After Jamal Crawford banked in a 3-pointer to preserve the Hawks' victory over the Magic, coach Larry Drew slumped over the scorer's table and flashed the smile of a man who knew his team had just gotten away with something.
“I was hoping he would attack the basket,” Drew said. “He was two or three feet behind the 3-point line. I didn't know if it was going in or not. I was just pretty relieved that it did go down.”
Crawford's leaning, challenged shot with 5.7 seconds left provided an unlikely ending to Atlanta's 88-84 victory over the Magic on Friday at Philips Arena. The Hawks lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 with Game 4 on Sunday at home.
The Hawks survived to win an intense, physical contest that featured late ejections for Hawks center Zaza Pachulia and Magic guard Jason Richardson. They've now won five of seven games against the Magic including the regular season.
The lower-seeded Hawks took home-court advantage in the series by winning one of two games in Orlando and kept it with a victory in front of a rowdy, sellout home crowd.
“They are chasing us and it's first one to four,” Crawford said. “But that's a good team. We know each game is going to be tough but I think we showed tonight that we can handle adversity.”
The Hawks led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter but quickly gave back the advantage early in the third. The Magic were ahead 84-83 after Brandon Bass' basket with 1:01 left.
Hawks center Al Horford responded with a 21-foot jump shot, then smothered Hedo Turkoglu to force a miss on a 3-point try early in the shot clock.
"It was a horrible shot," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
The Hawks rebounded Turkoglu's miss with 28.9 seconds left to set up Crawford's big shot.
He dribbled at the top of the key as the shot clock ticked down and Drew urged him to make a play at the basket. Instead, Crawford pulled up over Jameer Nelson and banked in the 3-pointer.
“I just tried to get to my comfort zone, my sweet spot,” Crawford said. “I felt pretty good getting there. I thought I got a good look, and it just happened to go down for me.”
Most wouldn't consider Crawford's shot a clean look but he's a streaky scorer with a knack for making challenged jumpers. He scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter and had 18 of Atlanta's 37 points after halftime.
Crawford's final shot was from 31 feet out.
“I think Jamal Crawford's shot was lucky and an angel had to be sitting next to him when he let that one go, but he hits tough shots,” said Magic center Dwight Howard, who finished with 21 points after scoring a total of 79 in Games 1 and 2.
The Magic took their first lead of the game at 69-68 but couldn't hold on. The Hawks came back behind Crawford and Horford's scoring.
Crawford tied it at 69-69 with a free throw and then converted a 4-point play for a 73-71 lead. Horford scored on a spin move and made a jump shot, then Crawford made two more free throws to push Atlanta's lead to 79-71 with 6:06 to play.
The Magic cut the lead to 81-79 with 3:17 to go. The heated game finally boiled over with 2:22 to play.
After Pachulia fouled Howard, the Magic center elbowed him on the follow-through. Pachulia reacted angrily and Richardson confronted him; Pachulia head-butted Richardson twice and Richardson smacked him in the face.
“I never back down, that's for sure,” Pachulia said. “That's just not me.”
Both players were ejected for fighting fouls. League policy is to review the plays to determine any discipline.
Each team would be hurt by suspensions. Richardson was having his best game of the series and Pachulia provided resistance against Howard in the post.
“It's very tough,” Pachulia said. “Nothing was intentional, that's for sure. It was like intensity brought that whole situation there. Now I am sitting here and thinking about what's going to happen next.”
Howard was called for a technical foul but Crawford missed the free throw. Howard made 1 of 2 foul shots to cut Atlanta's lead to 81-80 before Crawford provided the dramatic ending.
The Hawks led 51-42 at halftime but poor shot selection, Orlando's tighter defense and a quicker pace allowed Orlando to tie it at 55-55.
The Magic tied it two more times in the third quarter but missed three shots that would have given them their first lead. The Hawks closed the quarter with a 6-0 run, capped by Crawford's 3-point play, to lead 66-62.
“The first half I was kind of tip-toeing around a little bit,” Crawford said. “I wasn't my usual aggressive self. I thought we needed a shot in the arm.”
The Hawks held on after a strong first half. Atlanta made jump shots but also scored closer to the basket: It had 28 points in the paint in the half after scoring 32 total in Game 2.
The Hawks had hoped their fans would give them a boost and they did. Most wore white as part of the team's “Dwight Out” promotion and they roared as the Hawks raced out to a good start.
Horford rebounded Kirk Hinrich's miss and dunked it for a 5-0 lead. He later caught an alley-oop pass from Joe Johnson and dunked it for a 9-2 Hawks advantage.
“I was so excited I had to calm myself down because I was jumping around after dunks and getting myself tired,” Horford said. “I was just excited and happy to see Philips Arena rocking for this playoff environment.”
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