Call it the Hawks two-step.
It goes a little something like this. Take one step forward then one step back.
The Hawks lost to the team with the worst record in the Western Conference Friday night at Philips Arena by dropping a 111-100 decision to the Hornets. The loss came one game after the Hawks down the Grizzlies, one of the best the West has to offer, at home.
“I think we are all trying to figure this out,” center Al Horford said. “This is a disappointing loss for us. We had a good win against Memphis and to come in here and be flat like we were tonight, there is no excuse. We need to regroup again.”
The Hawks fell behind by 14 points in the fourth quarter, this after leading by as many as 14 themselves in the first half. The Hawks cut the deficit to four points with 3:37 remaining but could get no closer.
The Hawks (27-22) lost for the fourth time in the past six games.
Josh Smith led the Hawks with 23 points. Jeff Teague added 21 points. Kyle Korver (17) and Horford (12) were the other double-digit scorers.
Korver set the Hawks franchise record with 43 straight games with a 3-pointer. He eclipsed the mark set by Mookie Blaylock. It's the longest current streak in the NBA. Korver also moved past Vernon Maxwell into 32nd place on the league's all-time 3-point list.
The Hornets (17-33) have won two straight after a four-game losing streak. The win marked only the fourth time this season the Hornets have won two straight games.
Greivis Vasquez led the Hornets with his first career triple-double of 21 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. Eric Gordon had a game-high 27 points.
“It was one of those games where the team shot extremely well,” Smith said. “… Everybody played well for them and contributed to their win. We should have probably been more stingy on the defensive end and make their catches a little more difficult.”
The teams split the season-series after the Hawks won in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.
The Hornets went on a 20-4 third-quarter run and took a 79-71 lead into the final period. The Hawks shot just 31 percent (5 of 16) in the quarter. The Hornets outscored the Hawks 29-16 in the decisive quarter. The Hornets shot 52.3 percent for the game.
“Our demise has been the third quarter,” coach Larry Drew said. “We have really come out flat in third quarters. I’ve got to get a pulse on what is going on with that. We can’t continue to come out and be that low energized in the third quarter. It’s one thing to miss shots. But to come out and from a body language and an energy standpoint, it not being there we can’t continue to allow that to happen.”
Ryan Anderson hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter and the Hornets’ lead went to double-digits at 11 points. The lead would grow to as many as 14 points.
To make matters worse, the Hawks led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter and took a 55-50 lead into the intermission. A 19-6 run to start the second quarter gave the Hawks the big advantage. However, the Hornets outscored the Hawks 19-10 from that point to end the half.
Teague had 13 first-half points and Smith added 12 as the Hawks had assists on their first 12 baskets.
“This is where I want this team to develop and sustain,” Drew said. “We have to develop that killer instinct. I’ve said that all year long, particularly when we get in those situations where we build leads, where we do create a little bit of separation, we have to develop a killer instinct. If we want to be a team that wants to be mentioned in the same breath as some of the better teams, we have to know how to put teams away. We have to learn how to build (on) leads, not necessarily how to protect but how to build (on) them. Right now we are not very good at that.”
The Hawks have two road games remaining before the All-Star breaks, the Mavericks Monday and the Magic Wednesday.
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