DEL.ICIO.USCavs halt Hawks’ winning streak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Cleveland — White uniforms might have served the Hawks better.
They wore them every game for nearly two weeks at Philips Arena and didn’t lose.
Tony Dejak/AP
LeBron James and the Cavs soared past Al Horford and the Hawks Saturday.
They wore their road blue jerseys for 48 minutes Saturday afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena and never had a chance.
Cleveland snapped the Hawks’ win streak at seven games, toying with the Hawks early and then holding them off late 102-96 before a sellout crowd of 20,562.
The Hawks’ momentum was halted after 14 days of stellar play. At 41-29 they still are on course for their best season in more than a decade.
But they proved to be no match for the league’s top team (the Cavaliers are 56-13 and 32-1 at home) Saturday.
The Hawks’ deficit was as many as 24 before a garbage-time rally made the final score appear much closer than the game really was.
“You’ve got be able to hang with them,” Hawks center Al Horford said. “And we have to be able to run our offense and really make them defend. That’s the only way to stay in the game here because they are so amped up to play here. This is a tough place to play.”
Especially when you show up unprepared, emotionally, for the playoff atmosphere that awaits.
The Hawks came apart early, and the unraveling was completed midway through the third quarter when Hawks coach Mike Woodson was ejected after receiving his second technical foul. He earned his first in the second quarter. Hawks assistant coach Larry Drew took over in his absence.
Mike Bibby and Josh Smith received technicals of their own between Woodson’s, each one knocking the Hawks’ further off course.
“It was really only one run that they made to get that double-digit lead, and they ran with it,” said Hawks swingman Mo Evans, who finished with 15 points and six rebounds. “The first thing we have to do is learn how to stop complaining about the officiating and understand that when you’re on the road, you’re going to be at a disadvantage. If we can ever conquer that mentality I think that’s when we’ll become one of the truly elite teams in the league.”
Woodson might have had the best seat in the house for the remainder of the game.
The Hawks never stopped playing, and they got within 10 points with their reserves on the floor in the final minute. But it was far too late for anything other than a trivial attempt to make things respectable.
“You know at some point a streak is going to come to an end,” Drew said. “And if it does, you want it to come against a good team and with a good effort. The first quarter buried us. We didn’t play the type of basketball we played the last seven.”
Unlike the teams the Hawks pounded during their homestand, which included playoff-bound Western Conference outfits in New Orleans, Utah, Portland and Dallas, the Cavaliers were able to stymie the Hawks top players early.
Not only did Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson get off to a slow start, he also had five turnovers by halftime, but also the frontcourt tandem of Horford and Smith didn’t get loose early.
Johnson led the Hawks with 24 points. Horford finished with 11 rebounds, six points and six assists. And Smith with nine points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
Saturday’s loss exposed the one glaring weakness the Hawks haven’t been able to hide this season.
They are simply not the same team away from Philips Arena that they are on their home floor — their 27-7 record at Philips is stained by a 14-22 road record. They’ve lost six of their past seven road games.
“The bottom line is we have to realize we’ve been playing great basketball, especially at home,” Horford said. “And luckily we get to go back home for four more games this week.”
