Many have come to the Hawks late. But Brielle Gould says she was a fan in utero. Twenty-eight years ago, she said, her mother commenced labor while at a game inside the old Omni. Little Brielle was just that anxious to get a look at John Drew.

After sitting through Sunday's lopsided Game 7 playoff loss to Boston, she might have a clearer idea of the pain mom felt while watching the Hawks.

Jessica McGowan/AJC (ENLARGE)

Hawks fan Paul Hudson nervously adjusts his hat while watching the Hawks sink in Game 7. The Hawks' season ended in a 34-point loss to the Celtics.

Jessica McGowan/AJC (ENLARGE)

Brielle Gould nervously watches the Hawks in Game 7 of their first-round series against Boston at a bar in downtown Atlanta. Gould's family has been season ticket holders for more than 30 years.

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A week ago, few had invested any emotion in the team. Now, the Hawks were involved in a rout that could be felt at the core.

"Yeah, I'm hurtin' a little," Gould said as the inevitable set in Sunday afternoon over all those viewing the end of a season at the downtown Atlanta sports bar, Stats. To hurt you've got to care. For the Hawks, those feelings represent the consolation prize from their first playoff appearance in nine years.

Yes, they did little with the opportunity to stage one of the biggest upsets in NBA history, losing 99-65 in Boston. The Hawks Joe Johnson hit the game's first shot, a 3-pointer, and from there, every point was like trying to squeeze honey out of a bee. Marvin Williams was ejected after a cold-blooded foul on Boston's Rajon Rondo. The Beantown mob carried on like it had just won a war instead of merely surviving a grueling first-round series against the least regarded team in the NBA playoffs.

Yet, back in Atlanta, at how many homes and gathering places was a scene like the one at Stats played out? Imagine, people collecting to watch the Hawks, attaching real meaning to their every possession. Imagine, the Hawks relevant.

Three stirring victories over the Celtics at Philips Arena had created a bubble of hope around the team. Sunday came the loud, "Pop!"

All stripes of fans came out to Stats, for one, representing the amazing perceptual makeover the team had enjoyed in just the last week.

"I'm a bandwagon person, I admit it," said Atlanta's Ayisha Weisner, 33, who was drawn by the new buzz around the team. A new fan but a good one: She kept urging on the Hawks from long distance long after the game was lost.

Nearby at the bar was Rafael Patterson, 26, who has had Hawks season tickets for seven years, he said. "I didn't want to just stay home and watch the game, I had to get out," he said, still on a high from Friday's Game 6 victory at Philips. "The reaction to this team has been amazing. But that's Atlanta — there always are going to be a lot of fair-weather fans here."

In a side room, where Atlanta Spirit employees had gathered to watch the game, the mood was not exactly one of abject defeat. Regardless of Sunday's outcome, there was a feeling that the Hawks had made a statement in this series, one that will speak to the paying customers.

"The biggest thing is to capture the new fans who came out of nowhere this series," said Brendan Donohue, the vice president of ticket sales and service for the Hawks and Thrashers ownership group.

Atlanta Spirit employees would not have to rush back from Stats to their office to begin marketing tickets for the playoff's second round. But, already, Donohue said, season-ticket sales for 2008-09 are far ahead of the pace of a year ago. "And we found out that corporate Atlanta really got behind this team," he said. "That shows up with the higher-end seats. Now, you can't get courtside seats [for next season], and that's the first time we've been able to say that in awhile."

Sunday's game was the biggest blowout of a series in which the Hawks lost four road games by an average of 25 points. But even among those not sitting at the pour-your-own beer tap tables at Stats, the glass seemed resolutely half-full.

"There is a degree of satisfaction, to a point," said Justin D. Cotton, a law student at Georgia State. "We went farther than anyone expected and we've taken the aura of Boston away."

"I'm still representing the Hawks," said bandwagon fan Weisner. "We were supposed to get swept. They played their butts off at home and gave the fans something to look forward to."

It was late in the third quarter when TV analyst Jeff Van Gundy was informing the national audience that the non-competitive nature of Sunday's loss stripped away some of the shine of the Hawks three earlier victories over Boston.

"Hell no," responded Marietta's Paul Hudson, defiant almost to the end.

The run is over, the Hawks having extended the Celtics to the limit. They were two different teams wearing Atlanta's name — unbeatable at home and barely fogging a mirror on the road. In between those extremes resides a lot of fans who wonder what's next?

"That's going to be the real test, are the fans still going to come out after today?" wondered Cotton.

Gould, the fan from the beginning, had her answer ready. "Can hardly wait until next season," she said, already starting to shake off the unfamiliar pain of the Hawks being eliminated in May.