DEL.ICIO.USHawks crush Heat in Game 1 of playoff series
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Josh Smith and the Hawks didn’t fight all season long for home-court advantage to give it away.
Unlike the four other NBA playoff teams that squandered it this weekend, the Hawks treated home court with the proper respect. They smashed the Miami Heat 90-64 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Brant Sanderlin/bsanderlin@ajc.com
Hawks captain Joe Johnson scored 15 points against the Heat. He was one of four Hawks scoring in double figures.
It was the Hawks’ biggest playoff win since an 89-69 win over Detroit on May 10, 1999. They also tied a franchise record for points allowed, matching the 64 they gave up to Charlotte on April 28, 1998, in a series against the Hornets.
“We saw what happened in Boston, Portland and San Antonio Saturday,” Smith said of the teams that lost home-court advantage. “And then we saw up on the board where Orlando lost to Philadelphia. So we knew we couldn’t come out here and throw it away.”
Smith showed up early for Sunday’s game. He said he was too eager to sit around the house all day waiting for an 8 p.m. start.
He played like it.
He worked the Heat for a game-high 23 points, including five monstrous slam dunks, 10 rebounds and every hustle play imaginable as the Hawks pounded the Heat on both ends of the floor.
He made nine of his 14 shots from the floor and went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line, leading a balanced Hawks attack.
“Josh Smith is a problem, man,” Hawks forward Marvin Williams said. “That’s the best way I can put it. He’s a problem for a lot of people in this league, and when he comes to play like he did tonight, there isn’t a whole lot anybody can really do to stop him.”
All five starters and Zaza Pachulia scored in double figures, while the Heat couldn’t get much of anything going outside of NBA scoring leader Dwyane Wade’s 19 points on 8-for-21 shooting.
Still, the game didn’t turn until the Hawks turned up the heat in the second quarter. Smith sparked a 29-14 run with highlight reel play after play, including 13 points in the quarter.
“I didn’t know it would turn out this way,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “But I just thought our guys were just so focused coming into tonight’s game. Sometimes you can be so focused that you end up being too anxious and things don’t turn out the way you drew it up.
“Tonight I just thought our focus was there from beginning to the end. Our defensive schemes were right on the money in terms of how we wanted to defend. And I thought we did a fairly good job, especially in the first half, of sharing the basketball and making shots.”
It helps when your defense smothers the NBA scoring leader the way the Hawks did Wade. Michael Beasley was the only other Heat player to reach double figures, and he scored 10 points on 5-for-15 shooting.
The Hawks shared the ball incessantly, piling up 23 assists on 36 made shots. And they also pounded the Heat on the boards, building a 50-35 edge by game’s end.
“It was everybody stepping up when we needed to step up,” said Hawks center Al Horford, who finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. “We talked all season about taking care of home and you saw it tonight. That’s the kind of total team effort we know it’s going to take to keep playing.
“This is just one game, we realize that. There’s still a lot of basketball to play. But that’s the reason we wanted to start here, in front of our fans. And we wanted to make sure we did it right.”
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