Hawks gain faith in one another

Any doubt about whether the Hawks trust each other was answered at crunch time of Wednesday’s win in New Orleans.

With the game on the line, the Hawks swung the ball from side to side repeatedly until they found the shot they wanted. It didn’t matter who took the shot, only that it was a good one.

And to think that a year ago this team, 3-0 heading into tonight’s game against Toronto at Philips Arena, had trust issues.

“If you ask me that’s the biggest difference between last year and now,” Marvin Williams said. “We trust each other, and [Hawks captain and All-Star] Joe [Johnson] really trusts us. It’s got to be hard when you’re a veteran, an All-Star, playing with young guys.

“But he stuck with us last year and now he’s trusting us more than ever and that makes us even more dangerous.”

Dangerous is one way of describing a Hawks team that has so much trust in each other that starting point guard Mike Bibby wasn’t on the floor down the stretch against the Hornets.

Reserve guard Flip Murray played in his place, scoring nine of his 14 points during a crucial stretch in which the Hawks erased a four-point deficit.

“That’s the ultimate sign of trust to me,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “That’s huge. And it doesn’t matter who is in the game. When you get to that point, where you trust each other, where you realize we didn’t even have our point guard in the game: How much trust is that? And you had guys stepping up making plays. That’s the sign of a team that’s growing.”

Murray wasn’t around last year. Neither was Mo Evans. So they don’t have any knowledge of the frayed relations that resulted from Johnson’s public plea for more veteran help on the eve of last season.

That upset some of his younger teammates, and a team meeting was called to clear the air. But that locker room pow-wow did more damage than good, as the Hawks went from competitive to struggling —- until Bibby came aboard at the February trade deadline.

Murray said all that is in the past. Besides, in a marathon 82-game season, the Hawks have no choice but to rely on each other, the way they did in New Orleans.

“We’ve got to have trust in each other because we have to get the right shot,” Murray said. “That ball has to swing around until somebody gets a better shot. And we have to have confidence in our teammates to shoot that ball. That’s what we’re practicing for. That’s why guys are sticking around fter practice together shooting all the time. We have to have trust in everybody to make big shots.”

Woodson is glad to see this team take yet another step in its maturation process, a step that alleviates the pressure Johnson has been under three years as the Hawks’ lone go-to guy.

“I just think we’re starting to grow as a basketball team,” Woodson said. “We’re playing for one another. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s not who plays all of the minutes. It’s what you do with the minutes you get. Trying to stress that and trying to get the players to believe that means a lot in terms of trying to get players to win in this league.”

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: vs Raptors

> When: 7:30 p.m. today

> TV; radio: Fox Sports South; 790 AM

On ajc.com/sports: Check out beat writer Sekou Smith’s blogs as the Hawks try to remain undefeated.