DEL.ICIO.USJohnson leads Hawks to 5th win in row
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The things that carried the Hawks early this season are the same things they’re using now to rekindle their fire as the playoffs approach.
After relying all season on captain and All-Star Joe Johnson, sticky defense and the home court advantage Philips Arena provides to make their case as one of the NBA’s newest upstarts, the Hawks are at it again.
Allen Sullivan/aesullivan@ajc.com
Hawks forward Josh Smith slams in 2 of his 19 points against the Trail Blazers.
Johnson notched his fourth straight 30-point game as the Hawks dusted high-powered Portland 98-80 Sunday to win their fifth straight game on their home floor with one of their best defensive efforts of the season.
The catalyst Sunday and throughout this five-game stretch has been Johnson, who worked the Trail Blazers for 35 points, seven rebounds and six assists Sunday.
“Joe’s on a mission, I told [Josh Smith] that earlier,” Hawks point guard Mike Bibby said. “And we need Joe to do that. We know if we win all the rest of these games we’re going to hold down that fourth spot in the [Eastern Conference] playoff hunt. It’s in our hands. And that’s why we have to keep playing hard and keep playing together.”
It would help if they kept playing at Philips Arena. The Hawks are a robust 25-7 at home, 5-0 on their current seven-game home stand, 33-9 when holding teams under 100 points and own a 21/2 game lead over Miami for that fourth spot.
The Heat lost 85-77 Sunday in Philadelphia, giving the Hawks (38-29) just a little breathing room.
Hawks coach Mike Woodson is more concerned with his own team, winners of seven of eight games during a huge December home stand, than he is with whoever is chasing them.
“This is where we positioned ourselves at this particular time in the season,” Woodson said. “Getting off to a great start to start the season, and then we had the run in December when we won all the home games, we were pretty good. I’ve said all along, if we’re going to win at a high level this year, we have to win games at home.”
When the Hawks play defense the way they did against the Trail Blazers they should be able to win anywhere.
They held Nate McMillan’s team 18 points below their season average and forced 18 turnovers, resulting in 23 points.
“It’s the defense and rebounding the ball that’s been doing that,” Woodson said. “That’s the only way you win in this league, is to defend and rebound and share it offensively. The last five games, we’ve done that.”
All-Star guard Brandon Roy (29 points) and LaMarcus Aldridge (19 points and six rebounds) had typical performances, but Travis Outlaw was the only other player to reach double figures (10).
“We just didn’t have any movement at all,” said McMillan, whose team is 41-25 and fourth in the Western Conference playoff race. “We only had 11 assists in this game. We walked the ball up the floor, and we never got to the tempo we wanted in this game. We needed to play faster, and we just didn’t do that today. We were playing against a defensive wall, and we just didn’t move the ball like we needed to.”
They were also playing against the Hawks at their efficient best. They had just six turnovers, took control of the game after halftime and never looked back, shooting .512 (42-for-82) from the floor with four of their five starters scoring in double figures.
And that’s exactly the way it was supposed to be, according to Johnson, who has averaged 31.5 points on .527 (48-for-91) shooting and 5.7 assist over the last four games.
“When you keep your turnovers down, that’s more shots,” Johnson said. “So we limited our turnovers tonight and I thought we got some great looks. We got some great ball movement, and everybody was involved.”
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