ORLANDO — The Hawks flipped the switch.
Suddenly guard Joe Johnson looked like a five-time All-Star again. Jamal Crawford found the form that made him last season’s Sixth Man of the Year. Kirk Hinrich showed why the Hawks traded for him in February.
And when the Orlando Magic attempted to rally from 18 points down in the fourth quarter, the Hawks responded with the kind of toughness and resolve they had shown only occasionally in the regular season.
The Hawks stunned the Magic 103-93 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs on Saturday night. They nullified Orlando’s home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series that continues here Tuesday.
It was a surprising result given the history and circumstances.
The Magic swept the Hawks by an NBA-record margin of 101 points in the second round of the playoffs last season, a result that cost coach Mike Woodson his job. The Hawks promoted his assistant, Larry Drew, to succeed him, and the Hawks sputtered through an inconsistent regular season that included four defeats by 30 points or more.
Then the Hawks lost their final six games of the regular season. Their starters coasted through the final four games, after the team had locked up the No. 5 playoffs seed.
"People were a little frustrated with us because of those last six games but, for us, we didn't even think about it," Crawford said. "Last year's series was last year's series; we didn't think about that, either. We feel confident going into the playoffs. We got one down, one more to go here."
The Hawks survived a grinding, low-scoring first quarter, scored 38 points in the second period to offset Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard’s big half and then took control after halftime.
The Hawks said they gained confidence from beating Orlando in the final three of their four regular-season meetings. But the Magic had their healthy regulars for just the final meeting, an 85-82 Hawks victory at Philips Arena.
Those games seem to matter less than Orlando’s domination in last season’s postseason but the Hawks backed up their confident talk.
"We are here to win," Hawks center Jason Collins said. "We are not here to get a free T-shirt and head home or anything like that. We accomplished the fist step. We got the win tonight, and Part 2 is on Tuesday night."
The Hawks averaged only 83 points in the four regular-season games against the Magic, but erupted for 76 points over the final three quarters of Game 1.
Johnson led the way with 25 points. He struggled in last season’s playoff series against Orlando but said more than once this season that he looked forward to the Hawks proving their critics wrong in the playoffs this time.
He played a big role in getting that started by overpowering each defender the Magic sent at him.
"I wanted to attack early and just try to make the game easier," Johnson said. "I was getting in there and making plays for myself and my teammates and it worked out. We had guys that shot really well tonight."
The Hawks’ hot shooting staked them to an 91-73 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Magic pulled within 98-90 on Howard’s basket with two minutes to play, but Crawford made a 3-pointer to hold them off.
Howard scored 46 points while making 16 of 23 shots and 14 of 22 free throws, and Magic guard Jameer Nelson scored 20 points in the third. But the Hawks controlled the rest of the Magic players and got balanced scoring: 23 points from Crawford, 16 from Al Horford, 13 from Hinrich and 15 from Josh Smith.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said he would have to do a better job figuring out how to slow the Hawks and also get Howard's teammates more involved in the offense.
"I am sure like us they are going to see what they can do better but it doesn't matter for us," Hawks center Zaza Pachulia said. "We know individually what we can do. If we play together for 48 minutes I think we should be in good shape. We are going to have a chance to win the series if we play just like today. Together, help each other defensively, share the ball. It was beautiful to watch our team."
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