Hawks lose at Dallas

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DALLAS – Wednesday night, after the Hawks led by 11 points at the end of three quarters and then got outscored by 19 in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, coach Larry Drew told his players that they would be in that sort of mettle-testing situation many more times.

"We just have to make sure we learn from this," Drew said that evening.

Apparently, the lesson requires more than three days to sink in. The Hawks lost to the Dallas Mavericks in similar fashion Saturday night by a 102-91 score. They turned in a fourth-quarter performance that, like Wednesday's game, Drew termed a collapse.

The Hawks fell to 30-18. It's their sixth loss in Dallas in the last seven years. After winning six in a row on the road, they've now lost their past two including their loss at Milwaukee on Wednesday. Dallas has won four games in a row and is 31-15.

The Hawks were without forward Marvin Williams, who was suspended Saturday for two games for throwing a punch at the end of the team's win over the New York Knicks Friday. Mo Evans started in his place.

Saturday at the American Airlines Center, the Hawks fairly hummed through the first three quarters. They shot 50.8 percent from the field, out-rebounded Dallas 30-27, commendably defended the Mavericks' pick-and-roll and outscored them in the paint 46-30. They were patient, efficient and responded to every Mavericks surge to keep the sellout crowd of 20,309 relatively subdued.

They led 78-77 after three quarters. However, less than four minutes into the fourth, Dallas was up 91-79 and the arena was up for grabs.

"I thought the game was  going great until the start of the fourth," guard Joe Johnson said. "It got out of hand and we never recovered from it."

The Hawks' collection of ungainly possessions began with the first, when center Zaza Pachulia was called for a three-second violation. Two possessions later, guard Jamal Crawford lost the ball trying to split a double team. Pachulia missed from seven feet. Pachulia got his shot blocked. Johnson got his shot blocked. Forward Josh Smith forced a pass and turned it over. Smith missed a jump shot. Guard Mike Bibby missed a 3-pointer.

The Hawks scored one point on their first nine possessions. Meanwhile, the Mavericks scored in transition and kept a steady march to the free-throw line to go on a 14-1 run and capture the game.

After Dallas took their 91-79 lead, the Hawks never got closer than six points. Drew called it very similar to the Milwaukee loss, when the Hawks made five of 22 shots and were 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Saturday, the numbers were four of 15 and one for five.

"We played, I thought, three good quarters and then in the fourth quarter we had a collapse," he said. "Shot selection was not very good. It just comes down to getting tougher in the fourth quarter."

In the fourth, after taking 30 shots and scoring 46 points in the paint through three quarters, the Hawks took five shots in the paint and scored four points. Forward Al Horford, ranked fifth in the league in shooting percentage, took two shots in nine minutes of play. In the quarter, the Hawks made four of 15 shots, got out-rebounded 14-8 and were outscored 25-13.

Neither Drew nor his players sounded the alarm the way they had after the Milwaukee loss, when Horford said that he didn't believe the team was hurt or bothered enough by the manner of the loss to do something about it.

"You're going to have games like that," Smith said. "It's all about bouncing back."

However, the snowball effect Drew warned against Wednesday has a few more snowflakes on it than it did that night.

Even in the Hawks' Friday win over the Knicks, they led by 24 with 5:06 left in the third and by 15 at the end of three quarters before the Knicks cut the lead to six points with 7:44 to play. That night, the Hawks re-gained control to take the win. Not so against Dallas.

"It wasn't anything they were doing," said Johnson of the Mavericks. "We had total control of the game and then in the fourth it just got out of hand."

Lost in the effort were a fine performance by Johnson, who went to the basket at will and scored 27 points, and productive minutes off the bench by guard Jeff Teague and forward Josh Powell.

"We've been in this situation enough times to learn from it," Drew said. "It's something we've got to get better at."

They're certainly getting enough practice at it.