[外電] Hawks equal 05-06 win total
Hawks equal 05-06 win total
Johnson's triple-double leads way
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/01/06
The champagne is still on ice, waiting for the Hawks return to
the playoffs. But it's safe to say the Hawks are months ahead
of last season.
They didn't secure win No. 13 last season until April 17th, the
third to last game of the season.
Led by co-captain Joe Johnson's first career triple-double, the
Hawks 102-92 win over Charlotte Wednesday night secured No. 13
three months earlier, allowing them to clear the final hurdle
remaining from last season's nasty 13-69 season.
"It feels good," said Hawks co-captain Al Harrington, who
finished with 19 points and six rebounds. "We're a totally
different team from last year, and not just Joe. We're just
a totally different team. We're a year older and have spent
a year together. I still don't think our record does justice
to the way we've played this year.
"But it's nice to get 13 out of the way and move on."
The lowly Bobcats, losers of a staggering 13 straight games,
didn't exactly make it easy for the Hawks, who have now won
back-to-back games for the first time in over a month.
And the Hawks didn't help themselves as much as they could have,
building and blowing comfortable leads in each of the first three
quarters and almost doing it again in the fourth.
Even Johnson's triple double — 15 points, 11 assists and 10
rebounds — was a bit understated. It was the Hawks' first since
Bob Sura posted the same numbers against Boston on April 10, 2004.
The Hawks led by just five points at halftime, when Johnson had
seven assists, six points and just two rebounds. He settled in
during the third quarter, found his rhythm and the Hawks followed
his lead, they led by as many as 17 after the break.
"This won't be the last time he does this," Hawks coach Mike
Woodson said. "He's got more of these types of games in him.
And he's flirted with triple-doubles several times this year.
But it's nice to see him do it in a game that we really had
to have because of the way we played [in a runaway win over
New York Monday].
"But I thought our defense in the second half was really solid.
I thought was what really did it for us. Josh Smith had five
blocks and 10 rebounds and Zaza [Pachulia] worked hard inside,
too. And that was the difference."
The Hawks played without rookie forward Marvin Williams, who
sat out the game with a sore left Achilles. But the Bobcats
were missing much more. Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace and Sean
May all sat out with injuries.
Still, the Hawks weren't able to blow the game open when they
did surge ahead.
Bobcats guards Brevin Knight (19 points, 10 assists) and Raymond
Felton (20 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds) kept their team in
the game. Knight did it by repeatedly breaking down the Hawks'
defense with deep dribble penetration and timely kick outs for
open shots and the rookie Felton by taking his man off the
dribble or knocking down contested jumpers.
But for every run the Bobcats made the Hawks found a way to
feed the ball inside, where they had a decided advantage for
once without the shot blocking presence of Okafor to worry
about, or find the open man.
"A triple-double is nice but the win is even better," Johnson
said. "I wasn't here last year, so getting to 13 wins for me
is really a blip on the screen. I'm thinking about bigger and
better things than that. And we've got plenty of time to work
on that."
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0202hawks.html
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