Hawks suffer more injuries, but win

The Hawks are dropping like flies, but if nothing else, it’s at least becoming familiar.

Already missing Al Horford with a knee injury and Marvin Williams with a concussion, the Hawks didn’t flinch Monday afternoon against Toronto when reinforcements Acie Law and Mario West both limped off with injuries. They stuck to the game plan of “when it doubt, play defense,” and that was good enough to beat the Raptors 87-84. They came away feeling good, winning for only the second time in seven games.

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Gregory Smith/AP

Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson (2) pulls down a rebound against Toronto Raptors forward Jason Kapono.

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Gregory Smith/AP

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith (5) takes a shot against Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh (4).

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“We’re on pace of where we wanted to be after 40 games,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “But just for the morale of our locker room this was a big win because we hadn’t been playing well at all.”

The Hawks moved to 20-5 when holding their opponent under 100 points, and that made Woodson happy. “We’ve just got to hang with what we got and keep pushing and scrapping and scraping like we did tonight,” Woodson said.

It also didn’t hurt that the Hawks still have Joe Johnson’s health. He imposed his usual will in the game’s final minutes by sinking a step-back 18-foot jumper with two defenders on him, giving the Hawks an 87-84 lead with 12.5 seconds left. Then he disrupted a would-be 3-point attempt by the Raptors’ Jason Kapono in the final sequence. Johnson finished with 28 points, followed by Mike Bibby’s 23 and Josh Smith’s 22.

“He’s our horse when we need him,” Smith said. “He was able to take the shot with two men on him and sink it. He does that for us most of the time.”

For much of the game, the Hawks’ radar had been off. They were not only missing jump shots (7-for-26 from 3-point range), they weren’t even drawing iron. Five players combined to throw up six airballs. Bibby, who had one of them, had to shake his head after missing a lay-up in transition in the third quarter.

But when it came down to it, Bibby came up with points. He leaned into contact on a jumper with 54 seconds left to draw a foul. He made a pair of free throws to put the Hawks ahead 85-84 before Johnson’s jumper all but sealed it.

“We got the stops when we needed to, and the scoring took care of itself,” Bibby said.

After giving up 51 points in the first half, the Hawks held Toronto to 33 points in the second. Former Georgia Tech standout Chris Bosh scored 15 points in the first half but only seven in the second. Losing his offense in the paint, the Raptors kept firing up 3-pointers and finished only 2-for-18 from behind the line.

“We wanted to show Chris Bosh different looks,” Smith said. “We felt as though he caught the ball a little bit too easy on the block [in the first half]. We were able to double-team him and cause the ball to rotate around.”

Zaza Pachulia spent most of the game on the bench in foul trouble. Solomon Jones chipped in with four rebounds in 18 minutes. But ultimately it was Smith taking control of the backboard with a season-high 14 rebounds.

“We just had to dig deep and step up in the absence of others,” Smith said. “We took the challenge, and we matched it. We were very unselfish today on both ends.”

The Hawks got contributions from new places. Thomas Gardner played in only his second game of the year, getting two rebounds in six minutes. Jones, who averages 12 minutes a game, added a block and an assist in his 18 minutes. West was used as a stopper to open the fourth quarter before hobbling off with a sore left ankle. Law played only two minutes before he suffered a quadriceps contusion in the second quarter.