[外電] Not even close in Chicago
Not even close in Chicago
15-point first quarter seals fate
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/29/06
Chicago — At least they know it's not the building.
A night after wrapping up a season-long homestand with a fifth
loss in seven tries, the Hawks proved neither the Philips Arena
walls nor state lines could contain their futility.
Their Windy City meltdown needed a little over 10 minutes to
reach full velocity as they fell behind 29-11 to the Chicago
Bulls with two minutes left in the first quarter at the United
Center on Saturday night.
When it was over, they were on the wrong side of a 111-99 ledger
and sent home losers of three straight.
But trying to make sense of how they could begin a game so
lethargically less than 24 hours after they'd taken Phoenix
to the wire is the least of the Hawks' issues this morning.
They're now 11-31 and, barring some unforeseen surge of positive
energy, on pace for a second straight 60-loss season, with their
most favorable home stretch of the season already wasted.
"I think we were embarrassed in the first half," Hawks coach Mike
Woodson said of Saturday's latest loss. "They outplayed us in
every way. They beat us in all the ways that you could."
It's not the start to the second half of the season anyone in
the Hawks' camp had in mind when they finished December on a
5-5 tear that seemed, even if just for a few days, to turn
their season around.
But instead of building on that momentum — they scored quality
wins over San Antonio, Cleveland and Indiana in December — the
Hawks have continuously found ways to sabotage their own progress.
They snapped a four-game losing streak with back-to-back wins
at Boston on Jan. 6 and over New Orleans/Oklahoma City on Jan. 7,
then promptly went on to lose their next four.
And it didn't stop there. In nine of their last 10 losses,
including Saturday's, the Hawks have surrendered 100 or more
points.
"Our season has been like that," Woodson said. "There is a fine
line between winning and losing. We've had about 12 games like
[Friday] night where we had a chance to win down the stretch.
If we win them, we're OK. We just haven't done that or had that
chance to taste the winning part."
It's a maddening existence for a team still unsure of itself
this late in the season. But the uncertainty has been largely
self-inflicted.
Whenever the Hawks have had an opportunity to take the next
logical step, they come up with an effort like the one they
gave against the Bulls, when every player on Chicago's roster
was able to have his way with the Hawks' defense.
Atlanta never got that 18-point Bulls lead closer than five
the rest of the way. The Bulls led by as many as 24 in the
third quarter.
It's not like the Hawks haven't given a valiant effort this
season, with just a handful of losses that were one-sided from
start to finish.
There they were at the end again Saturday night, down just
97-92 with 5:22 to play after a layup by Joe Johnson, who
finished with a career-high 40 points on 16-for-25 shooting.
But as usual, it wasn't quite enough to dig the Hawks out of
the huge hole they'd dug earlier.
"Our consistency this season has been terrible," Johnson said.
"We come out and play well against the good teams but then play
terrible against the bad teams. We need to find a way to get
ourselves up and be aggressive against every team."
文章轉載
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0129hawks.html
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