Hawks bounce back, beat Pistons

All the Hawks were looking for was a win.

What they got was a season-rejuvenating defeat of a longtime nemesis and their first season sweep of the Detroit Pistons since the 1993-94 season.

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SCOTT CUNNINGHAM / Getty Images

The Hawks’ Josh Smith (5) puts up a shot Saturday against the Pistons. Benched the night before for quarreling with coach Mike Woodson, Smith came back with a stellar performance.

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The Hawks snapped a two-game losing streak with Saturday’s 87-83 victory over the Pistons before a sellout crowd of 19,101 at Philips Arena, kicking off a critical seven-game homestand with a much-needed win.

After losing back-to-back games to sub-.500 teams in New York and Charlotte, the Hawks couldn’t afford to drop another one.

Not with Miami and Detroit in hot pursuit for the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff chase, which guarantees home-court advantage in the first round.

“This was huge for us because that [Pistons] team has been the standard-bearer in the Eastern Conference since I’ve been in the league,” Josh Smith said. “We needed this in the worst way for all sorts of reasons.”

Smith needed it more than most. And he showed up in a major way the night after being benched in the second half in Charlotte for arguing with Hawks coach Mike Woodson.

He scored a team-high 19 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked four shots and had two assists while also playing stellar defense against Rasheed Wallace.

“Josh Smith was huge,” Woodson said. “And that’s how he has to play. He has to play at that level every night the rest of the way. And he’s capable of that.”

The Hawks had to hold on for the victory, surviving a late Pistons rally after leading by nine points early in the fourth quarter.

Joe Johnson’s free throws with 7.5 seconds to play polished things off for the Hawks. Flip Murray’s steal of the Pistons’ inbounds pass on the ensuing play completed the task.

Murray played big minutes off the bench, finishing with 12 points. And he seemed to thrive in the playoff-type atmosphere that smothered this game from start to finish.

“That’s the way the rest of this year is going to be,” Murray said. “It’s playoff time. Everybody’s playing for playoff position, and these last [19] games are very important.”

It certainly seemed that way to Smith and Al Horford. The frontcourt duo combined for 24 rebounds, which carried the Hawks (35-28) on this night.

As good as Smith was, Horford was just as effective. He finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and two assists.

“We’re trying to put the roller coaster of the past few days behind us,” Horford said. “I think we were a little tired from the road, but we were able to dig in the way we are supposed to. We played tonight like we played against Miami last week. We had the mentality like we needed to win this game, and that’s what we were able to do in the end.”

For that, the Hawks can thank their defense, which was suffocating after the first quarter. They held the Pistons to a 20-for-60 (.333) shooting performance over the final three quarters and held the Pistons scoreless for a nearly eight-minute stretch from the end of the third quarter through the early fourth.

“The defense was solid tonight,” Woodson said. “You hold this team under 90 points and to 40 percent shooting [for the game] and I’d say your defense was good. And that’s what we need to do these last [19] game to reach our goal.”