Defenseless Hawks fall to Nets

That stifling pressure defense that drove to the Hawks to a 6-0 start this season got lost somewhere between Chicago and Boston during last week’s road trip.

Counting Saturday’s 119-107 loss to New Jersey at Philips Arena, the Hawks’ third consecutive loss and second in two nights to the Nets, they’ve given up 100 or more points in four consecutive games.

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Rich Addicks /raddicks@ajc.com

(From left) Al Horford, Marvin Williams and Mike Bibby didn’t like what they saw in Saturday’s loss to the Nets, the Hawks third straight defeat.

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The Nets shot 55 percent (38-for-69) from the floor and got monster performances from Devin Harris and Vince Carter, again, in shredding the Hawks’ defense from all over the floor.

The Nets were even better from beyond the 3-point line, shooting 67 percent (12-for-18) from that distance.

Unlike Friday night’s road loss to the Nets, this one wasn’t even close in the final 10 minutes.

“I have to give New Jersey credit,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said, repeating his line from the night before. “We had no answer for them from a defensive standpoint. We can’t blame it on fatigue because we played last night as well. We have had a stretch of games in a short amount of time, seven in 11 days I believe, but that’s still no excuse.

“We have lost some of our defensive swagger, intensity or whatever you want to call it.”

Call an overdose of Harris and Carter. After combining for 56 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists Friday night, the Nets’ big two poured it on again Saturday night. Harris went for 33 points, 10 assists and three rebounds, scoring at will over, under and around whatever Hawk defended him. And Carter responded with 29 points, five assists and four rebounds.

“Obviously our backcourt was tremendous,” Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. “It’s a good moment, and it’s something we have to build on. To play the same team twice and get a win both times, it’s a nice mark for us.”

And a black eye for the Hawks (6-3), who got outworked on offense and defense for all but a few minutes on both nights.

“They were the aggressor [Friday], and then they come in here and pretty much did the same thing,” said Hawks’ captain and All-Star Joe Johnson, who turned in another valiant scoring effort with 31 points and five assists. “One-on-one, we haven’t been really guarding our man particularly well. And I’ll take a lot of heat for that. But at the same time, we haven’t been man-ing up and guarding our guys. Guys are flying by and getting to the hole and then breaking our defense down.”

Carter was the catalyst in the third quarter when the game was tied at 63-63. He sank five 3-pointers in the third quarter alone, each one over the outstretched hands of at least one Hawks defender as the Nets went on a 39-20 run to blow the game open.

The Nets’ bench chipped in big time, outscoring the Hawks’ reserves 41-33. And while rookie 7-footer Brooke Lopez came back to earth from his 25-point, nine-rebound performance Friday night, fellow rookie Ryan Anderson led the Nets’ bench with 17 points and five rebounds.

“They were so good at stretching us out and then kicking the ball to their shooters that it just staggered our team defense,” said Hawks center Al Horford, who finished his night with 12 points and six rebounds while clearly looking fatigued from the heavy workload of the past week. “It makes it tough to help each other on defense when they’re constantly breaking us down and finding somebody who is knocking down shots.

“So we just have to regroup now and tighten up our defensive principles and get back to work they way we were doing in those first six games.”