[外電] Hawks let another late lead slip away
Hawks let another late lead slip away
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/22/06
The scenario is one the Hawks are terribly familiar with at this late
stage of the season.
Minutes left in a tight game and you either make the plays to win it
or watch the other team make them and leave the floor a winner.
That's the way things played out Wednesday night at Philips
Arena between the Hawks and Seattle.
With the game tied at 101-101 and four minutes to play, the
SuperSonics made plays that the Hawks could not and left the
building with a 114-109 win.
The Sonics, losers of eight of nine games before Wednesday
night's win, got the put backs, loose balls and clutch shots
and rebounds every time they needed them down the stretch.
The Hawks, meanwhile, were there usual self-destructive selves.
They couldn't contain Ray Allen (33 points) or Rashard Lewis
(25) all night.
So what did they do with the game on the line? They allowed
Chris Wilcox and Luke Ridnour to beat them, the former with a
season-high tying 16 points off the bench and the latter with
a clutch 18-footer with 18.9 seconds to play and the Sonics
clinging to a 110-109 lead.
"That's exactly what happened," said Hawks forward Josh Smith,
whose first 3-pointer of the season with the 40.3 seconds to
play gave the Hawks hope that they could salvage a game they
appeared to have control of briefly in the second half. "We
spent so much time paying attention to Ray and Rashard that
we didn't focus on these other guys the way we should have
and they drilled us when it mattered."
After Ridnour's jumper gave the Sonics a 112-109 lead, the
Hawks had one last chance to try and at least send the game
to overtime.
But Joe Johnson's 27-footer bounced off the rim. An errant
outlet pass led to a jump ball between Marvin Williams and
Lewis that Allen snatched over Salim Stoudamire before being
fouled.
Allen drained the two free throws for the final score and
the Hawks, 15-36, were left ponder a two-game losing streak
during which they'd actually played well enough to win.
Well, had they played defense long enough to complete their
impressive offensive showing.
"We were terrible on defense tonight," said Hawks forward Al
Harrington, who caught an elbow to the jaw from Allen that
paved the way for Allen's pass to a wide-open Ridnour for
that game-clinching jumper. "We didn't get any stops, myself
included. We allowed too many layups and dunks.
"When you play like that it's hard to win a basketball game.
Going into Indiana [Friday night] we definitely can't allow that."
Hawks coach Mike Woodson, beyond disgusted during his brief
post game session with the media, pointed out the same things
his players did.
It wasn't hard to figure out what wrong.
Not when the Hawks get 24 points from Harrington, 18 from Joe
Johnson, 14 from Josh Smith and a combined 37 from Williams
and Josh Childress off the bench and still lose.
"I thought defensively we had no presence at all," Woodson
said. They played last night and we did, too. We came in
thinking we were just going to outshoot them. They're a pretty
good offensive team, which makes it difficult."
原文轉載
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0223hawks.html
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