Hawks close door on Philadelphia

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Hawks punched in, punched out and moved on.

The Hawks' 112-93 win over Philadelphia on Wednesday night at Philips Arena didn't quite sparkle or dance, but it did serve its purpose. It kept the Hawks two games behind Southeast Division-leading Orlando, which also won Wednesday night.

"It's kind of hard to get momentum during these types of games," said forward Josh Smith, who cooled off his torrid pace of late but still contributed eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks. "We were able to pull through and get the win."

The Hawks have won their past three and five of their past six and at about the three-quarter point of the season, have positioned themselves well. At 39-21, the Hawks simply need to go .500 in the remaining 22 games to reach 50 wins for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

While they finish a stretch of five home games out of six overall Friday against Golden State, the Hawks are starting stretch another in which they can apply heat to the Magic. Starting with Philadelphia (22-38), the Hawks will play seven games in a row against teams below .500.

Said Sixers coach Eddie Jordan, "The Hawks are one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, so you almost have to play perfect in order to have a chance at beating them."

While Philadelphia guard Louis Williams, a South Gwinnett High grad, did his part -- he made his first 10 shots and scored a game-high 30 points -- the Hawks prevented the short-handed 76ers from attaining anything close to perfection.

They Hawks built a 32-22 lead at the end of the first quarter and never let the lead get smaller than six points the rest of the way. The decisive action arrived in the third quarter, which they won 26-17 by not allowing any fast-break points after giving up 19 in the first half, holding Philadelphia to 7-of-19 shooting and forcing five turnovers that became 10 points.

"We just kept on answering," center Al Horford said. "We had big plays from our bench. Zaza [Pachulia] really came in. His energy, I thought, was big. He really kept getting stops time and time again."

As has been the case of late, the Hawks received contributions from all over the roster. Five players scored in double-figures. The Hawks assisted on 23 of their 42 baskets, including five assists each from Joe Johnson and Smith.

Forward Marvin Williams racked up a game-high 21 points and has 39 in his past two games. He also collected eight rebounds and produced one of the plays of the game, blocking forward Thaddeus Young's dunk attempt in the fourth quarter.

Williams played one of his finest games of the season, attacking the basket, taking turns defending on scorer Andre Iguodala and displaying confidence and ease on the floor.

"We need Marvin to play that way," coach Mike Woodson said. "It takes so much pressure off of everybody when he's scoring and rebounding the ball and defending like he was defending tonight."