The mere mention of the Hawks and the Philadelphia 76ers playing a game in early April with playoff implications for both teams would have seemed laughable two months ago, when neither team seemed destined for the postseason.

Yet there they were Friday night at Philips Arena, trading blows like the two playoff upstarts they have become.

Friday's game, in which the 76ers escaped with an impressive 109-104 victory that ended the Hawks' win streak at five games, was just the first course. The second comes tonight at Wachovia Center, as the Hawks travel to Philadelphia.

Despite losing their previous two games against the Hawks, the 76ers (39-37) were clearly the superior team this night. All five starters scoring in double figures, and they clinched a playoff berth.

"They're just a rugged team that really comes out after you," said Hawks reserve Josh Childress, who scored 20 points. "They were relentless the entire night on both ends of the floor.

"They played with that playoff urgency, and we didn't match that early, and it seemed to cost us at the end. We'll have to show up with that [tonight] or suffer the consequences again."

The Hawks never slowed the 76ers long enough to get comfortable, and point guard Mike Bibby's dreadful 1-for-11 shooting performance didn't help.

Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson scored a game-high 32 points on 12-for-20 shooting. He also had eight assists and six rebounds.

There was no such power outage for the 76ers' dynamic duo. Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller were as good as advertised.

Iguodala led Philadelphia with 30 points and 10 assists, and Miller added 23 and six.

Former Georgia Tech forward Thaddeus Young had 12 points and five rebounds, and former South Gwinnett star Louis Williams added nine points and three assists off the bench.

"That's a deep team that's playing at a whole different level than they were when we saw them last month," Hawks forward Josh Smith said of Atlanta's 96-91 home victory Feb. 4.

Mo Cheeks' team left the building that night 12 games under .500. Since then, they've won 21 of 28 games, clinched a playoff berth and are on solid ground for one of the top five spots in the conference playoff chase with less than two weeks left in the regular season.

"It's a pretty remarkable turnaround," Johnson said. "Hey, they just play hard. They play good defense, they play together, and they play hard. And it's up and down that bench. Every guy they put out there played his role."

But it was Iguodala who gave the Hawks (35-41) the biggest fits. They simply couldn't contain him down the stretch; he scored 15 points in the fourth quarter alone.

"We're playing well, and we just beat a good team," Iguodala said. "This was a big win for us."

The challenge for the Hawks is doing the same in Philadelphia tonight.

"They snatched one from us," said Hawks forward Marvin Williams, who finished his night with 19 points and six rebounds.

"We've got to show up focused and ready to out-scrap and out-hustle them the way they did us on our home floor."

PLAYOFF RACE

The Hawks still hold a 3-game lead over Indiana for the final playoff spot:

......Team ......W......L....GB

5 ....76ers......39 ....37....21 1/2

6 ....Wizards....39 ....37....21 1/2

7 ....Raptors....38 ....38....22 1/2

8 ....Hawks......35 ....41....25 1/2

......Pacers ....32 ....44....28 1/2

......Nets ......31 ....45....29 1/2

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: at 76ers

> When: 7 p.m. today

> TV; radio: Fox Sports Net; 790 AM