The team that was built to be torn down can now be torn down, and if you saw the second quarter – or the third, for that matter – of Friday’s game, you’re doubtless saying, “And not a moment too soon.” This teetered on the lip of being the worst home playoff performance in Atlanta Hawks’ annals, which would really be saying something. It wound up being just another galling end to another teasing playoff series.

From 19 points down, the Hawks had drawn within three on Al Horford’s dunk off a deft Josh Smith feed inside the final two minutes, and right there even the biggest Hawks doubter – there are many – had to think they might just save Game 6 and force the stunned Indiana Pacers to a Game 7. But David West scored underneath, and the mighty wave broke.

George Hill stole the ball from Jeff Teague. Kyle Korver missed a 3-pointer. Inside the final minute, still a five-point game. But here came the moment those doubters have come to underscore, the moment that makes you wonder just what in the world the Hawks are doing.

Playing perhaps his final game as a Hawk, Smith rose for a 3-pointer and … had it blocked by West. Why not run more high-low action to Horford? Why, with more than 40 seconds remaining, not take the two? Why take THAT shot and lose this possible farewell game in THAT familiar Josh Smith way? (Remember Game 6 in Boston last spring?)

It would be wrong to cast the entirety of this 81-73 loss in Smith’s lap. Teague was awful yet again; his star, which rose with his showing against Derrick Rose in Round 2 of 2011, dipped this postseason. Fellow guard Devin Harris helped fuel the rally, but only after three inefficient quarters. And every single Hawk bore equal culpability for a second quarter epic in its awfulness

The Hawks scored one basket in that quarter, none over the period’s final 10:34. They made one of 15 shots. (Korver hit from the baseline, if you’re scoring at home.) They managed nine points in the quarter – thank goodness for free throws – converting on five of 23 possessions. The Pacers were better but not much better: They made seven baskets in 12 minutes and scored on eight of 24 possessions.

If the Hawks could ignore the hoots being directed toward them by the slow-to-arrive gathering, they had to realize they were, in the grand scheme, in decent shape. Score one hoop in an NBA playoff quarter and you should be down by 25. The Hawks trailed only by eight. Halftime score (unsuitable for framing): Pacers 37, Hawks 29.

(Let the record show that the proud Boston Celtics scored only 27 first-half points in their concurrent Game 6 on Friday. Misery might not love company, but at such a time it never hurts.)

Smith had been particularly bad. He’d missed 7 of 8 first-half shots and made four turnovers, and the Philips Arena patrons moved beyond the customary groaning when Smith squared for a jump shot to outright booing after he threw away a crosscourt pass, whipped another pass out of bounds and fumbled away a layup.

This was horrid all ends up, but it wasn’t technically the end. Another half remained, and it would have been impossible for any NBA team to shoot worse than 6.7 percent in another quarter this millennium.

Or would it? The Hawks’ first basket of the second half came on a goaltending call. They didn’t succeed in actually making a shot until Al Horford’s 17-footer with 6:52 left in the third quarter, which means – pause for effect – an NBA playoff qualifier had gone 15 minutes, 41 seconds without sending a field-goal attempt through the hoop.

This was a drought in the way Stone Mountain is a pebble. By that time, the Pacers had stretched their lead to 19 points. Remember when I said it couldn’t get worse? OK, so it had. And then, beggaring belief, it got better.

The Hawks drew within 15 by the end of the quarter, which didn’t seem like a big deal at the moment. It seemed even smaller when they opened the fourth period with, of all things, a 24-second violation. Then, boats against the current, they got going. They nearly overrode the worst-looking display of playoff basketball ever seen in Philips. They gave themselves a chance to win it.

“This is the last time this group will probably be together,” coach Larry Drew said, referring to all the expiring contracts, his among them. Then this: “Sitting in there (after the game), I told them how proud I was.”

Said Smith, who would finish with 14 points on 16 shots: “I think everybody should be re-signed. Or re-hired.”

The end of this series shouldn’t be viewed as too harsh a condemnation of these Hawks. Given the here-today-gone-this-summer nature of its roster and the injuries to Louis Williams and Zaza Pachulia, this team did better than it had any right to do. It would have been nice to watch the Hawks play a Game 7, just to see what might happen.

Instead we had to settle for Game 6, in which what invariably happens to the Atlanta Hawks happened again. They get so far — and often look pretty darn good for a while — and then they miss shots and go home. Time now to see if some new and better Atlanta Hawks can be found.

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