If the Hawks still want to make the playoffs they have to handle struggling opponents such as Charlotte, especially at home.
And without center Al Horford, Josh Smith and Joe Johnson are going to have to have a lot of nights like this.
Facing Charlotte hours after they learned Horford could be out for the season, the Hawks leaned heavily on Johnson and Smith while blowing out the Bobcats 111-81 on Thursday night at Philips Arena.
Smith scored a season-high 30 points, Johnson scored 23 points and the Hawks got solid contributions from role players while sending Charlotte to its fifth consecutive defeat. It was the largest victory margin of the season for the Hawks (8-4), who won 102-96 in overtime at Charlotte on Friday.
To fill the void left by Horford, who ranks among the team leaders in several statistical categories, the Hawks need more production from everyone. But the onus particularly falls on five-time All-Star Johnson and on Smith, a talented and versatile forward who is the team’s best interior defender.
“All of the guys are going to have to raise their games a little bit,” Horford said. “It starts with Joe and Josh.”
Those two got the Hawks off to a good start against Charlotte (2-9). Johnson and Smith combined to score 19 of the team’s 25 points in the first quarter and had a total of 31 points as the Hawks ran to a 57-47 halftime lead.
Smith finished with 13 rebounds, and the Hawks out-rebounded the Bobcats 55-30. Johnson had a team-high eight of the Hawks’ 29 assists on 42 field goals.
The rest of the Hawks followed the lead of the team’s two best players. Teague had 16 points and seven assists, and rookie forward Ivan Johnson had 12 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.
Most of Horford’s teammates learned of his prognosis when they arrived at the arena Thursday evening. The mood in the locker room before the game was somber, but the Hawks were energetic once the game started.
“That was a gutsy performance by the entire team,” coach Larry Drew said. “Today has been somewhat of a somber day. When everybody got the news, even at our walk-through before the game, you could see it in guys’ body language that they were down about the news. I told them this is the time to come together. The season is not over.”
The Hawks played that way. After Charlotte trimmed the Hawks’ lead to 59-51 early in the third quarter, the Hawks responded with an 11-2 run for a 70-53 advantage, and the Bobcats never got closer than 11 points from there.
The Hawks are deep in scorers to make up for Horford’s absence, but rebounding and defense tend to suffer significantly when Horford and Smith are off the floor.
Now Smith needs the kind of help he got against the Bobcats. Zaza Pachulia, starting in place of Horford, had 10 rebounds, Vladimir Radmanovic had eight rebounds and Joe Johnson had seven. Even Teague, a 6-foot-2 point guard, chipped in with six rebounds.
Smith said the Hawks need that kind of “gang rebounding” approach to have a chance on the boards.
“Me and [Horford] were like the ‘Bash Brothers’ down there in the paint, being physical with other ‘bigs’ even though we are undersized every night,” Smith said. “We don’t make any excuses. We need everybody else not to need any excuses.”
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