All is right in the Hawks’ world again.
It sure wasn’t easy to get it back on its axis.
The Hawks nearly lost a 17-point lead, in a game they led from wire-to-wire, for a 107-97 victory over the Nets in Game 5 Wednesday night at Philips Arena. The win in the pivotal game gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
The Hawks can clinch the series with a win in Brooklyn on Friday. The odds are in their favor to move on and face the Wizards. When an NBA best-of-seven playoff series has been tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 has gone on to win 82 percent of the time.
“It’s huge,” DeMarre Carroll simply stated on the victory.
The way this series has gone back-and-forth, nothing is a guarantee.
The Hawks took a 12-point lead into the final quarter. The Nets scored seven straight points to close the gap to five points at 82-77. It was the closest the Nets had been since the score was 13-8 with 7:01 left in the first quarter.
Things would get even tighter.
The Nets got as close as a point, 90-89, after Jarrett Jack scored 12 straight points for his team. The Hawks’ advantage was two points, 97-95, before they ended the game on a 10-2 run. Jeff Teague scored six of the points. His second of back-to-back drives, a floater in the lane with 42.2 seconds left was the final nail as he skipped back down the court and let out a scream.
“The thing that stands out is the competitive nature of the group collectively and a lot of guys individually,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Competing in different defensive situations, on the boards, finding a way to get a basket and then, of course, finishing. … Stepping up and meeting that challenge, that’s what we need going forward.”
All five Hawks starters, who played the majority of the minutes, scored in double figures. Carroll scored a game-high 24 points. Al Horford had a double-double, his 19th career in the playoffs, with 20 points and 15 rebounds. He hit two huge 19-foot jumpers in the final two and a half minutes. Teague (20), Kyle Korver (17) and Paul Millsap (10) were the others in double digits.
Budenholzer shortened his bench and their minutes significantly. The starters played the entire fourth quarter except for Pero Antic and Kent Bazemore entering in the final 20 seconds for defense.
“It’s the playoffs so every game becomes more and more important,” Budenholzer said. “We felt like we had to keep that group out there. There have been certain periods of games where we haven’t been as good as we need to be. … Our five guys played well and we stuck with them.”
Antic scored eight of the 16 bench points, including two 3-pointers.
“We’ve got to win the game,” Korver said. “I’m sure Bud would like to play more guys. We’ve got to win the game. You do what you’ve got to do.”
Alan Anderson led the Nets with 23 points. Jack and Joe Johnson finished with 18 points apiece. Anderson and Jack combined for 41 points off the bench and were key in Nets’ runs to start the second and fourth quarters.
“Their bench is coming in and playing terrific,” Korver said. “They are really playing seven guys. Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson, they scored over 40 points. When the come in, we’ve got to guard them better. We can’t ease into them.”
The Hawks led by as many as 17 points with a 33-16 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Nets scored the first 11 points of the second half to trim their deficit to just six points. The Hawks got their shooting touch back and took a 53-44 advantage into intermission. Carroll had 19 first-half points on 7 of 10 shooting for the Hawks. Anderson had his career playoff high of 16 points through the first two quarters for the Nets.
The Hawks pushed their advantage to 82-70 going into the final quarter.
Another fourth-quarter push by the Nets made the game much more interesting than it should have been.
Still, the Hawks held on and are now in position to finish the series.
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