the opening minutes. Or maybe it just helped that they were playing the Clippers. We only scored 15 points in the 1st quarter but that was actually good enough for a 3 point lead, as the Clippers only managed 12. The Hawks opened the 2nd quarter on a 14-7 run to push the lead all the way out to 10 at 29-19. The Hawks went to the break leading 43-31. At the 7:09 mark in the 3rd quarter we led it 54-39 but by the end of the period the lead had shrunk to 66-58. But there would be no real 4th quarter dramatics this time. The Clippers never got closer than 7 points out in the 4th and the Hawks went on to win by 17, 97-80, snapping the losing streak at 4 and getting their first win on the road in 2 weeks.
The third leg of the Hawks’ west coast swing was in the Bay Area. Golden State is tough team to beat on the road to be sure, but this year they’re nowhere close to the team they have been over the last few years. This was also a win the Hawks could get and they really should have. Maybe they would have if they had been in perfect health. This was a wild one, as you always expect it will be at the Oracle. There were 15 lead changes and 11 ties in this one. We trailed by as much as 7 in the 1st quarter and also had the lead a few times but ended up being outscored 23-20 in the 1st period. Early in the 2nd quarter with the Hawks down 2, Marvin Williams went up and got fouled hard by Ronny Turiaf and came down and banged his head. He got up after a moment and seemed alright. He hit the first free throw but missed the second. Then down at the other end of the court Marv grabbed the rebound and the Hawks came down and took the lead on a dunk by Solo Jones. Then at the other end Jones fouled Stephen Jackson and the game stopped for a TV timeout. When the game resumed, Marvin had been taken out of the game as a result of banging his head, and he did not return. So now the Hawks were without 2 starters. During a 5 minute stretch in the 2nd quarter Joe Johnson was keeping up with the Warriors all on his own, scoring all 9 of our points during that time, but the score was 56-51 Golden State at the half. The Hawks would fall down as much as 8 early in the 3rd but they reeled off 7 straight points to get back in it and they would stay in it, taking the lead a few times in the period. However, the Hawks were down 4 at the start of the 4th and when Golden State scored 6 unanswered to open the final period we were down 10. Later in the 4th Bibbs executed a 3 point play to cut the deficit to 8 but Corey Maggette just took it right to the hoop and got fouled, made 2 free throws, then Bibby turned the ball over and Maggette hit a J to make it 100-88 Warriors with 7 minutes to play. At this point I thought it was pretty much over. But after a timeout, Josh scored, got fouled, and made the free throw and then Mo Evans made a couple frees to make it a 7 point game again. Jamal Crawford pushed it back to 9 again but an Evans slam made it 7 again with 5 and a half to play. Moments later Bibbs stole it from Crawford and then at the other end Joe kicked out to Bibby for a 3 that made it a 4 point game. The Hawks got a defensive stop and then Bibby hit another from downtown to make it a 102-101 game with 4 and a half left and the Warriors called a timeout. When play started again, Flip hit a 3 to put the Hawks up 104-102 and then he stole the ball away from Jackson and took it to the hoop himself to give the Hawks a 4 point lead with just 3 and a half to play. Crawford hit 2 frees on the other end, Joe missed a running jumper, and Maggette drove and scored to tie up again just like that. On the Hawks’ next possession Joe missed a long jumper and Crawford hit a shot to put GS ahead again. Then Josh missed from close in, got the rebound, and lost the ball. Crawford scored again. Joe hit 2 free throws to make it a 2 point game again but Jackson hit a jumper to put the Hawks down 4 with less than a minute on the clock. Bibby missed a 3 pointer on the next trip down and then Maggette hit 2 free throws to make it a 6 point game. The Hawks never got any closer than 4 back from that point on and went on to lose 119-114. Another comeback for nothing.
The Hawks came back home and after a rest they played a 2:00 PM game against the Raptors on MLK Day. They would be without both Horford and Williams. Even still, they had to win this game, at home, against the struggling team from Toronto. The Hawks trailed by as much as 7 in the 1st quarter but the period ended with them down by just 1. Acie Law sustained a bruised quad in the 2nd, left the game, and did not return. The Hawks would have to gut this one out with just a handful of dudes. But they fell down by 11 late in the 2nd quarter and trailed by 9 at halftime. The Hawks were trailing by 9 midway through the 3rd before Joe and Josh combined to score 11 over the last 7 and a half minutes of the period to cut the deficit to 2 going to the 4th. Josh made a pair of free throws early in the 4th to tie the game but Jason Kapono hit a 3 to put the Hawks behind again. The Hawks would score the next 6 points to take the lead. 3 pointers by Bibby and Flip make 76-69 Atlanta with 7 minutes to go. But then the Raptors scored 6 unanswered, a few moments later Jemario Moon hit a 3 to tie the game, and then Bosh put the Raptors ahead with 4 minutes left. Trailing by 2 with a minute and a half left, Joe was fouled and he made the first and missed the second. The Hawks got a defensive stop and then Bibby hit a pair of clutch free throws to put his team on top 85-84 with 54 seconds left. The Hawks got a few more stops and Joe hit with 12 seconds to go to make it a 3 point lead. Jason Kapono got off a shot to tie it at the buzzer but it went begging and the Hawks hung on, 87-84.
The next day the Hawks were up in Chicago to play the Bulls. It figured to be a tough task for the Hawks to win this one but not at all impossible. They were playing the second part of back-to-back, it was on the road, and they were going to be without Horford, Williams, and Law IV, but this was a game the Hawks could win. This night began with a rare occurrence: a good start by the Hawks. Josh opened all scoring with a quick bucket to make it 2-0 before the Bulls got back to back buckets to go up 4-2. The Hawks would then score the next 15 points in the game to build a 17-4 lead. The Bulls responded by doing us one better and scoring 16 unanswered points to go on top 20-17. A 5 point spurt by us gave us the lead back, 22-20, but Kurt Heinrich scored to tie the game up at 22 as the 1st quarter came to a close. The Bulls went back ahead in the 2nd quarter and it seemed like they were close to runaway with this thing but every time they started to leave us behind Joe or Bibby would hit a 3 to stem the tide. The Hawks trailed by as much as 9 in the quarter, got within a point of the Bulls at one time, and went to halftime trailing just 53-50. The second half began with the lead changing 5 times in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter and then the Hawks built their biggest lead of the game to this point, going on a 14-0 run to take a 72-61 lead. But Chicago responded by outscoring the Hawks 16-5 the rest of the quarter to tie it up at 77 going to the 4th. In the 4th quarter there would be 9 lead changes and 4 ties. With the Hawks trailing by 1, Bibby sank a 17 footer with just less than 5 minutes remaining to give Atlanta the lead for good, 95-94. After a defensive stop, Flip drove for a layup, then after another defensive stop Bibbs hit a 3 to make it 100-94. Bibby scored twice more over the final few minutes as the Hawks closed out the Bulls for a 105-102 victory, their 3rd of the season against Chicago. For the first time in franchise history, the Hawks had swept the Bulls in a season series.
The Hawks had a couple of days off before the struggling Bucks came to town. By Friday night Marvin was back in the starting lineup but the Hawks would again be without the services of Al and Acie. No worries, at least for this night, as this mission did not require us to be at full strength. The Hawks wound up playing 12 guys anyway, in what would turn out to be by far the team’s most lopsided victory of the season. Not a lot of drama left over for the 4th in this one. The Bucks scored the first points of the game and led 8-4 early but the Hawks outscored them 23-11 the rest of the way in the 1st to end the quarter up 27-19. The Hawks scored the first 9 points of the 2nd quarter to extend the lead to 35-19. Milwaukee got it down to single digits late in the 2nd quarter but the Hawks led 58-47 at the half. An 8-2 run to start the 3rd by the Bucs cut the lead to 5 but that was as close as it got and didn’t stay that way for long. The Hawks went on a 12-2 run over the next 4 minutes to go up by 15. The Hawks led 86-67 heading to the 4th quarter. The Hawks outscored the Bucs by 11 in the 4th quarter, at one point leading by 34 points, and going on to win 117-87, easily their most one-sided win so far this year. It was also their 3rd straight win overall and put them 10 games over .500 again at 26-16.
Treading Water and Getting Healthy (1/25-All-Star Break)
Record During Segment: 5-5
Record to Date at End of Segment: 31-21
Details: The Suns were in town on Sunday and even though the Hawks would still be without Horford and Law it still seemed like a game they could win. They had lost by just 5 out in Arizona a week and a half ago and the Hawks were 17-4 at home this year. They were rested after their day off the day before and they had won 3 straight and 4 of 5. Meanwhile, the Suns had lost 3 straight and 5 of 6 and they were coming off an embarrassing 22 point loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Suns came out looking really good and after the Hawks scored first to take the first lead of the game Phoenix shot out to a 20-8 lead on Atlanta. The Hawks outscored the Suns 18-7 over the remainder of the period and trailed just 27-26 at the end of the 1st. The 2nd quarter was equally competitive The Hawks retook the lead and even managed to lead by as much as 7 points but they went to halftime leading just 57-55. The 3rd quarter was highly entertaining, with neither team ever holding a lead greater than 4 points. With the Hawks trailing by 1 with a little over 2 minutes left in the quarter, Marvin hit a shot to put the Hawks back on top and then Flip Murray scored to make it a 3 point lead with only a minute and a half to go in the 3rd. But the Suns 6 unanswered points in the final 1:09 to take an 83-80 lead to the 4th. Phoenix scored first in the 4th to make it a 5 point game but Flip hit a 3 and Solo Jones completed an old fashioned 3 point play to give Atlanta the lead again. Josh Smith scored to make it a 3 point game, and after the Suns cut it to 1 again, Zaza scored to bring it back to 3 again. Then out of the blue the Suns went on a 7-0 run and the Hawks found themselves down by 4. Bibby hit a 3 to make it a 1 point game and then found Solo for the jam to give the Hawks a 95-94 lead with only 6 minutes on the clock. But unfortunately from this point on the Hawks couldn’t hang in their against the Suns, even on their home court. Shag hit 2 free throws to put Phoenix on top and then Leandro Barbosa hit a 3 to make it a 4 point game with 3 and a half to play. Over the final few minutes it was as if all of the Hawks—Marv, Joe, Josh, Bibby, and anyone else who stepped on the court for us---had simultaneously come down with a disease which took away their ability to score or handle the ball capably. After Barbosa’s 3 the Suns went 3 minutes without scoring so much as a single point but the Hawks instead of taking the lead back and sealing the deal, the Hawks outdid Phoenix, going 5 and a half minutes without scoring a single point. Finally with 43 seconds left Solo hit 2 free throws to make it a 2 point game but now that the Hawks’ point total had changed Amare Stoudemire was suddenly able to score while getting fouled without any trouble at all and then make the free throw to make it a 5 point game with only 26 seconds left. Solo scored to cut it to 3 with 16 seconds to play but the Hawks had to foul Steve Nash and he hit both free throws to make it a 5 point lead again with only 6 seconds left, sealing the deal. The Hawks lost 104-99, coming up 5 points short against the Suns for the second time in the last 2 weeks. The Hawks’ 3 game win streak was history and they were now just 2-3 in their last 5 games at home, after going 15-2 in their first 17 home games this season.
The Hawks had no time to rest, as they had to go to Miami and play the Heat the next night. Again they would be without Big Al Horford although they would have a bit more depth with the return of Acie Law. The Heat were coming off of a big win over the Magic and they jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead. The Hawks came back and Marvin hit a 3 to give Atlanta the lead, 12-11, but neither team was lighting it up offensively. The 1st quarter ended with the Heat leading the Hawks by 3 points, 17-14. Miami was on pace to beat us 68-56, but while they didn’t exactly start boiling the ocean in the 2nd quarter, they were at least scoring a point or so every once in a while. The Hawks, on the other hand, were scoring less than a spelling bee champ at the high school dance. The Heat scored the first 5 points in the 2nd before the Hawks finally got a free throw from Pachulia that gave them their 15th point of the game with 9:44 on the clock. They had been stuck at 14 since the 3:53 mark of the 1st quarter. But Z’s free throw didn’t wake the Hawks up. Miami went on another 5-0 “run” until Marv hit a pair of free throws with 6:20 to play until halftime. D Wade hit back to back jumpers and Udonis Haslem hit 2 frees to make it 33-17 Miami with less than 5 minutes to play in the 2nd. Finally Joe Johnson hit a jumper at the 4:31 mark to end a pathetic stretch of offensive impudence. From Marv’s 3 with 5:56 left in the 1st to Joe’s jumper with 4:31 left in the 2nd the Hawks went 13 minutes and 23 seconds without making a field goal. During that time the Hawks scored only 5 points, all on free throws. Anyway, after JJ’s shot D Wade went on a 6-0 run by himself. The Hawks eventually found themselves down by 21 points, and it wasn’t much better by halftime, as they went to intermission trailing by 19. The Hawks ended up scoring just 27 points in the 1st half, their lowest total in the 1st half in franchise history. Even after halftime, the Hawks went the first 2 minutes and 45 seconds of the 3rd quarter without scoring. Dwayne Wade scored on an old fashioned 3 point play to put the Hawks down 22, 55-33, with 4:43 left in the 3rd. At that point the Hawks finally started to show some life offensively. We went on a 12-2 run over the next 2 minutes and 20 seconds to cut the deficit to 57-45. After a 20 second timeout by Miami the Heat got the lead back to 14 Flip and Joe got back to back baskets to cut the lead to 10 before Daequan Cook hit a huge 3 with just a few tics left on the clock to make the score 64-51 Miami going to the 4th. The Hawks scored the first 6 points of the 4th quarter to cut the lead to 7 and force the Heat to call a timeout with 10:14 left in the game. It was amazing that the Hawks were somehow still in this game but they wouldn’t be for that long. After 2 Wade free throws made the lead 9 points, Marvin hit 2 free throws to make it a 7 point game with over 9 minutes to play. But then the Heat went on a 9-1 run to go back up by 15 and put the game away. The Hawks wound up getting outscored 31-28 in the 4th and losing this one 95-79.
The Hawks next game was against the Knicks at MSG. The Knicks haven’t been all that bad this season, especially at home, and with Big Al still out I didn’t think our chances of winning this one were all that great. We led 26-25 after the 1st but then a 9-2 run to start the 2nd by New York put the Hawks down 6, 34-28. We went on an 18-4 run at that point, however, to build a 46-38 lead, and we led 55-47 at the half. The Hawks couldn’t pull away from the Knicks in the 3rd and New York retook the lead midway through the period on a 3 point shot by Quentin Richardson. They outscored us 35-19 in the 3rd and the Hawks trailed 82-74 going to the 4th quarter. The Hawks scored the first 4 points in the 4th to cut the deficit to 4, and after New York stretched the lead out again, the Hawks got back to 4 a few moments later with 8 minutes still to play. But the Knicks went on an 11-2 run at that point to put the game out of reach. The Hawks went on to lose 112-104
Well after 3 straight losses there was good news for the Hawks and bad news. The good news was that their next game was at home. The bad news was that they would be playing their tormentors, the New Jersey Nets. Oh, and there was also still no Al Horford. The Hawks fell in an immediate 7-0 hole but they battled throughout the 1st period and finally tied the Knicks at 25-25 with just over a minute to go in the 1st quarter. But VC hit a 3 at the buzzer to put the Hawks down 28-25 at the end of the opening period. The Hawks trailed by as much as 6 points in the 2nd quarter but just kept battling and finally took their first lead on a Mike Bibby 3 with 1:49 to go in the 2nd. Flip Murray hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer and the Hawks took a 55-53 lead to halftime. The two teams fought back in forth for the first two thirds of the 3rd quarter. But after they fell behind by a point with 5:24 left in the 3rd, the Hawks went on a 16-6 run to close the quarter, and took an 80-71 lead to the 4th. The Nets never got closer to the Hawks than within 7 in the 4th and Atlanta went on to win 105-88 to avoid a season sweep at the hands of the Nets. The victory snapped the Hawks 3 game losing skid.
The Hawks had to travel to Milwaukee to play the Bucks the next night and they were still going to have to do it without Big Al. However, this was a game the Hawks could definitely win if they played well. The Hawks led 6-2 in the early moments of the game but got outscored 27-16 the rest of the way in the 1st and trailed 29-22 at the end of 1. Milwaukee went on an 11-0 run to start the 2nd and the Hawks now trailed 40-22. The Hawks were still down 18 with about 5 minutes to play in the 2nd but they then went on a 17-4 run to close out the quarter and cut the deficit to 5. The Bucks had a 53-48 lead at the break and the Hawks got within 3 at 64-61 about 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter but Milwaukee outscored Atlanta 23-13 the rest of the quarter and the Falcons trailed 87-74 going to the 4th. The Hawks were down 90-76 with 8:37 left in the game but over the next 8 minutes and 1 second Atlanta went on a 26-16 run to cut the score to 106-102 with 36 seconds to play. Josh scored to make it a 2 point game with only 7 seconds left but the Hawks had to foul and Luke Ridinour made both frees to seal the deal. The Hawks eventually lost 110-107.
With not 1, not 2, but 3 days off until the Hawks game at Minnesota I thought for sure we’d be at full strength by then. Thankfully, Al Horford was set to rejoin the team after missing 12 games over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, by the time Wednesday rolled around, Joe Johnson had come down with some form of the flu and would not even be accompanying the team to Minnesota. Unbelievable. Yet again the Hawks would be looking to win despite being short handed. Early in the year the T-Wolves looked like perhaps the League’s worst but they had been playing much better lately. And right now it seemed like the Hawks could lose to just about anybody on the road. The Hawks fell down 8-4 in the first few minutes and then used an 18-8 run to gain a 6 point lead. The Hawks led 22-18 after 1 and the T-Wolves got within 2 early in the 2nd before the Hawks went on an 18-4 run to go up 40-24. Minnesota then went on a 13-3 run to cut the lead to 6 and the Hawks had a 45-37 edge at the half. The Wolves scored first in the 2nd half to cut the deficit to 6 but the Hawks outscored them 28-17 over the next 10 minutes to build a 73-56 lead. The Hawks led 75-62 going to the 4th. The Hawks still had a 13 point lead with less than 10 minutes remaining when Mike Miller suddenly started shooting the ball after turning down open looks and showing no interest in trying to score at all during the first 39 minutes of the game. Miller scored 8 points in 56 seconds to cut the Atlanta lead to 77-72. After a timeout Mike Bibby scored to break the 8-0 run but then Rashad McCants hit a 3 to make it a 4 point game. The Hawks pushed the lead back out to 7 over the next few minutes but McCants cut it to 4 again with another triple inside of 4 minutes to play. Minnesota cut the lead to 3 with just over 2 minutes to go and then Randy Foye scored to make it an 85-83 game with 1:46 on the clock. With just over a minute to play the Hawks were clinging to an 86-84 lead when Mike Bibby let fly with a shot from 3 point range that splashed down and buried the Wolves. That made it 89-84 with just 46 seconds left. The Hawks went on to win 94-86 to snap the 3 game skid on the road. Say what you will about the T-Wolves but they’ve been playing better lately and to go on the road without Joe and with Big Al just coming back and get a win was huge.
The Hawks had the day off on Thursday but Joe Johnson was still not feeling well enough on Friday to accompany the team in Charlotte, a place that had inexplicably been a house of horrors to the Hawks over the last few years. Actually the Hawks have had trouble with the Bobcats ever since their inception in the 04-05 season. The Hawks have played them twice at home and twice on the road each year since then. In the first 3 seasons the Hawks went just 3-9 against Charlotte. Last season the Hawks won the first two meetings of the season and then lost the last two. So far this year the Hawks had won the first two meetings at home just like last season. But the Hawks have really struggled against the Bobcats on the road. They came into this game just 1-7 against the Bobcats in Charlotte, having lost 5 straight here going all the way back to the 2005-2006 season. To break that streak this time they’d have to do it with out Joe again. Losing to the Bobcats has always really pissed me off because they are an expansion franchise with a horrible history of drafting and absolutely no success against anyone other than us (and now the Lakers apparently). And the losses are always bitter, often unlucky, as we’ve lost twice to the Bobcats in OT during their short history. We got some revenge on Friday night. And let me tell you, Old Lady Luck turned on those Cats. She was with us all the way this time, my friends. After the Bobcats scored the first 2 points of the game, Marvin Williams came down and hit a trey to put the Hawks ahead by a point. This would be a sign of things to come but not for a while. The Cats went back ahead moments later and they led for the rest of the quarter. The Hawks got to within 16-14 on a Zaza bucket with around 2 and a half left in the quarter, but then Larry Brown called a timeout and the Cats went on a 6-0 out of the timeout to make it an 8 point deficit with about 20 seconds on the clock. Acie Law got fouled with 18 seconds on the clock and hit a pair of frees to stop the run. At the other end DJ Augustine dribbled around and then shot a 3 but he shot with around 7 seconds left instead of waiting to take the last shot with 3 or 4 seconds. He missed off the left side of the rim with about 5 seconds on the clock and the ball caromed towards the Hawks bench. But on a great hustle play, Zaza got to it and jumped and as he was going out of bounds he threw it back towards the action and it ended up being a great place to throw it because Flip Murray was right there. Flip turned and dribbled quickly towards half court and then launched a 33 footer that was good if it went and it sure did. That made the score just 22-19, as the Hawks ended the quarter on a 5-0 run in the last 18 seconds. It felt like the Hawks had gotten badly out played but they were down by just 3. Charlotte hit a 3 to open the 2nd and make it a 6 point game and on the other end the Hawks struggled to get a shot and Mo Evans had to fire up a wild 3 pointer with 1 second on the shot clock that was way off but it hit off the glass and banked in for a trey to make it a 3 point game again. Unfazed, the Bobcats went on a 15-1 run over the next 3 and a half minutes to put the Hawks in a 40-23 hole. The Hawks called timeout to try and stop the run but on the possession coming out of the timeout Josh Smith decided to jack up a ridiculous shot. With 9 seconds still on the shot clock and a man closely guarding Smith in the right corner, he threw up a high arching cannon ball of a shot from 19 feet away and it came down and deadened on the lip of the rim and just sort of die as it went into the hoop. That prayer put a stop to the run but the deficit would be back to 17 moments later. Marvin hit a couple of free throws with less than a minute left in the half to cut the lead down to 13 but the Cats got a bucket from Emeka Okefor on the other end to make it a 15 point game with just 5 seconds left in the half. The Hawks tried to inbound and get the ball up the court as quickly as they could but Mo ended up having to throw up a 27 footer while on the run in order to beat the buzzer and he was too strong but it hit perfectly off the glass again for another huge miracle shot that made the score just 55-43. Sure the Hawks would rather not be down a dozen at the half but they could have very easily been down 20 or more. The Hawks were definitely alive at the start of the 2nd half. Raymond Felton came out and hit a trey to make it a 15 point game right away. In the 2nd half, Marvin Williams decided that he was going to take the ball to the hole whenever he got a chance and just see if the Bobcats could stop him. They could but in order to do so they had to foul. Marv hit free throws for the Hawks first 4 points in the 2nd half and that got them going. Mo hit a 3 to make it a 10 point game and a few minutes later Mike Bibby hit a trey to cut it to 8. Moments later Mo hit another 3 to cut the lead to 4 and then Boris Diaw drew a technical foul and Bibbs hit it to cut the lead to 3. About 2 minutes later, Marvin drove and got fouled on consecutive possessions and hit 4 straight free throws to tie the game at 67 with 4:48 left in the 3rd. The Cats retook the lead but with just 37 seconds left in the quarter an old fashioned 3 point play turned in by Flip put the Hawks on top for the first time since it was 3-2. The Hawks outscored the Bobcats 35-22 in the 3rd to take a 78-77 lead to the 4th. Charlotte retook the lead briefly at the start of the 4th but then the Hawks went on 10-2 run to take a 90-84 lead with less than 7 to go. Marvin Williams continued to take the ball to the hole and get fouled and then convert at the line and the Hawks had an 8 point lead with 4:20 to go. The lead had been trimmed to 3 when Marvin Williams was called for an offensive foul with 35 seconds left and Larry Brown took their final timeout to setup a play. This is when things got really crazy. Larry Brown chose Shannon Brown—who had recently signed a 10-day contract with the team—to inbounds the ball and the Hawks played good denial defense and he couldn’t pull the trigger but they had no timeouts so he had to lob it into the backcourt and Josh Smith ran after it and beat his man to the ball. The Cats then decided not to foul Josh and he got the ball to Bibby and Mike decided to just run the shot clock all the way down and then throw up a jumper. But the shot he got off was a line drive knuckle ball that cut left and completely missed the rim like a slider from a submarine pitcher cutting away from a right handed batter. Felton caught the ball with 13 seconds left and the Cats came up court needing a 3 to tie. They just dribbled and passed the ball around. Nobody wanted to take the shot. Finally the ball got to Brown with about 6 seconds left and he just dribbled around and then headed right down the middle of the paint (which was unoccupied for obvious reasons) towards the hoop. Inexplicably, he went up for a layup with 3 seconds on the clock and Josh went up and blocked it and Bibby grabbed the ball and got fouled with 2 seconds left. I laughed hysterically for the next 5 minutes. I was literally crying. Bibby hit both frees to put the Cats out of their misery, as the Hawks won it 107-102. I think this may well have been my favorite win of the season. On the road at the place where we had lost 5 in a row and 7 of 8 all time; without our best player; we come back from a 17 point deficit to win by 5. Plus all of the ridiculous shots and the melt down by Charlotte at the end just made this game really memorable. Marvin shot 20 free throws and hit 18 of them on the way to a 29 point scoring night that led the way. The win got the Hawks 9 games over .500 at 29-20.
We still didn’t know if Joe Johnson was going to be back for the game the next night at home but I figured it would be okay if he wasn’t quite over the illness because we were playing the Clippers. It turned out that Joe was feeling well enough to play again and he actually played normal minutes. However, another surprise health problem sprang up and kept the Hawks from being at full strength. Mike Bibby had apparently injured his foot during the game with the Bobcats the night before and he was unavailable to play for the first time this year. I don’t know what would have happened if Bibbs had been there but what really did happen when he wasn’t there was that the Hawks suffered easily their worst loss of the season. The Clippers had also won on the road the night before, beating Memphis to snap a 7 game losing streak and a 10 game losing streak on the road. Prior to that game in Memphis, the Clippers had lost 21 of their last 23 games and they had gone 26 games without winning 2 in a row. They were just 11-39 overall and 6-19 on the road going into the game in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Hawks were 18-5 at home. There’s no question that Mike Bibby is as vital a part of the team’s success as anyone else, but Bibby’s absence alone can not explain for the performance put on by the Hawks in front of the home fans on Saturday night. Neither team was hot at the very start. The Clippers scored first in the game on a basket by Eric Gordon, and then Al Horford hit a shot to tie it for the Hawks at the 9:18 mark in the 1st quarter. Gordon put the Clippers up 4-2 at the 8:36 mark and this time he actually put his team up for good. The Hawks never led in the game and they wouldn’t even tie the game again from this point on. The Clip got out to a 10-2 start and then pushed it out to 17-4. The Hawks scored 6 straight to make it 17-10 and they cut the led to 6 at 23-17 a few minutes later. But the Hawks ended up getting outscored 27-17 in the 1st quarter in their own building, by the Clippers. LA scored the first 5 points of the 2nd quarter, causing the Hawks to call for a timeout to try and stop this thing. The Hawks went on an 8-2 run to get the lead down to single digits, but then the Clippers called timeout, and then came back out and ran off 10 in a row to make the score 44-25. The Hawks managed to outscore the Clippers 16-11 over the final 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter but they were still outscored by 4 points during the entire quarter and at halftime the Hawks were trailing by 14 at home, 55-41. The Hawks had come back all the time this year, including just the night before, so when they came out and scored 6 straight to open the 3rd and cut the score to 55-47. The two teams then traded baskets back and forth for a few minutes. The Hawks got within 7 at 63-56 with around 7 to play in the 3rd but they would get no closer. The lead was pushed back out but Joe hit a free throw to make it a 9 point game, 70-61 with a little less than 5 minutes on the clock. But right after that Zach Randolph hit a 3 to make it 73-61 and the Clippers would hold a double digit lead for the rest of the night. The Clips would close out the 3rd period on a 20-11 run and the Hawks went to the 4th quarter down 90-72. Los Angeles began the 4th with on a 10-2 run to put the Hawks down by 26 points, 100-74. With just a minute to go in the game, this embarrassing beat down reached its zenith, as Jason Hart scored for LA to put the Hawks down by 29 points. The final score of this mess was 121-97. The reason this was the worst loss of the year was because the Hawks were just so utterly uncompetitive and it was actually a game that they should have been able to win by 15 or 20. They lost to an awful team, by 24 points, at home.
Following the worst loss of the season, the Hawks had a couple of days off before the hapless Wizards came to town on Tuesday night. The rest did the Hawks some good and the team was motivated to get Saturday’s night’s taste out of their minds. But most importantly, Mike Bibby was back, and the Hawks were at full strength. The Hawks followed their worst performance of the season with one of their most complete victories of the year. Al Horford’s dunk put the Hawks up 2-0 18 seconds into the 1st quarter on Tuesday night and the Hawks led the rest of the way. The Hawks got out to a 9-1 lead, led by as many as 11 in the 1st quarter, and led 26-17 after 1. The Wizards cut the deficit to 6 at one point in the 2nd quarter but the Hawks went on a 16-0 run to make it 47-25 with just 3 minutes to play in the half. The Hawks led 53-37 at halftime. The Wizards cut the lead to 12 at 58-46 with 7 and a half minutes to go in the 3rd, but the Hawks went on a 10-0 run over the next 3 minutes to push the lead back out to 22 at 68-46. The Hawks took a 77-61 lead to the 4th quarter and wound up winning by 21 points, 111-90. It was a most satisfying way to answer Saturday night’s debacle and gave the Hawks 30 wins before the All-Star Break for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
The last game on the Hawks’ schedule before the All-Star Break was a tough one, as they had to go to Detroit to play the Pistons in the second part of a back to back. In a preview of a potential first round playoff matchup, the current #4 seed Hawks outplayed the current #5 seed Pistons and won in Detroit for the first time since December of 2004, snapping a 7 game losing streak in Detroit. The star of the game for Atlanta was former Piston Flip Murray, who game off the bench to score 23 points on 10 of 18 shooting, led numerous scoring spurts, and was always there to make the big play when the Hawks needed it on Wednesday night. The Pistons scored the first 5 points in the game but the Hawks came back to take a 12-9 before the 1st quarter ended with the teams tied 24-24. The Hawks fell down by 8 points in the 2nd quarter but went on an 11-2 run to take a 1 point lead. The Hawks led 48-46 at the half after 13 lead changes and 6 ties during the first half. The Hawks stretched the lead out to 56-50 early in the 3rd quarter but then Detroit went on a 9-2 run to take the lead. The Hawks trailed 64-62 until Flip Murray went off again, leading the Hawks on a 14-4 run to close the 3rd that gave them the lead for good. The Hawks led 76-68 at the start of the 4th but the Pistons cut the score to 86-84 with 6:07 left to play. Flip led the Hawks on a 6-1 spurt over the next 2 minutes to give the Hawks a 7 point lead with 4 minutes to go. Detroit cut it down to 5 several times and finally got within 3 with 15 seconds left and then got the score to 97-95 with 8 seconds left. But Joe Johnson hit a pair of free throws to clinch it and the Hawks went on to win it 99-95. With their 31st win of the season, the Hawks headed to All-Star Weekend 10 games over .500 at 31-21.
