The Hawks' playoffs fate was all but settled before playing the Spurs on Tuesday night, but coach Larry Drew didn't want his players to get complacent.
In an effort to reinforce that message, Drew gave them printouts of a story about San Antonio's desire to finish strong despite owning the league's best record. The Spurs then went out and showed the Hawks how it's done with a 97-90 victory at Philips Arena.
The Hawks could have clinched the No. 5 playoffs seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory. Instead, they had to wait until Philadelphia lost at Boston later Tuesday to lock them into the No. 5 seed.
The Hawks will face Orlando in the first round of the playoffs, with the Magic holding home-court advantage. The Hawks won two of three games against Orlando during the regular season, including an 85-82 victory Wednesday at Philips Arena.
"Right now we are just trying to fine tune, find some kind of rhythm and have some kind of confidence going into the series," Hawks guard Joe Johnson said moments after Philadelphia's loss. "We want to finish these last four games off with some kind of rhythm and continuity because that first round is going to be tough."
San Antonio had lost six consecutive games as the Lakers threatened to overtake them for the top seed in the Western Conference. They regained some momentum by beating the Suns at home Sunday and then ending their road losing streak at four games with the victory Tuesday night.
The Hawks couldn't get a handle on Spurs guards Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and George Hill. They three consistently drove the lane and faced little resistance at the basket once they got there.
Hawks forward Josh Smith, the team's best shot blocker and "help" defender, sat out the game with a sore right knee.
"Josh has a way of erasing some of our defensive mistakes on the back side," Drew said. "We definitely missed that. When Josh is high energy and flying around it makes us a different ballclub."
Parker scored a game-high 26 points. Ginobili had 18 and Hill added 13 off the bench. Johnson scored 21 points, and Jamal Crawford had 20 for the Hawks, who couldn't get key stops or rebounds late in the game.
The Spurs trailed by as many as 11 points in the second quarter, but tied the score at 52-52 early in the third quarter and were ahead 66-65 entering the fourth.
The Hawks were within 81-79 after back-to-back baskets by Johnson. But Parker scored six points and assisted on another basket during a 11-3 run that pushed San Antonio's lead to 92-82.
Two free throws by Johnson and a fast-break score by Kirk Hinrich cut the lead to 92-86 with 2:15 left. After Hinrich made two free throws to get the Hawks within 93-88, center Al Horford stole the ball, but Johnson missed a shot in the lane.
The Spurs rebounded, and Parker went on to make two free throws for a 95-88 lead with 30.1 seconds to go.
"We went out there and played hard tonight," Horford said. "Their guards make it tough, and their ‘bigs' know their role; they know how to play. We were right there; we just couldn't make that [finishing] stretch."
The Spurs found their rhythm once they spread the floor and let Parker go to work in the third quarter.
Parker scored 10 of San Antonio's 23 points in the period. The Hawks were 9-of-18 from the field in the quarter, but managed only 19 points while committing four turnovers and shooting no free throws.
In the first quarter Crawford scored seven consecutive points to put the Hawks up 21-14.
The Hawks extended the lead to 37-26 with a 9-2 spurt in the second quarter, but the Spurs closed to within 46-43 at halftime.
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