Hawks meet Lakers to start rugged road trip

Phoenix — Talk about a sneak preview.

Joe Johnson’s first two minutes on the floor in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game provided of snippet of what he’ll face Tuesday night. Johnson was matched up against Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant early in the first quarter.

The Hawks resume the regular season in Los Angeles, the first of a five-game Western Conference road trip. If the Hawks plan on making any noise against the NBA’s best team, they’ll have to play a little more defense than is the standard in an All-Star Game.

“I can’t begin to tell you how important this stretch is for us,” Johnson said before Sunday’s game. “We went into the break strong, winning four of our last five games. So we can’t let up right now. We really need to push even harder over these last [30] games to put ourselves in the best position for the playoffs.”

The Hawks (31-21) have held a tight grip on the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference standings all season behind Boston, Cleveland and Orlando.

This Western Conference road swing will present the first real danger to the Hawks’ grip on that spot. Games against the Lakers, Sacramento on Wednesday, Portland on Friday, Utah on Feb. 23 and Denver on Feb. 25 is a rugged stretch at any point.

The Hawks will have to play the first two games without sixth man Flip Murray, who will not be with the team due to a family emergency.

“That’s going to make things tougher because Flip is a big part of what we do and a huge factor for us off the bench,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said Saturday. “But we’ve had to play without guys all year in some capacity and we’ve always found a way to dig in and compete. So that’s what we’ll have to do now.”

Woodson was in town for the weekend to see Johnson, Mike Bibby and Al Horford take part in the All-Star Weekend festivities. He also joked that he was in town to make sure his players didn’t get worked too hard.

“As important as this weekend was for our guys, both myself and [Hawks general manager] Rick [Sund] felt it was important to be out here showing our support,” Woodson said.

But the minute the All-Star weekend ended, Woodson said all the focus needed to be back on the task ahead.

Bibby, who came up short in his bid to win Saturday’s 3-point shootout, agreed.

“Really, the opportunity is there for us to push this thing as far as we can,” Bibby said. “It’s not going to be easy. It never is. But I think the guys are ready to step up to the challenge.”

As tough as things have been for the Hawks away from Philips Arena this season, they have already equaled last season’s road win total (12).

And for all the hand wringing about their upcoming road schedule, this west coast trip and a three-game trip the first week of March, there’s a home stand coming in a couple weeks that will serve as an equalizer. They Hawks play seven straight at Philips Arena from March 7-19.

“The schedule is what it is,” Johnson said. “We’ve got 30 games left and we’re 10 games over .500 right now. So wherever we go from here is up to us. It won’t be about the schedule or anything else but us.”