The bad news: Another double-digit deficit.
The good news: The Hawks were able to erase this one.
The Hawks needed good news in the worst way.
After falling behind by 15 points, the Hawks snapped a four-game losing streak with a 103-95 victory over the Jazz Friday night at Philips Arena.
The Hawks (21-14) got contributions from nearly the whole team. They had seven scorers in double-figures, including a season high 24 points from Devin Harris. They had huge contributions from Zaza Pachulia and Ivan Johnson. They had a fourth-quarter speech from Lou Williams.
According to Pachulia, at the start of the final quarter Williams looked at his team and said: ‘Are we going to do it right now? Or are we going to wait until tomorrow?’
The Hawk didn’t wait. They outscored the Jazz 35-19 in the final period to secure a much-needed victory.
“You have to keep playing,” said Harris, who returned to the starting lineup after injury and scored a season-high 24 points. “This team has a lot of fight. We’ve come back from bigger deficits. I think we have to stay focused. Our bench did a great job of giving us energy and the starters came back and finished off the game.”
The Hawks also got double-digit scoring from Josh Smith (15 points), Williams (14), Johnson (13), Al Horford (12) and Pachulia (12).
Dramatics is nothing new for these teams. The Hawks won a 139-133 four overtime thriller on March 25 last season.
The Jazz (19-19) were led by Randy Foye with a game-high 25 points. Al Jefferson added 23 points and Paul Milsap had 20.
The Hawks staged another furious comeback from the biggest deficit late in the third quarter. They tied the game at 85-85 on a Harris 3-pointer with 5.46 remaining. After falling behind again, the Hawks took a 94-92 lead into the final 2:35 after six straight points, the final two by Horford on a lob pass from Smith. The teams traded baskets with the Hawks scoring on Johnson fast break to ignite the home crowd.
Smith then hit a jumper and Williams a 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining after the Hawks blocked Milsap to seal one dramatic win. Harris, who scored 12 fourth-quarter points, added two free throws after the Hawks blocked Milsap one more time.
“The combination of both Lou and Devin playing together I thought was very effective,” coach Larry Drew said. “That’s why I elected to stay with it going down the stretch. We got into a rhythm. We got into a groove with both guys on the floor.”
The Jazz took a 15-point lead, 75-60, late in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Randy Foye. The Hawks answered with an 8-0 run, with three straight steals, to cut their deficit to single digits headed into the final quarter despite only one offensive rebound to that point.
Milsap had 10 points and Jefferson seven in the third quarter for the Jazz.
“We’ve been in this situation,” Pachulia said. “If you look at the previous games, even the games we lost, the bench guys brought the game back. I really had confidence in the bench guys. I had the confidence that we could do the right things and really make a run.”
Pachulia and Johnson combined for 27 second-half points.
“That is what I’ve got to do,” Johnson said. “I’m not getting that many minutes for the past couple of games. When I get in, I’ve got to show out.”
The Jazz took a 47-43 lead into halftime. They led by as many as seven points in the first quarter on the strength of Foye. The guard scored 15 of the 25 first-quarter Jazz points. He had 18 points through two quarters, including four 3-pointers.
Williams, who came off the bench again, had seven first-half points. His three-point play early in the second quarter tied the game and temporarily erased the Jazz lead.
With his first-quarter 3-pointer Kyle Korver ran his streak to a career-best 29 straight games with a long-range basket.
“You have to do something different,” Korver said of the comeback. “It was strictly an energy thing. I thought our bench and Devin just all of a sudden we got a couple stops, we got breaking and we were successful on our breaks a couple times. It led to more breaks. When you see something working you are going to keep on going to it. Then we got some momentum and the crowd got into it and we were excited about playing basketball again.
“It just seems like we’ve been going through the motions the past four games. We’ve been thinking too much and trying to figure things out and not just having fun playing the game and running. If we are not running, we are an OK team but we are at our best when we are getting out on the break. We finally got some stops and were able to break on them.”
The Hawks play again Saturday in Washington against the Wizards, who are expecting the return of John Wall.
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