CHARLOTTE — After two potentially demoralizing losses, there was only thing the Hawks could do immediately to make it better.
Beat the Bobcats.
“We need to have some kind of sense of being mad and wanting to take it out on somebody else,” Hawks forward Josh Smith said. “This will be the game to do it.”
They needed yet another overtime period, but the Hawks did it. They pulled away in overtime to beat Charlotte 102-96 on Friday night.
The Hawks had lost to Miami in triple overtime Thursday night at Philips Arena. That was two days after they blew a 19-point lead and lost at Chicago.
So when Charlotte’s Boris Diaw missed a 3-point try, and Joe Johnson dribbled out the clock, the Hawks were happy to get out of Charlotte with a victory and head home to face Chicago on Saturday.
“It was a huge relief,” coach Larry Drew said. “I thought the guys did a really good job. I told them this game was going to be a gut check. We had triple overtime last night, got in at 3 a.m. I thought the guys gutted it out.”
Smith, as promised, provided a jolt for the weary Hawks in their eighth game in 11 days.
He scored a season-high 23 points and added 14 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. Smith scored 13 points in the third quarter to stake the Hawks to a 70-61 lead and recorded two key assists in overtime.
“Guys are physically tired, but at the same time we can’t let the mental go away,” Smith said. “We came closer as a team. I think the cohesiveness allowed us to come together as a team and will ourselves to the win.”
The Hawks led 72-61 early in the fourth quarter, 87-79 with three minutes left in regulation and 90-85 with a minute to go. But, in a repeating theme for the Hawks, a missed free throw opened the door for their opponent.
Marvin Williams made one free throw for a 91-89 lead but missed the second. Diaw was credited with a basket on a goaltending call on Al Horford, and Horford missed a potential game-winning jump shot near the end of regulation.
The Hawks scored the first seven points of overtime when Jeff Teague made a 3-pointer, Smith made a free throw and Johnson sank a 3-pointer. Smith found Williams cutting to the basket for a score that pushed the Hawks’ lead to 100-94 and then tapped a pass out to Johnson for a jump shot with 19.4 seconds left in overtime.
The Hawks will play their third consecutive game and ninth in 12 on Saturday night against Chicago. Williams said they will muster the energy.
“We’ll find it,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, we are all professionals. Now talk to us on Sunday, and there’s no telling what the answer will be.”
