By Tuesday morning, four games into the Hawks' improbable playoff run, Barrington Williams' voice was hoarse, his speech broken by long, deep yawns. He was up until 1 a.m., screaming for the Hawks' win over the Boston Celtics and cleaning up the fan shop inside Philips Arena.

"You heard nothing but Atlanta people cheering, saw nothing but green shirts walking," said Williams, a retail supervisor at the store who compared the Hawks' rise to the University of Georgia's during the SEC tournament in March. "Just like Georgia, worst to first. They're shocking the world."

They're even winning over Atlanta's typically fickle fans. "After Saturday, the reaction was, 'That's nice. They won a game,' " said Lou DePaoli, the Hawks' executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "There's no comparison to what we saw after Monday night. People realized, 'Oh my God, these guys can do this.' It's like an awakening."

The buzz is palpable. From the start of Monday's game through 9 a.m. Tuesday, more than 6,800 tickets were purchased online for Friday's Game 6, DePaoli said. The team expects to sell out by this afternoon.

TV ratings are also up. Roughly 235,000 Atlantans tuned in to Monday night's game, about 60,000 more than watched Game 1.

Many will claim to be long-suffering fans, though they've done a good job being inconspicuous until now. The Hawks, who last reached the playoffs in 1999, had become an afterthought in Atlanta. What a difference two wins makes.

"When I was watching last night, they showed this guy in a dress shirt with a Hawks jersey over it," said Matt Connolly, who operates hotlantahawks.com, one of a handful of blogs dedicated to Atlanta's NBA franchise. "It was obvious he just bought it, probably as he was walking into the arena."

Connolly was 8 years old when the Hawks last captured Atlanta's imagination, back in 1988. That season was capped by an epic playoff series against the Celtics, who prevailed —- barely —- four games to three.

"I've never been so happy watching a Hawks game as I was last night," said Connolly, who started his blog three years ago —- amid a 13-69 season.

"This town loves a winner, and there's no reason the Hawks can't do well in Atlanta," he said.

For the first time, Hawks gear is outselling Thrashers merchandise at the Philips fan shop. They ran out of mini basketballs and 500 playoff T-shirts Monday night, said Williams, who hopes to get a fresh shipment in time for Friday's game.

—- Staff writer Rodney Ho contributed to this report.