Hawks fall to Magic

According to the schedule, the Hawks are still playing preseason games. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an elixir for the Hawks’ battered and bruised bodies after Monday’s 109-103 loss to Southeast Division rival Orlando at Philips Arena.

Eight of the 10 players who started the game were on the floor for the final tense minutes as Orlando’s Jameer Nelson fouled out and Mickael Pietrus gave way to rookie Courtney Lee.

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Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com

Mike Bibby had a chance to tie the game for Atlanta with 14 seconds left, but his 21-foot jumper missed.

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Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com

Hawks All-Star Joe Johnson led all Atlanta scorers with 26 points.

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With both teams playing to win and send a message in anticipation of the Oct. 29 regular season opener for both teams in Orlando, the bloody results should have been expected.

“We don’t have the luxury of sitting key guys and all that, we’re still trying to get our rotations down and get our chemistry right,” Hawks All-Star Joe Johnson said as head athletic trainer Wally Blase dabbed ointment on a nasty scratch that ran from his left armpit all the way down to his abdomen. “We don’t have but one game left before the regular season starts, so we have to buckle down.

“This is the team we play first. And I definitely thought it was as a good test for us. And a good indicator of what’s to come the rest of the way.”

The Magic got huge nights from both All-Star center Dwight Howard (29 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks) and Rashard Lewis (25 points, eight rebounds and three assists). Lee was huge off the bench, finishing with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.

The story of the night, though, was the Hawks’ inability to stop any of the Magic players who hit the floor.

Stan Van Gundy’s team was relentless going to the basket and shot 39 free throws. Howard, the former Southwest Atlanta Christian star, made 13 of his 22 free throw attempts on a night when the Hawks ran through their entire allotment of big men trying to slow him down.

“Our defense stunk tonight,” Johnson said, “especially us guards. We put ourselves in a tough situation by not being able to keep anybody in front of us. And we put our bigs in tough spots because they didn’t want to leave Dwight.”

As porous as the Hawks’ defense was, they still had chances to rally for the win.

But they couldn’t execute down the stretch, the worst offense being Mike Bibby’s errant 3-pointer with 14.9 seconds to play and the Hawks trailing 103-105 with plenty of clock to work with.

“We’re playing pretty good overall,” Bibby said of the Hawks’ 4-3 preseason record, “but we still have lapses here and there. It starts with me; I need to put more pressure on the ball and make things a little tougher on [their] point guard. I think that will wear off on everyone else.”

Hawks coach Mike Woodson would like to see it sooner rather than later, particularly on the defensive end.

“We’re not playing at the level that we finished against the Celtics in the playoffs,” he said of the Hawks’ defensive effort. “Guys that have gone through camp to this point know the intensity that we want to play with and I’m not getting that right now. So we’ve got some work to do before we head back to Orlando for our opening game.”