Hawks feel at home in win over Hornets

Maybe there is something to this home court advantage thing the Hawks have been talking about all season.

Two games into a seven-game homestand, the Hawks are 2-0 and have finished off season sweeps of two playoff-bound opponents in the process.

They took care of the New Orleans Hornets Monday night, dazzling a sparse crowd of 14,204 with a rousing 89-79 win over All-Star point guard Chris Paul and his crew.

The Hawks are now 22-7 at home and 36-28 on the season, having won their last three home games, including Saturday’s 87-83 season-sweeping victory over Detroit.

“You see it’s a different team out there,” Hawks center Al Horford said. “And this came at a good time for us. We need to be home right now and we need to take care of business.”

Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson was all business Monday night. He led the Hawks with 30 points —his biggest game since scoring 41 against Chicago on Dec. 27 — shaking out of a mini-slump with a huge game when the Hawks needed it most.

Playing without starting small forward Marvin Williams for the first of what could be many games, the Hawks showed no signs of worry. Williams is out indefinitely with a lower back injury.

“It just feels good,” Johnson said, “coming out and playing in a playoff atmosphere, playing against a good playoff team. For us to respond the way we responded, with Marv going down and other guys stepping up, that’s how we have to play.”

Most impressive was how the Hawks handled the Hornets’ initial blow and kept charging.

The Hornets (39-23) showed up sporting a season-best seven-game win streak. But after building and then surrendering an early 12-point lead, they were forced to play catch-up the rest of the night.

The Hawks erased that early deficit with a huge second quarter. They outscored the Hornets 27-12, doing plenty of damage in transition. They had eight fast break points while the Hornets’ had none.

Flip Murray, Acie Law IV and Solomon Jones provided a huge boost off the bench, combining for 10 points, four rebounds and two assists during that game-changing stretch.

“Everybody that came off the bench was solid,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “Flip played a solid game, but to see Acie and Solomon, guys who hadn’t played a lot of minutes lately, to step in and give us some positive minutes was huge tonight.”

Stingy defense helped, too, as the Hawks used their swarm and switch routine to keep the Hornets off balance all night.

“They switch across the board and they come at you with 6-7, 6-8 guys or better who are all athletic,” Hornets center Tyson Chandler said. “And it caused problems for us tonight. Their scrambling caused some mismatches for us and made things difficult.”

That’s the kind of defensive effort Woodson can live with from his team. The balanced scoring effort they got without Williams made things even sweeter.

Murray finished with 14 points off the bench. Josh Smith added 13 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, and Mike Bibby finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

“This is the point in time where we have to stay together even more, especially with Marvin out of the lineup” Smith said. “Acie came in and did the job and Solomon has done it all year when guys have been out. We just have to keep playing hard and playing defense the way we’ve been these past two games. And as long as we keep getting these home wins, nobody can complain.”