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Saturday, January 26, 2008
The Marvin Williams Show!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seattle - Marvin Williams finally played his big game in front of the hometown fans. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Hawks, who snapped a four-game losing streak with a 99-90 win over Seattle Friday night at KeyArena behind the inspired play of Williams.
The Hawks also snapped a five-game road-losing streak with the win and an eight-game losing streak against the Sonics, while also improving to 18-21 on the season.
Williams, who grew up in nearby Bremerton, led the Hawks’ early onslaught against a Sonics team that lost for the 13th straight game. He finished the game with a career-high 33 points, and the Hawks needed every one of them with the Sonics charging back from an early 23-point deficit and Hawks captain and leading scorer Joe Johnson playing on a sore leg.
“I’d say it’s his best game ever,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “As you go through this league and you get a chance to come home and play in front of your family and friends, it’s special. And if you can put on a show the way he did it makes it even more special. And I thought he was spectacular. “And with Joe hobbling, I thought everybody filled in and did what they had to do. We were a little sloppy down the stretch. But we did what we had to do.”
Williams had 16 points and five rebounds at halftime, setting the tone early for a Hawks team that opened their five-game Western Conference road trip with a sleepy first quarter start in a loss to Denver Wednesday.
But Williams wouldn’t allow a repeat effort like that. Not with his mother ins the second row yelling encouragement the entire game, when she wasn’t yelling at Sonics fans that were harassing her son.
“She wouldn’t shut up,” Williams said and then laughed. “Everything I did she was yelling at me and then there was some dude over there yelling at me. And I think she was yelling back at him, too. “Some people come home and they fell that little added pressure. But there’s no pressure to me. These are people you’ve been playing in front of your whole life. There’s no pressure. It’s good having them here.”
The Hawks were lucky to have Williams Friday. Johnson made just 4-for-12 shots from the floor and finished with just 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds. But he was clearly laboring on that sore leg. Josh Smith, who fouled out late after scoring 14 points, grabbing five rebounds and blocking five shots. But he only made five of his 13 shots from the floor.
Williams went 12-for-20 and made every shot imaginable, save for one from beyond the 3-point line. And he was at his best late in the game, when the Sonics were busy chewing into the Hawks’ lead.
He took a charge late. Knocked down a jumper to beat the shot clock after bobbling the ball and almost losing it. And his steal and dunk on a fast break with 58 seconds to play put an end to any pipe dreams the Sonics had of a miracle comeback. “He was all over the place out there,” Josh Childress said. “And we needed him in the worst way tonight, because we needed this win in the worst way. Marv did what he was supposed to do when you come home, he was out there eating. And that got the rest of us juiced up.”
More important than any of his individual accomplishments Friday, Williams insisted, was that the Hawks finally got back that winning feeling.
“There’s no question that you want to go out like this on a personal note, but the most important thing was that we got a win,” Williams said. “We definitely needed a win. And we came out here and played with a sense of urgency. Those guys [the Sonics] needed it to. But we were able to get it done.”
It didn’t hurt that the Hawks decided to keep the pressure on after taking that huge lead.
Instead of retreating into a passive stance for the second half, as they normally do when playing as well they did early, the Hawks kept coming at the Sonics in the second half, as evidenced by the 17 points Williams scored after halftime.
Hawks point guard Anthony Johnson said he saw it coming a day earlier, especially after watching the way Williams’ demeanor changed as he made his way around his hometown.
“He got his weight lifting on [Thursday], went and got a haircut and spent some of that quality time with the family,” Johnson said smiling. “So you could tell he was preparing himself to have a good night. It was great that he got off to a good start. He made some big buckets and was able to take us home. And it was a great performance for him, for us, for his family and his hometown.”
The vibes from the Williams and his faithful followers in the arena, he said his contingent of friends and family totaled more than 100, spread all over the Hawks’ roster.
It got so good that veteran Zaza Pachulia even looked like himself. Pachulia has spent much of the season in coach Mike Woodson’s doghouse. He was suspended for the first game of this trip for conduct detrimental to the team - mainly for fussing with Woodson as he was coming off the floor in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s loss to Portland.
But he played 16 minutes off the bench Friday, scoring six points and grabbing six rebounds, his most productive work in months.
“Hey, it was our night,” Williams said. “What can I say?”
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