[外電] Wire-to-wire win for Bulls
Wire-to-wire win for Bulls
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/12/06
The math just didn't add up for the Hawks Saturday night.
They had four days off before facing the Bulls at Philips Arena,
while the Chicago Bulls came to town on the second half of a home
and away back-to-back.
And somehow, the Bulls looked like the team with all the energy
in a gritty 95-90 win over the previously soaring Hawks, who
fell to 20-40.
"That team played harder than we did, and that's disappointing
because they played last night and we've been sitting for two or
three days," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said after watching his
team get down by 14 and rally to within three in the final
minute. "They got loose balls and key rebounds. . . . They beat
teams because they play hard. And we were right there, still at
the end we had our opportunities.
"But it's what happens early in a game. We kept getting behind
and fighting back, and that takes a lot out of you."
There are nights like these, of course, when logic and momentum
and every other intangible factor weigh in one team's favor and
the outcome leaves everyone scratching their head.
The Hawks have been on the positive side of plenty of games like
that in the past two months.
But the Bulls (28-35) are still trying to will their way to a
playoff berth. And it showed in their demeanor from opening tip
to final buzzer.
"We had good life from start to finish," Bulls coach Scott Skiles
said.
It helped that Skiles' team is the Hawks' equal in every category
and exceeded them Saturday night in the ones that mattered most.
They were much nastier, more defensive-minded and finished the
game like a more seasoned team should — draining all but one of
their free throws in the final 90 seconds.
"Mentally we weren't in tune to what we're supposed to do tonight,
" Hawks co-captain Joe Johnson said. "We thought they would roll
over tonight because they played last night, and that just wasn't
the case. They are a hard-working team, and they wanted this one
more than we did."
The fact that the Hawks were within 91-88 with 30.7 seconds to
play is a testament to their improved mettle this season.
After doing themselves in all night with missed free throws
(20-for-33) and toothless defense around the basket, they bowed
up for one final run with four minutes to play.
But they didn't have enough energy to finish the comeback. Josh
Smith missed a reverse dunk on a lob from Al Harrington and the
air seemed to come out of the Hawks' rally.
"I wish he could have just laid it in," Woodson said. "We missed
and still got the ball back. But we turned it over right after
that, and that was pretty much the game after that."
The damage started much earlier than that, though. The Bulls,
coming off of a disappointing effort in a 107-96 home loss to the
Los Angeles Clippers Friday night, wasted little time in taking
control of the action.
Their lead was 10 six minutes into the game. And the advantage
was theirs every time the Hawks rallied from that point on.
"We had way too many days off," said Harrington, who finished
with a game-high 32 points and 10 rebounds. "We lost our rhythm
a little bit, our feel we've been having. We weren't far off. We
had spurts where we played hard. But before that, the previous
five games we'd been playing exactly the same way for 48 minutes,
and we didn't have that tonight.
"Hopefully we just had to get this one out [of our system] and
we'll bounce back Monday night [at Milwaukee]."
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0312hawks.html
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