[外電] Hawks dig out of hole, earn road win
Hawks dig out of hole, earn road win
By SEKOU SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/08/06
Cleveland — The Hawks brought their hard hats to the office
Tuesday night. Their blueprints, too.
So they needed five extra minutes to finish the deal. It was
time well spent for the NBA's surprise team as they improved 3-1
for the first time in four years with their 104-95 overtime win
over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers before a sellout
crowd of 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena.
The Hawks rallied from a 10-point deficit with eight minutes to
play in regulation and outscored the home team 14-5 in the extra
session to snap the Cavs' 12-game home win streak, which until
Tuesday night was the longest in the NBA dating back to last
season.
Joe Johnson and Tyronn Lue rescued the Hawks late, Johnson's
3-pointer over James with 1:58 to play in overtime sealed the
win and Lue provided that opportunity with a running layup at
the regulation buzzer to force overtime.
"We knew it wasn't over," Johnson said after scoring 25 points,
grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists. "We just
had to regroup and get ourselves together. T. Lue led us down
the stretch and into overtime. And in overtime he allowed me the
chance to step up for my team and I did that with a couple of big
shots.
"But it's really about confidence, when you get confidence you
start believing. We have guys doing things I haven't seen them do
since I've been here. The way Josh Smith took the ball to the
hole in the second half was exactly what we needed. Guys are
playing defense and knocking down open shots and doing exactly
what has to be done to win games. "
Lue was smiling afterwards, but he was worried for a moment that
he had cost his team a chance to win a game they dominated on the
defensive end for most of the night, the Cavs shot just 36
percent (33-for-91).
Johnson tied the game at 84-84 on a fade away 30-footer from the
wing with 1:59 to play in regulation. And Josh Childress gave
the Hawks an 86-84 lead on a layup with 1:09 to play.
But with a chance to stretch the lead to five with 56 seconds to
play, Lue missed two free throws. Larry Hughes put the Cavs back
on top, 87-86, on a 3-pointer with 39.6 seconds to play. Drew
Gooden pushed that lead to three with two free throws of his own
after the Cavs forced the Hawks into a 24-second violation on the
defensive end with 14.3 seconds to play.
It wasn't until James, who finished with a game-high 34 points,
missed the second of two free throws with six seconds to play,
that Lue had his opportunity for redemption.
"I was mad at myself, I really felt I had let my teammates down,"
said Lue, who started the second half in place of Speedy Claxton
(who succumbed to sore knees) and finished with 19 points and 11
assists. "But I was able to push it down the court and get a shot
up. I saw LeBron coming across the court so I had to throw that
thing up high enough to get it in the basket before he got there.
"But this is a big win for us. Because last year this time we were
always able to fight back from deficits but we were never able to
finish games. It was that thing where 'the Hawks always play hard,
but ...' we're not that team anymore. We've got the guys who
believe in each other and have the confidence to finish games."
Tuesday night they had two veterans who stepped up when they
needed it most, Hawks coach Mike Woodson said.
"When you're on the road you have to do almost everything right
to beat good teams," Woodson said. "And this [Cleveland] is one
of the best teams in the East. We just kept grinding and we made
plays down the stretch that we needed to make. Lue was phenomenal
and he and Joe made big shots when we had to have them, and then
we got key stops when we needed them. You can't ask for anything
more on the road."
資料來源
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精采比賽的 recap 當然要貼。
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