HAWKS 129, BULLS 117: Johnson’s season-high 41 highlight show of offense

Mike Woodson’s smile came before any words.

And he knew, like the other 18,031 folks who watched his Hawks knock off Chicago 129-117 on Saturday night at Philips Arena, that no matter how many times someone talks about defense winning championships, nothing beats an offensive masterpiece.

“So much for defense, huh?” the Hawks’ coach said before breaking into another big smile.

The Hawks did it early and late, matching the Bulls basket for basket from start to finish to secure their sixth win in seven home games. The finale of their eight-game home stand comes Monday against Denver.

“Everybody has fun when you play those types of games,” Hawks point guard Mike Bibby said. “And it shows people that we can play both styles.”

In running their overall record to 19-10, the Hawks have shown they can play just about any style and be successful.

Saturday night they used heavy doses of Joe Johnson, who topped his triple-double from Tuesday’s win over Oklahoma City with a his first 40-point game since March 2006. He finished with a season-high 41 points on 16-for-31 shooting to go along with a game-high eight assists.

The victory also came with nice supporting efforts from Josh Smith, who ended his night with a season-high 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and plenty of help from Bibby (17 points and seven assists), Marvin Williams (16 points, eight rebounds and four assists), Al Horford (10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists) and help off the bench from Zaza Pachulia (10 points and seven rebounds).

“When you can just come down and pull 3-pointers, those games are fun, man,” Johnson said with a smile. “It always feels a little better when you win. And hopefully we can get a few more like that.”

As rough as the Bulls’ backcourt of Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon were on the Hawks —- and they combined for 60 points, including a season-high 27 from the rookie point guard Rose —- Woodson’s hammering about his team’s inept defense was even rougher.

“He talked about us the whole game,” Johnson said. “We had to hear his mouth the whole game. When it’s all said and done and we’ve won the game, he’s a little bit better. But we’re going to have to hear it from him again [today at practice].”

Even after watching the film, Woodson will have a hard time finding the holes in his team’s performance. Sure, they gave up more points than in any other game this season, but they also scored the most.

And when your team is off to the best start the franchise has seen since the 1997-98 season —- and for even more perspective, the Hawks didn’t win their 19th game until Jan. 21 last season —- nitpicking about one crazy offensive night isn’t high on the list of priorities.

“This was just one of those offensive explosions we had tonight,” Woodson said. “You’re going to have games like this. And you have to give them credit. This is the first time all year we didn’t hold a team under 33 or 34 percent from the 3-point line. They shot 60 percent from the 3-point line. Our offense was just solid tonight, probably the best it’s been all season.

“Everybody was clicking on all cylinders. It was just an offensive performance on both sides. But in the fourth quarter, we held them to 22 points, so our defense did pick up when we really had to buckle down.”