Hawks pull one out in Dallas

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DALLAS ‑ Apparently, road games against the league's elite are more the Hawks' style.

Showing defensive grit and getting clutch play from guard Joe Johnson and backup forward Joe Smith, the Hawks took their first win out of Dallas since March 2004 with a 80-75 win over the Mavericks, ending a five-game losing streak in Dallas.

"After [Friday] night, a tough loss at home, to be able to come on the road against a good Dallas team and find a way to get a win, we were all pretty excited about that," said Smith, who kicked in nine points and seven rebounds, five of them offensive. "We just can't be satisfied."

After sleepwalking through a 114-107 loss to the Knicks at home, the Hawks flew to Dallas to play a Mavericks team that had similarly stubbed their toe against Memphis Friday night. Playing at American Airlines Center, where Dallas went 32-9 last year and started this season 6-2, the odds were in Dallas' favor. However, the Hawks scratched for a win, continuing their run of success against the league's upper echelon. Among the Hawks' 14 wins are defeats of Denver, Boston, Miami, Houston, Portland (twice) and now Dallas.

The Hawks moved to 14-6 despite shooting 36.0 percent from the floor by holding the Mavericks to 37.3 percent shooting and creating 16 turnovers. With just eight turnovers and 16 offensive rebounds, the Hawks took 89 shots to Dallas' 67.

"I thought tonight, these guys, they gritted their teeth," said coach Mike Woodson. "It was one of those old, ugly, drawn-out games, but it's the kind of game sometimes I like."

Johnson poured in 31 points on 24 shots, while Smith added six of his nine points in the fourth quarter. Forward Marvin Williams compensated for a three-point night with a career-high 15 rebounds and three steals.

In a Saturday morning team meeting, Woodson admonished his team for its shoddy defense against the Knicks Friday night, showing players video of their various lapses and what the coach said was a lack of pride in guarding the ball.

"We're not doing the things we need to do to win games," Woodson said before the game.

Saturday, the Hawks deflected passes and challenged shots. They took Dallas, third-best in the league at holding onto the ball, for nine steals. While hardly perfect – Mavericks gunner Dirk Nowitzki had plenty of open looks in scoring 32 points – the Hawks showed the attention to defense that went lacking Friday.

Consider that New York scored 60 points in the paint against the Hawks, many of them on uncontested drives to the basket. Dallas scored just 10 points in the paint.

"I think that film session really helped us this morning," Williams said. "Guys really brought it mentally tonight, I think."

One of the game's most noteworthy plays was a hard foul meted out by Johnson to Dallas forward Shawn Marion, a close friend of Johnson's from their days as teammates in Phoenix.

Said Johnson, "I thought he had an easy layup and I didn't want to give it to him."

Having forward Josh Smith back didn't hurt the cause, either. Smith, who was tossed from Friday night's game in the second quarter for arguing a non-call, scored 12 points to go with six rebounds.

The Hawks' defense of Dallas gave them enough margin to withstand going without a basket for the final 7:19 of the second quarter. The Hawks didn't score a basket in their final 14 possessions and only scored one point in that span. However, by forcing 11 turnovers and holding Dallas to 40.0 percent shooting, they still led 41-40 at halftime.

In a taut second half, Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki binged for 19 of his 32 points, but no other Maverick significantly hurt the Hawks offensively. Point guard Jason Kidd was held scoreless with two assists in the second half.

The Hawks led by nine with 7:29 to go, which the Mavericks cut to three with 2:54 to play. However, Dallas couldn't get closer, missing its last five field-goal attempts. Two Johnson free throws with 1.5 seconds left sealed the game.

A night after perhaps the most disappointing loss of the season, the Hawks celebrated one of their most impressive wins of the season. Dallas' 75 points was its lowest total for the season.

"It's a big win," said Crawford, who scored six points but played a solid defensive game. "If you asked people, they probably would have thought we'd win [Friday] night and lose [Saturday]. It flip-flopped. The league is funny like that sometimes. It'd be nice to get last night, as well, but we've got to go and continue to get better."