Hawks clinch playoff berth, despite loss to Spurs

Heads hung for all of 15 minutes in the locker room after Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs finished trashing the Hawks’ eight-game home winning streak.

Fifteen minutes is all the time it took for word to spread that despite the Hawks’ 102-92 loss to the Spurs, they clinched a second consecutive playoff berth.

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Rich Addicks/raddicks@ajc.com

San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (right) took it to Joe Johnson and the Hawks, finishing with 42 points in the Spurs’ win.

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Rich Addicks/raddicks@ajc.com

Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson (right) gets some serious defensive pressure from San Antonio Spurs Drew Gooden.

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Losses by Milwaukee, Charlotte and New Jersey on Wednesday night clinched the spot for the Hawks, who are 42-30 and still in possession of the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference standings, which guarantees home-court advantage in the first round.

“Now at least we know we’re in, which is nice,” Hawks center Al Horford said. “So we can just look ahead and keep trying to get better.”

The Hawks had better get better in a hurry. They face Boston on Friday and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.

“We don’t have any time to sulk,” Horford said. “We have to snap out of it and get ready for the challenges that are coming. Because it’s not going to be any easier.”

The Hawks certainly can’t get play any worse on defense than they did Wednesday night. The Spurs played without All-Star power forward Tim Duncan and turned the game over to their All-Star point guard, who shredded the Hawks for 42 points and 10 assists.

The Hawks tried double-teams, traps and using just about every player they had in uniform to defend him and had no luck slowing him down.

“This is a big win for us after two tough losses to Boston and Houston,” said Parker, whose Spurs (47-24) are battling Houston for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference standings. “Atlanta has been playing very, very well. They’ve beaten a lot of good teams here. That’s a very big win for us, especially on the road, and it helps us in the Western Conference race.”

As well as Parker played and as poorly as the Hawks defended him, the game was tied at the start of the fourth quarter after the Hawks rallied from an 11-point deficit.

But the Hawks missed their first five shots of the fourth quarter, went scoreless for nearly four and a half minutes, and by the time they got into any sort of groove on offense, Parker was already cooking.

He scored on driving layup, a 17-foot shot and two more driving layups before Matt Bonner interrupted him with a running jumper of his own with 6:50 to play.

When Parker drained two free throws for an 88-81 lead with 5:13 to play, the game was all but over. The Hawks never got closer than seven points.

“We tried doubling him some, but he kept beating the double-teams,” said Hawks coach Mike Woodson. “He had a great game tonight, and you can’t take anything away from Parker and the Spurs. We didn’t gap him enough in terms of forcing him to shoot jump shots and let him go to the hole, and that’s when he’s at his best.

“We’ve just got to get better individually on the ball. And we had some slippage in that area.”

After holding eight consecutive opponents under 100 points at home and winning by an average of 13 points, the Hawks’ home-court bubble got popped Wednesday night.

Not even a 30-point night from captain and All-Star Joe Johnson could help rescue the Hawks this time.

“We were still in the game at 74-74 and just made mistakes,” said Hawks swingman Mo Evans. “We didn’t get stops. And at some point you’ve got to make an adjustment. To let a guy get 42 points on a back-to-back, you’ve got to look at yourself. It wasn’t just an effort thing. You let a guy get 42 points, almost all on layups, what can you say?

“A true test is how you stack up against the best in the league, and we get another shot Friday and Sunday.”