There were blown defensive assignments, sloppy turnovers and shaky offensive possessions for the Hawks near the end of a crucial playoff game.
But the Hawks insist there was never a sense of dread as their lead over the Magic slipped away.
“I was very happy to see in that situation, where in the past we would have panicked, we maintained our composure,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said.
Atlanta held off the Magic for an 88-85 victory at Philips Arena on Sunday night. The lower-seeded Hawks lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can win it with a victory at Orlando on Tuesday.
Atlanta took home-court advantage from the Magic with a victory at Orlando in the series opener. They nearly gave it back with several mistakes in the final moments of Game 4.
The Hawks survived when guard Joe Johnson scored their final 10 points, including four free throws in the final 20.2 seconds. Johnson finished with with 20 points. Reserve guard Jamal Crawford had a team-best 25.
“We've got a one-two punch,” Hawks forward Josh Smith said. “Jamal pretty much gave it to us the first two quarters and Joe said, ‘I will take it from here,' in the fourth. Whenever you can have a dynamic duo in the backcourt that can score like that, it's kind of hard to defend.”
The Hawks led 54-41 early in the second half but the Magic rallied behind center Dwight Howard (29 points) and guard Gilbert Arenas (20).
Arenas' 3-pointer tied things at 68-68 early in the fourth. Baskets by Crawford and Al Horford gave the Hawks a 75-70 lead, and two baskets and two free throws by Howard tied it at 76-76 before Atlanta surged ahead with an 8-1 run.
Smith scored on a hook shot for the Hawks and, after Howard missed two free throws, Johnson made a floater over Howard. Hawks center Jason Collins drew a charging call on Hedo Turkoglu and Johnson dropped in two free throws for an 82-76 lead.
After Howard made 1 of 2 free throws with 1:56 left, Johnson scored on a drive to the basket to push Atlanta's lead to 84-77. The Magic quickly responded with a 6-0 burst.
Orlando guard Jameer Nelson scored on a driving basket and then stole the ball from Johnson and passed to Quentin Richardson for a dunk. The Magic got the ball back after a Hawks' shot-clock violation and Arenas scored against a blown defensive assignment to pull Orlando within 84-83 with 22.2 seconds left.
The Magic fouled Johnson, who made two free throws to up the Hawks' lead to 86-83 with 20.2 seconds to go. Howard rebounded Arenas' miss and scored with 12.4 seconds to go, but Johnson made two more free throws to make it 88-85 with 10.5 seconds to play.
The Magic set up one final play with forward Hedo Turkoglu at the 3-point line. But Horford poked the ball away from Turkoglu, who corralled the ball and then missed a rushed 3-pointer just before the final buzzer.
The Hawks held on to win a game they controlled early.
The Hawks ran out to a 37-23 lead by making 16 of their first 26 field-goal attempts. They gave most of that advantage back with a ragged end to the second quarter.
After Collins went to the bench with his fourth foul in the third quarter, Howard went to work against Hilton Armstrong. He scored seven of his 13 points in the period against Armstrong, who was forced into a bigger role because of Zaza Pachulia's suspension.
Arenas had played just eight minutes in the previous three games of the series but he joined Orlando's guard rotation with Jason Richardson suspended for his Game 3 scuffle with Pachulia. Orlando trailed 63-54 late in the third quarter when Arenas scored five points to help trim the lead to 66-61 at the end of the period.
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