Crawford continues 6th-man campaign as Hawks top Wizards

By John N. Mitchell, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday April 11, 2010 12:03AM

WASHINGTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- Jamal Crawford, the leading candidate to win the league's top sixth-man award, has been the perfect security blanket for the Atlanta Hawks this season, and Saturday night in Washington he was on display again.

Crawford scored 23 of his game-high 28 points in the second half as the visiting Hawks defeated Washington 105-95. In the process Atlanta (51-29) won its first road game in more than three weeks, ending a six-game road losing streak. Before Saturday the Hawks hadn't won on the road since they defeated New Jersey on March 16.

"It's a good win, it is," Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said. "We've played well enough on the road to win -- it's just been those little things that have been plaguing us. But I thought tonight we really buckled down when we had to. That's how we played earlier in the year when we were winning games on the road. We've just got to get back to that, buckle down at home and then we'll see what happens."

What has happened for the Hawks at home has been extremely good lately. They play at Milwaukee on Monday before returning to host Cleveland at home for the final game of the regular season. The Hawks have won 11 home games in a row, with their last loss there coming against Dallas on Feb. 26. In that time they've stacked up some impressive victories against some of the better teams in the league, including the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio, Orlando and Milwaukee.

What made Saturday's road victory significant for the Hawks was that the team has had late leads in several of their recent road losses.

Against Washington it seemed as if the road woes might continue after a defensively lackluster effort by Atlanta in the first 12 minutes. The Wizards (25-55), who were trying to win their fourth game in five contests, made 13 of 18 shots from the floor in the first quarter, which ended with the score tied 30-30.

Crawford kept the Hawk in it in the third quarter when he scored 11 of the Hawks' points.

With the scored tied 78-78 to start the fourth quarter, the Hawks finally started to play defense against their lottery-bound Southeast Division opponent, holding the Wizards to just 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting.

Meanwhile, Crawford continued to stay hot. He connected on all but one of his five shots in the fourth quarter, and he made all three of his 3-point attempts. This helped the Hawks convert what was an 83-83 tie with 9:46 left in the game into a 94-83 lead with 5:56 remaining.

Washington cut Atlanta's lead to 97-90 on Andray Blatche's 18-footer, but the Hawks got a layup from reserve center Zaza Pachulia and Crawford followed with a 3-pointer to reestablish Atlanta's lead at 102-90 with just under three minutes to play.

From that point on the closest Washington would get was 103-95 on a pair of Blatche free throws.

Wizards coach Flip Saunders said he knew the Hawks would be a different team in the second half.

"I told our team at halftime that the way Atlanta was playing was just like a typical veteran team that is basically going to play, play, play then turn things up in the fourth quarter," Saunders said. "Atlanta played like a veteran team that is a 50-plus win team. They hang in games then turn it up in the fourth quarter by making adjustments."

Joe Johnson added 20 points for the Hawks, and three players -- Josh Smith, Mike Bibby and Maurice Evans -- each scored 10.

Blatche had 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Nick Young added 23 points and Mike Miller finished with 16 points and six assists.

The Hawks have now swept the Wizards in each of the last two seasons. In their last meeting - a 105-99 Atlanta victory -- Crawford came off the bench to score 29 points.

"Well, Jamal has played well all season, not just against (Washington)," Woodson said. "We expect that from him coming off the bench. He's always had it at the offensive end. Tonight I thought he tried in both areas and did an excellent job."