Amid snowstorm, crowds come to see LeBron

Philips Arena is notorious for its late arriving crowds on game nights.

There was no such problem Sunday. The weather didn’t do anything to deter the sellout crowd from showing up on time for the game.

There were hardly any empty seats in Philips Arena when Cavaliers superstar LeBron James did his ritualized rosin toss at the scorers’ table just before the opening tip.

Snow attraction

Hawks center Zaza Pachulia wasn’t sure if it was real, the white stuff sticking to the trees outside of his house Sunday afternoon.

His coach couldn’t stop smiling about it Sunday night, relishing his first “real” snowfall since coming to town five years ago.

“We had the ice storm a couple years back but this was snow,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said before the Hawks faced Cleveland Sunday night. “That was major league snow out there. Granted, I hope no one was in harm’s way because of it. But for a guy like me [from Indiana], it was nice to see. You always knew what time it was growing up when there was snow on the trees.”

Pachulia said he resisted the urge to take his infant son Davit out and let him experience his first snow. Instead of frolicking in the snow, they admired it from afar and stayed warm.

“It looked great from the inside,” Pachulia said smiling and still shaking his head at the idea of a March snowstorm in Atlanta. “I still can’t believe it actually happened. But it was cool, just the way it smelled outside once the snow started falling. You never know what you are going to get in Atlanta.”

Back-to-back

Provided their flight could get out of town Sunday night, the Hawks will have a quick turnaround, facing the Washington Wizards on Monday night at Verizon Center.

This weekend-weekday set kicks off a nonstop parade of games this month for the Hawks, who play basically every other day between now and the end of the month.

“The game are coming in bunches,” Woodson said. “We don’t have a two or three-day stretch where we can relax and catch our breath. And hey, it is what it is. This is what we positioned ourselves for as a team. And I’d rather be at home playing than on the road.”

The Hawks play three straight on the road this week, in New York Wednesday and Charlotte Friday, before returning home Saturday for a game against Detroit that kicks off a seven-game home stand.

Win big like they did during an eight-game home stand in December, when they went 7-1, and the Hawks can write their own playoff ticket.

“All these games mean something,” Woodson said, “and everybody is playing for something. That’s the way you want it to be.”