'You can't take a step back'

ATLANTA — Atlanta Hawks captain Joe Johnson is a fan of classic movies.

He has even borrowed a title from a 1970s cult favorite to motivate his team this season, "Let's Do It Again."

Just like stars Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby did in reprising the roles they made famous in "Uptown Saturday Night" when they made "Let's Do It Again," Johnson is confident the Hawks can rekindle the late-season magic that saw them push the eventual champion Boston Celtics to seven games in their first round playoff series at the start of this season.

With the start of training camp just days away, the Hawks begin Oct. 1, Johnson sat down with AJC Hawks beat writer Sekou Smith to reflect on the past and ponder the future.

Q. So you're really serious about with this "do it again" theme, huh?

A. Dead serious. We had a taste last year. And now it's about building on that and going forward. You never want to take a step back. So you have to go to work every day with taking that next step on your mind. It has to be your fuel in the gym, in the weight room, on the track and everywhere else.

Q. Is that why you like having everybody come back early as opposed to guys just showing up the night before training camp starts?

A. This is designed for us to get a little camaraderie going and just get everybody together to get a feel for one another, stay in shape, work out together and play together. It's definitely going to help. It helped us last year. And every year there has been a steady improvement.

Q. Did you watch to see who did what this summer in the East, and around the league to see who got better?

A. Yeah, it's been a lot of moves. Philly got better with Elton [Brand]. You look at what Milwaukee did. We definitely got better as far as ... we're not young anymore. We took care of some business this summer, and I think guys are going to come back hungrier than ever this year.

Q. Is it a race now to stay where you are or above in the conference standings and keep that distance between yourselves and the teams that didn't make the playoffs?

A. Again, you can't take a step back. You definitely can't go back. Even though our schedule isn't the greatest to start off, we have to pick back up where we left off in the playoffs. And I'm talking about the way we were playing, the intensity we brought every night and protecting home court. It's going to be tough to start off, so we have to really dig down and make it easier on ourselves by taking care of our business at home.

Q. How important is it to have a guy like Flip Murray on the roster, another guy that can break a defense down off the dribble, to take some of that pressure off of you?

A. It's huge. You look at a guy like Flip who can come in and give you basically whatever you need as far as penetrating and making plays. Then you have a guy like Mo [Evans] who is very athletic and can shoot. And then you have big Randolph [Morris], another big body and a guy we're going to need. All those guys are only going to help us out. Flip and Mo spread the floor in ways we really haven't been able to the past couple of years because they're both guards with good size and they can both play in the post if they have to, depending on who is guarding them. I think they'll definitely give us some advantages. We just have to keep everybody on the same page and together.

Q. After three years of basically the same roster and the same attack, are you counting on throwing a few wrinkles at teams that think they know what to expect from this team?

A. I don't think there's any doubt we'll have a few new wrinkles, starting with a healthy Mike Bibby. He was banged up when we got him [at the trade deadline] and then he got hurt in the first game, so people never really got a chance to see him at full strength. Having played in the Western Conference before I got here, I know how deadly he can be when he's at the top of his game. And this is obviously a big season for him, being in the last year of his deal, so I can only expect big things from him. I think we're going to roll in that respect. I really do.

Q. After spending so much energy fighting your way into the playoffs last year, how long did it take you to get over the sting of losing to Boston the way you did and get back to work?

A. This is actually the first summer since I've been here that I didn't have Team USA stuff going on or an injury to recover from, so I did have time to recharge my battery a bit. But I'm such a gym rat; it's always been hard for me to stay out of the gym. I try to take a little time off, but I can't stay out of the gym. I'm not going to lie to you. After the playoffs, I took a week and half off and then I was right back at it. Whether it's being in the gym and getting shots up or lifting and running, I try to stay in shape. I'm going to stay ready.

Q. What about the mental and psychological recovery from that Boston series, how long did that recovery take?

A. It was a whirlwind, from going to scrapping just to make it in and then to push the eventual world champions to the brink the way we did. It's still on my mind ... it was definitely a blessing for us. I thought we really grew up as a team in that series. With the first two games in Boston nobody gave us a chance and then we came home and took care of home court and just battled it out. It was amazing, man. I'd never seen Philips Arena like that. I think we gave the fans some hope, and that's the best feeling. They know that through everything we've been through that there was some glimmer of hope. Now I can't go anywhere without people hollering at me and letting me know that they're going to be there and congratulating me on our run. For the first time since I've been here there's definitely a buzz in the city, and that's what you want. Now we just have to keep it up.

Sekou Smith writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.