Wednesday night presented an opportunity to gather momentum and proceed into a Friday night showdown with the Miami Heat on a roll.
The Hawks turned down it down. Poor offensive play and a defensive surrender in the fourth quarter were enough to secure a 102-87 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Philips Arena.
Said center Al Horford, "Something needs to be done."
The game pitted two teams seemingly headed in opposite directions. The Nuggets are 9-2 since trading Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the New York Knicks. Before the game, Denver (41-27) was averaging 109.3 points per game and giving up 96.1 since the trade.
Following their trade for Kirk Hinrich, in a month in which they hoped to trend upward on the court and at the box office, the Hawks (39-29) are 3-5 in March. The announced crowd was 14,669. (Capacity is 18,729).
They failed to score 100 or more points in 16 of their past 18 games -- 11 times they've scored 90 or less -- and are 7-11 in those games.
The loss came just one night after the Hawks played one of their better offensive games of the season, piling on Milwaukee in a 110-85 win in which they shot a season-best 63 percent. On Wednesday, they shot 41.5 percent from the field, a percentage suppressed by a litany of errant perimeter shots.
"We've just got to share the ball," said Horford, who tied his season-low with five shots. "I think at times we do it, at times we don't."
Trying for their third win in a row, the Hawks played in spurts. Often, the ball moved slowly or simply stopped. Other times, the Hawks were just cold. Forward Josh Smith missed seven of his first eight shots -- the rest of the team had taken five shots total in that time -- before coach Larry Drew pulled him midway through the first quarter.
Guard Joe Johnson, 24 hours after torching the Bucks for six 3-pointers and 36 points, made four of 13 shots and scored 12 points, although still wearing a headband. He missed one 3-pointer from the wing that glanced off the backboard.
Several Hawks possessions ended with players rushing shots to avoid 24-second violations.
Where the Hawks made perimeter shots early against Milwaukee, "tonight we didn't, and then we panicked," Drew said. "We continued just to shoot from the perimeter, which played right into their hands. They got out and ran on us."
Showing more spark at the start of the fourth quarter, the Hawks scored the first six points of the quarter. When forward Damien Wilkins kept a possession alive by tipping a rebound to Zaza Pachulia, who laid it in, the Hawks trailed 72-69, the closest they had been since the end of the first half.
Denver answered with swiftness and severity. The Nuggets went on a binge in which they scored 11 times in 12 possessions, burying the Hawks with a series of 3-pointers and uncontested shots at the rim.
When facing adversity, Smith said, "sometimes we fight back, sometimes we lay down. I think it's too late in the year to be inconsistent. We've got to know what we're going to get from each other. We've got to play hard every night."
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