Hawks let clincher slip away, need another miracle (updated)

(Updated: 11 p.m.)

There is a tendency in Atlanta for sports fans to wait for the other shoe to drop. Teams lose when they’re supposed to win. They build up hopes, then descend with a splat. Atlanta: The city never too busy for another catastrophic shoe drop.

It happened again Thursday night. After teasing the masses with the possibility of their greatest upset playoff series win in franchise history — and becoming only the NBA’s sixth No. 8 seed to knock off a No. 1 — the Hawks fizzled. They led Indiana in a potential clinching game by five points with just over three minutes left. But the game’s final stretch was a blur of missed shots and turnovers.

“This one hurts,” Kyle Korver said after the wreckage.

Instead of closing out the Pacers in six games and altering the Atlanta sports aura for at least one night, the Hawks gasped for air in the final minutes, lost the lead, lost the ball and lost the game 95-88. So the series is tied at 3-3.

The Hawks did the improbable to get this far. They won two out of three games on the Pacers’ home court. To advance, they have accomplish something completely illogical and win there again Saturday.

“It’s a tough one, but we have to do better at the end of games — that’s what it comes down to,” Korver said. “We had breakdowns at both ends of the floor. It’s unfortunate. There was great energy and it was a great crowd. We definitely had our chances. But we have to pick ourselves back up, and we will. We know we can go there and play well. That’s all we got.”

The Hawks have won only two playoff series as a lower seed since the NBA expanded the postseason field to 16 teams in 1984. A clincher in Game 6 would’ve amounted to the biggest series win of them all, but they blew a 84-79 lead with 3:15 left.

It’s Atlanta. Nothing comes easy.

They held the clincher in their hands. Then their hands turned to thumbs. With a five-point lead, the Hawks had consecutive trips down the court in which, 1) Pero Antic turned the ball over; 2) Antic missed a shot; 3) Paul Millsap missed. The Pacers capitalized. They scored the next six points to start a 14-1 run.

The final significant miserable moment came when the Hawks trailed 87-85 with 41 seconds left. Lou Williams, who was brought into the game after a timeout for offense, drove into the lane and threw a pass, presumably intended for Jeff Teague, straight to Indiana’s Paul George.

George was fouled, hit both free throws and that pretty much was it. The heavily-favored, recently-lampooned Pacers lived for another day and Atlanta’s potential celebration remained corked.

Philips Arena was again sold out and louder than at any time in recent memory. The building seemed to shake when Mike Scott had a thunderous dunk over Ian Mahinmi in the third quarter.

“They brought the house down a few times,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. “Our guys could’ve wilted but they didn’t.”

Asked about the fans, Teague, who led the Hawks with 29 points, said, “They were amazing. … We owe them a victory.”

Scott’s dunk ignited a 15-5 run by the Hawks to close the quarter, including a Teague layup after a 360-spin around Roy Hibbert, followed by a Teague jumper just before the horn (punctuated with a primal scream). That gave Atlanta a 67-64 lead. That momentum didn’t last, however.

It was easy to tell it was a potential elimination game for Indiana. Bodies often hit the court after collisions. The Pacers’ Lance Stephenson at times resembled a fourth-line winger in hockey trying to instigate a fight (in one sequence he tripped Antic and gave Millsap a shoulder).