It goes to the wire, but streak hits 5-0

[DrReality]

HAWKS 89, THUNDER 85: It goes to the wire, but streak hits 5-0

By Sekou Smith

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, November 10, 2008

Oklahoma City —- The warning was sounded to a nearly empty Ford Center Sunday morning.

Some of his players were probably still trying to wake up when Hawks coach Mike Woodson told them at their morning shoot-around practice, “You can’t just expect to come in here and roll over this team. It doesn’t work like that.”

Hours later, the Hawks trailed the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder by seven with 6:45 to play before a crowd of 18,231 and had to play to the final buzzer for the first time this season to pick up their fifth consecutive win, an 89-85 grinder.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy every night,” said Hawks reserve guard Flip Murray, whose 14 points were crucial to the winning effort.

“This is a tough crowd to come play under. They’ve got a lot of energy in their building. And like Woody said, you can’t just show up. We had to keep fighting. Sometimes it’s not going to be pretty. But we still got it done.”

The Thunder (1-5) played inspired basketball while the Hawks (5-0) labored intensely for most of the night.

With the Hawks’ defense swarming all around them, the Thunder still found a way to take that 75-68 lead with just under seven minutes left.

But Murray, with Woodson’s warning on repeat in his head, scored nine straight points to tie the game at 77-77 with 4:59 to play.

“To their credit, these guys didn’t panic,” Woodson said.

“In the timeout I ex-plained to them that we had plenty of time, but we had to get some stops and start making some buckets. And we did that. We made some key stops and made some big buckets coming down the stretch.

“Flip just caught fire for us at the right time and gave us that push we needed to go and secure the win,” Woodson said.

Even without starting power forward Josh Smith, who is out two to four weeks with a high ankle sprain, the Hawks were able to impose their defensive will on yet another opponent.

Al Horford picked up the slack in the blocked shots department, finishing with five to go along with his eight points and 12 rebounds.

Solomon Jones grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, helping fill another void left by Smith’s absence.

And Marvin Williams scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds to give the Hawks a potent second scorer without Smith in tow —- he stayed back in Atlanta for treatment.

Nothing could make up for the Hawks’ miserable shooting night, they made 37 percent (29-for-78) of their shots from the floor, including a 7-for-17 showing from beyond the 3-point line.

But they hung tough on the boards against a bigger Thunder team and they drilled the Thunder on fast-break points 23-9.

“We knew we had to defend and rebound no matter what,” Horford said. “I think we’re starting to figure out that’s what will always keep us in the game. We didn’t shoot the best tonight. But I think our defense and rebounding carried us through.”

That and those words from Woodson, that not-so-subtle reminder that his team was the Thunder a couple years ago, the underdog hungry for a signature win against a superior opponent.

“I’ve played on teams like that,” Mike Bibby said, “where people think it’s an automatic win when you show up. I don’t think we thought like that. The shots just weren’t falling.

“The good thing is, you know you’re getting better when you win games like this. And it helps having a guy like Flip. He caught fire at just the right time.”

[Admin]

Hours later, the Hawks trailed the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder by seven with 6:45 to play before a crowd of 18,231 and had to play to the final buzzer for the first time this season to pick up their fifth consecutive win, an 89-85 grinder.

So are we now going to start referring to teams as "lowly"? We didn't like it when the national media referred to us that way (and I suppose some still do) so we should be better than to refer to teams the same way, especially since even last year we were like them.

[Atlsportfanz]

It was good to see the Hawks scrap and win an ugly one. Not all the games are going to be fast paced up and down affairs. Yesterday's game seemed more like a football game where the two teams continue to punt to trade for field position. No one could seem to get the score to put it away.

But "good" teams find a way to win and that's what the Hawks did yesterday. Hopefully, this is a trend that will repeat itself throughout the season.

[Diesel]

Hours later, the Hawks trailed the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder by seven with 6:45 to play before a crowd of 18,231 and had to play to the final buzzer for the first time this season to pick up their fifth consecutive win, an 89-85 grinder.

So are we now going to start referring to teams as "lowly"? We didn't like it when the national media referred to us that way (and I suppose some still do) so we should be better than to refer to teams the same way, especially since even last year we were like them.

I don't think of OK City as Lowly. They are young and they play Strong at home. They have more bench help than we have had up til this year and they can play Solid basketball at times. I think in a few years, they will be one of those teams to fear because Westbrook and Mason pretty much owned us when they wanted to in the third/fourth... Coaching just went away from them.

[Admin]

I don't think of OK City as Lowly. They are young and they play Strong at home. They have more bench help than we have had up til this year and they can play Solid basketball at times. I think in a few years, they will be one of those teams to fear because Westbrook and Mason pretty much owned us when they wanted to in the third/fourth... Coaching just went away from them.

I think the big coaching mistake was when they took out Westbrook with 2:30 minutes to go. He and Watson were getting penetration on us at will and I think it was a terrible mistake (one that I was all too happy with as a Hawks fan) when they put Mason back in since he's a pretty poor shooter.

That was my first experience seeing Westbrook play and I was really impressed with him, especially defensively.

[bird_dirt]

I don't think of OK City as Lowly. They are young and they play Strong at home. They have more bench help than we have had up til this year and they can play Solid basketball at times. I think in a few years, they will be one of those teams to fear because Westbrook and Mason pretty much owned us when they wanted to in the third/fourth... Coaching just went away from them.

what i particularly like about this game is that we still were able to hold them to 85. that kind of consistency on d will always help because there will be plenty of nights the shots aren't falling, like in this game. hopefully the players are close enough to remember being regarded as a "lowly" team and won't take these teams lightly.

side note, my fantasy team sure misses smoove :sad:

[Plainview1981]

Hours later, the Hawks trailed the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder by seven with 6:45 to play before a crowd of 18,231 and had to play to the final buzzer for the first time this season to pick up their fifth consecutive win, an 89-85 grinder.

So are we now going to start referring to teams as "lowly"? We didn't like it when the national media referred to us that way (and I suppose some still do) so we should be better than to refer to teams the same way, especially since even last year we were like them.

"Lowly" is the word that jumped out to me the most. It's a stupid and retarded word.