After game 1 Hawks fans nervous, hopeful

HAWKS-CAVS GAME 2

When: Tonight, 8:30 p.m.

Where: Philips Arena

TV: TNT

Tickets: Available

Stakes: Win and the Hawks even the series and head to Cleveland with a guarantee to return to Atlanta for a game 5. Lose and the Hawks will have to do what only two other NBA teams have done in the Conference Finals, win a series after being down 0-2.

Inside: Hawks merchandise is in high demand, a sign the bandwagon is populated

As Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll limped off the court and the final outcome all but decided in Wednesday’s opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, many longtime Atlanta sports fans were visited by a familiar, relentless dread.

It is the playoffs, after all.

It’s an expectation born from experience. Braves fans have seen the Cardinals (twice), Giants (twice), Diamondbacks, Cubs and Astros celebrate playoff series clinchers at Turner Field — and that’s just since 2000.

Falcons fans watched the 49ers do the same after winning the 2012 NFC Championship at the Georgia Dome, costing Atlanta a chance to advance to its second Super Bowl. The team’s only Super Bowl appearance is best remembered for the arrest of starting safety Eugene Robinson, who was charged with soliciting a prostitute the night before the game.

“Sometimes it feels there’s nothing you can do but wait for things to go wrong,” said Atlanta native Dallas Hudgens, 51. “When you watch bad things happen over and over, you worry even when it’s going well.”

Even though they’ve made the playoffs each of the last seven years (the longest current streak in the NBA), this year marked a breakthrough for a franchise that had teetered on irrelevance in a sports landscape dominated by football and the Braves.

After setting a franchise record for wins, they stand just one series win away from the NBA Finals for the first time in 45 years. Expectations have risen, and though the disappointing Game 1 loss put a damper on that optimism, some fans say they still believe.

“I don’t go to games anymore hoping we don’t lose,” said Atlanta divorce lawyer Randy Kessler, a season-ticket holder since 1999. “Now, I’m thinking they’ll win.”

Instead they laid an egg. But for once, it could’ve been worse.

Carroll’s injury, initially thought to be a season-ender, at best, turned out to be just badly bruised knee. He’s now listed as “questionable” for Game 2.

Maybe, just maybe, Atlanta’s playoff worm has turned.

“I’m still optimistic,” said Jay Winter, a regular in Philips Arena’s “6th Man” section, filled by the most rabid Hawks fans. “We lost the first game of the Washington series and the sky didn’t fall.”

And there’s this: If any city’s sports teams are cursed more than Atlanta, it’s Cleveland, which hasn’t won a championship since 1964. They’ve come close since, including 20 years ago, when the Indians won a franchise-best 69 percent of their games, advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1954.

Standing in their way? The Braves, who won the series in six games to claim the city’s first, and only, title.

“Our one shining moment came at their expense,” said Matt Gove, 44, a lifelong Braves, Hawks and Falcons fan. “Cleveland may be the best thing we’ve got going for us in this series.”

Still, Gove said he’s conditioned to expect the worst.

“When the Hawks beat the Wizards, that was as good as I’ve felt about an Atlanta sports team since ‘95,” he said. “After so many years of pessimism I allowed myself to be optimistic again.”

Then came Wednesday night.

“Cue up that all-too-familiar Atlanta sports numbness of another missed opportunity with the world watching … sigh,” tweeted Bud L. Ellis, 41, of Cumming, after the Game 1 loss.

A die-hard Atlanta sports fan since he was a kid, Ellis was hopeful that Atlanta’s luck was bound to change.