[外電] Road slump snapped at 11
Road slump snapped at 11
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/16/06
Milwaukee — The postseason suspense ended before halftime
Saturday night.
Philadelphia's loss to Orlando secured the playoff berth the
Milwaukee Bucks thought they were playing for when they
welcomed the Hawks to the Bradley Center.
But nobody told Tyronn Lue, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams,
Zaza Pachulia, Donta Smith, Anthony Grundy and the rest of
the hard-luck Hawks they didn't need to be on spoiler alert.
Behind Josh Smith's career-high 28-point night, they rallied
from an early eight-point deficit to earn a gritty 120-114 win
over the Bucks that snapped their four-game losing streak and
their 11-game road losing streak in one stroke.
It also moved the Hawks (25-55) one win closer to doubling last
season's total, a goal they set days after last season's 13-69
finish.
"We've played well against teams that have been in playoff
position this year," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "To
bounce back from [Friday night's home loss to Charlotte] was
a great team effort across the board. We made plays down the
stretch defensively and we were red hot from the field tonight.
"And when you do that, you'll always have a fighting chance to go
in anybody's building and get a win."
When you have Lue draining shots from all over the floor during
crunch time and Williams, the Smiths, Grundy and Pachulia all
making clutch plays when needed, it's hard not to have at least
a fighting chance to win.
But the Hawks did more than that. They were able to overcome
their own limitations — they played without co-captain Al
Harrington (injured) and Josh Childress (suspension) — and
battle the bigger Bucks (39-41) every step of the way.
Leading scorer Joe Johnson had just 15 points, two in the crucial
fourth quarter. But his teammates picked up the slack.
"I always predicate how I'm going to play offensively off of
Joe," said Lue, who sank big shot after big shot down the stretch
and scored eight of his 14 points in the final 12 minutes. "He
leaned over at halftime and told me that he needed me to pick
up the scoring, so I had to do what I could."
To go with his 28 points, Josh Smith had seven rebounds, seven
assists and three blocks. Donta Smith had a career-high 14 points
off the bench. Williams enjoyed one of his best games as a Hawk
(19 points, 10 rebounds). Grundy scored seven crucial points off
the bench. And Pachulia finished with a double double (16 points,
11 rebounds) against the team that didn't match the Hawks'
free-agent offer sheet to him last summer.
"No matter who we had out there, we couldn't stop them," said
Bucks coach and Woodson's predecessor Terry Stotts.
Clinging to a 115-108 lead with just a minute to play, the Hawks
had to hold on to escape. Michael Redd's deep 3-pointer with 35.9
seconds left kept the Bucks' comeback hopes alive for at least
another possession.
But the Hawks countered with a clever out of bounds play where
Pachulia broke out from a backcourt logjam and caught a
length-of-the-floor pass from Josh Smith for a wide-open dunk
and a 117-111 lead with 29.2 seconds left, providing the ultimate
cushion.
"We couldn't let another one slip away," Josh Smith said. "We
worked too hard for this one to let it slip away at the end. We
couldn't let anybody take this one away from us."
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0416hawks.html
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