The Pacers got physical. The Hawks lost their cool.
Not a good combination.
The Pacers routed the Hawks 106-83 Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series at Bankers Life Field House. The Pacers lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 with Game 6 Friday night in Atlanta.
With each team has defending its home court in the series the Hawks are on the verge of elimination and must keep that trend in hopes of forcing a Game 7 back in Indiana. The Hawks have won 13 straight against the Pacers at Philips Arena, regular season and playoff games.
Since moving to Atlanta, the Hawks are 3-14 in Game 5s on the road.
The Hawks completely fell apart in the third quarter.
The Pacers went on a 12-3 run following intermission. Smith picked up three quick fouls in the first 4:35 of the third quarter. The first came 26 seconds in. The next two, his fourth and fifth of the game, came 47 seconds apart. He was hit with a technical foul as he headed for the bench with 7:35 remaining after the final foul.
“My fifth foul was a foul,” Smith said. “The other two were questionable to me.”
Just 1:43 later, Teague was hit with a technical foul. Paul George nudged Teague as he was headed to the bench and he responded with a hard shove. After the free throw the Pacers had a 20-point advantage, 68-48.
Teague admitted that George got under his skin and he was caught reacting.
“There were two words I used going into the game that I thought would be the two areas of concern,” coach Larry Drew said. “One was composure. In the fifth game of the playoffs it was going to be a situation where we had to go out and earn this win. We weren’t going to be given it. In order to do that, we had to maintain our composure throughout the game. We did not do that.
“The other word I used was smart. We had to play smart. We didn’t do that either. That was the result. We lost our composure and got into a me, me, me state. We took a lot of ill-advised shots. One thing compounded the other.”
By the end of the third quarter the Pacers led 81-67. Add Ivan Johnson to the list of Hawks to get slapped with technical fouls as he picked up one early in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve been talking about it all year,” Al Horford said. “We have a group of emotional guys. We have guys who want to compete, who want to win. We have to be smart. The good thing for us is we are going home for Game 6. We have to defend our home court and come back here for another shot at this.”
David West finally inserted himself in the series. He finished with a game-high 24 points. George had a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds. Roy Hibbert added 18 points and nine rebounds.
The Pacers’ Big Three came to play.
“This is the first time I feel like we’ve played legitimate defense in this series,” West said. “Trying to keep them in front of us and make them score through us and over us.”
The Pacers held a substantial rebounding advantage, 51-28. They established a proficient pick-and-roll game in the decisive third quarter. Point guard George Hill finished with 15 points after scoring just two in the first half.
Horford and Smith each finished with 14 points for the Hawks. Devin Harris added 13 points. Horford said he missed several easy baskets and took the blame for the Hawks not getting their offense in gear.
“We are very confident at home,” Smith said. “It will be our ability to come together on the road. We cheer each other on at home, standing up. You watch film and you see the reserves cheering. Somebody hits the deck, we are helping each other out. We are diving for loose balls. It’s kind of the opposite up here. It’s a head scratcher to me. I think when we are on the road that’s when we have to pull closer together. We are going to have to take care of our business on Friday. It’s a must win for us. If we force a Game 7 we’ll have to figure out what we need to do be successful in this building.”
The Pacers led 50-43 at halftime, thanks in large part to West. The Pacers power forward had 12 of his 16 first-half points in the second quarter, including five straight baskets during a 15-4 run. The Hawks trailed by as many as nine points in the half.
The Pacers re-established their inside presence. West and Hibbert combined to score 30 of the team’s first-half points. The Pacers also held a 26-13 rebounding advantage through two periods.
“I’m sure they see it,” Drew said of the composure issues. “I hear them talking about it during timeouts. I hear them talking about it after the game. Playoff basketball is about mentally being tough. You have to weather storms. You have to fight through bad stretches.”
