Hawks survive, but they didn’t make it easy

They learned before tipoff that the opposing team would be missing its best player. It didn’t matter.

They had double-digit leads for the seventh time in eight playoff games. It didn’t matter.

If the Hawks have proved anything in these playoffs, it’s that their road to success will come with the greatest resistance, sometimes self-inflicted.

“I don’t think it goes easy for most people in the playoffs,” Kyle Korver said. “Maybe Golden State, right now. The rest of us are kind of slugging it out.”

The Hawks are staggered, but they’re even. They had seemingly the closest 16-point win in NBA playoff history Tuesday night, winning 106-90 over a Washington Wizards team that didn’t realize it was supposed to pose a threat playing without injured point guard John Wall.

The Hawks didn’t often do a lot of things they wanted to in Game 2 — drive to the basket frequently with greater authority, play more physical, have better on-ball defense. But they won. Buckle up. We’re going to be here a while.

When the game was over, Korver was still wiping his nose with a towel after taking an accidental head-butt in the fourth quarter from Bradley Beal.

“That’s OK. It’s the playoffs, it’s fun,” Korver said. “You’re supposed to be a little sore.”

This was the Hawks’ third playoff game in five days. They don’t play again until Saturday in Washington. That might provide Wall’s sprained left wrist, which was still swollen Tuesday, two days after the injury, without enough time to heal. But the Hawks will take the trade off.

“We need the rest,” said Kent Bazemore, who scored 10 points off the bench, including a 3-pointer in the third quarter after the Wizards had rallied from a 10-point deficit to even the score at 73-73. “Guys will be coming in for treatment, hot tub.”

With Wall out, this game should’ve been a setup. It wasn’t. It had a number of similarities to Game 1, other than the fact the Hawks played strong on defense in the fourth quarter and made some key shots … and won. They had double-digit leads and couldn’t hold them. They’ve now had double-digit leads in seven of their eight playoff games (save Game 3 in Brooklyn).

But nothing has come easily. Too often, the Hawks seemed to have their fingertips dug into the side of the mountain.

“Dangerous, man,” Bazemore said when asked what went through his mind when he heard Wall was out. It’s typical that players like to let their guard down. But they’ve got Paul Pierce over there, Bradley Beal, Ramon Sessions. They still have a very dangerous team.”

They led by 10 early at 25-15 and at three other times in the first half. But Pierce, who seldom acts his age (37) in the playoffs, dropped in three 3-pointers and helped pull the Wizards to within seven at halftime, 53-46.

Pierce dropped more than jumpers. He dropped Jeff Teague. The Hawks’ point guard was starting a fast break in the backcourt when Pierce stepped in front of him and knocked him to the court with his left shoulder. Chants of, “Pierce you (expletive)” filled Philips Arena, as the object of derision was taken out of the game. I’m guessing it didn’t hurt his feelings.

Pierce’s takeout of Teague mirrored Game 1 to some degree, when the Wizards were the more physical team. The Hawks intended for this game to be different, but it didn’t often look that way. Paul Millsap had said the Hawks couldn’t be satisfied just matching Washington’s physicality: “We have to be the first one to be physical,” he said after the morning shoot-around. “If we don’t get calls, just keep moving on — don’t complain about calls or let their physicality affect what we do. Continue driving to the basket, get fouled. All of that is what being aggressive and being physical is all about, not just going out there and literally punching somebody or bumping somebody.”

Pierce wasn’t concerned. “We’re the more physical team,” he had said, and he’s right.