Dynamic Hawks more than one-man team

Forced to play a man or two down all season long, the Hawks never flinched.

Instead, they developed an even more communal approach to basketball, and that teamwork is paying huge dividends now. The Hawks are up 1-0 in their first-round playoff series against Miami. Game 2 is Wednesday night at Philips Arena.

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Kent D. Johnson/kdjohnson@ajc.com

Hawks players, including guard Joe Johnson (center), listen as coach Mike Woodson addresses the team during practice Tuesday.

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“I know we’ve been cast as a one-man team in the past,” Hawks forward Josh Smith said, referring to captain and All-Star Joe Johnson. “But the truth is, that’s never really been the case. Never.

“And that’s really the beauty of our team, when you think about it. We’ve got six or seven guys that can get going at any time and change the game for us. You never know who it’s going to be.”

In Sunday’s Game 1 romp over Miami, it was Smith serving as the catalyst on both ends of the floor. He finished with a game-high 23 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in the Hawks’ 90-64 win.

“The beauty behind that is Joe Johnson doesn’t care. Mike Bibby doesn’t and Flip Murray doesn’t and Mo Evans doesn’t and Zaza Pachulia doesn’t,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “That’s how you build a team. When guys could care less about who’s going to get the glory and just pass the baton around, it makes winning the top priority.”

The baton has been passed around throughout the regular season.

The Hawks played 12 games without Smith — almost all of November — after he suffered a high ankle sprain in a Nov. 7 win over Toronto. But Al Horford played some of his best basketball of the season.

Not long after Smith returned, Horford went down with a bone bruise in his right knee and missed 12 straight games, nearly all of January, and Marvin Williams stepped into the void with a string of stellar performances to help pick up the slack.

A lower back injury cost Williams 16 straight games, from March 9 to April 9, which was just about the time Smith kicked his game into overdrive on both ends of the floor as the Hawks began fine tuning for the playoffs.

With so much lineup shuffling, Woodson said, team members were forced to rely on each other in ways that previous teams had not.

“Every time somebody went down somebody else stepped up,” Johnson said. “That’s just a part of the growth and maturity that has taken place around here. We’ve been able to deal with whatever adversity has come our way. And it’s really been a total team effort all season long.”

The Hawks went 2-0 without Johnson on a February road trip to Minnesota and Charlotte, proving not only that they could win without their captain and All-Star, but could do it on the road.

“I’ve tried to tell everybody all year that it doesn’t matter who scores and that everybody looks good when you win,” Mike Bibby said. “Guys will do whatever they have to do and sacrifice whatever needs to be sacrificed in order to win. We’re that kind of team.”

In Game 1 against the Heat, six Hawks — all five starters and Zaza Pachulia off the bench — scored in double figures.

It was the same thing on the defensive end, with the Hawks’ swarming the ball on every possession and contesting shots inside and out.

“The dynamic was totally different a few years ago,” said Williams, one of six Hawks to average double figures during the regular season. “At the end of the day, when you’re winning, everything is taken care of. Guys don’t care much about who is doing what because you’re winning at a high level. And isn’t that what’s most important?”