Murray scores 30 as Hawks top Timberwolves

Flip Murray wasn’t around for the start of the Hawks’ rebuilding process that began earlier this decade.

But the Hawks’ sixth man was on center stage as that process came full circle Monday night.

Enlarge this image

Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

Joe Johnson scored 20 as the Hawks won their season-high eighth straight home game Monday against the Timberwolves.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Box score • Standings • Stats

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Murray scored a season-high 30 points to help push the Hawks past Minnesota at Philips Arena, clinching their first winning season in a decade with a 109-97 win before 13,425.

At 42-29 with 11 regular season games left, the Hawks can focus all their attention on securing the fourth spot in the playoff race and home court advantage.

“It means a lot,” Murray said after his showcase performance. “We’ve been working hard all year for this position we’re in. But we’re still not finished yet. We’re still trying to hold on to that fourth spot. Miami’s still chasing us and we still have to take care of these last couple of games we have coming up.”

Murray certainly played like he was chasing something Monday. He drained four 3-pointers during a three-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter to put an exclamation point on the win and the Hawks’ turnaround from doormat to legitimate playoff team.

“Flip was fantastic tonight,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “He’s been great for us coming off the bench.”

His teammates sensed it was going to be a big night early on Monday, when he scored 14 points before halftime.

“Flip’s in playoff form right now,” Josh Smith said. “He was on fire out there and we had to ride that. And everybody else needs to follow his lead, because there’s no reason not to step it up now as we get closer.”

Murray had company from backcourt starters Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby Monday. They scored 20 points each to keep the Hawks’ home win-streak this month going; it’s up to eight games with major tests on the way this week from San Antonio Wednesday, Boston Friday and the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday.

“Play time is over,” Johnson said. “Flip is a vet. He knows that. I think you could tell by the way he was playing tonight and how focused he was. There’s no more messing around for us.”

Murray said he was the beneficiary of plenty of the Hawks’ 24 assists. He scored 14 points before halftime and then added 14 in the fourth quarter to cap a brilliant night.

“My teammates were finding me and we had some good mismatches,” Murray said. “I had some chances early where I got to go down in the paint and get it started in the post with a little guy guarding me. And then in the second half we switched out a lot on the pick and roll and I had a big man on me and I was able to [isolate] a lot and shoot over the top.”

That didn’t keep the Hawks from making things interesting. They led by as many as 26 before allowing the Timberwolves back into the game in the fourth, the lead dwindling to 10 points before Murray and Johnson went back to work.

“You can’t give a team like Atlanta a cushion because it’ll be too hard to catch up,” said Timberwolves captain Mike Miller. “They can score in bunches and they have a lot of offensive threats, and Flip was the weapon of choice tonight.”