Hawks grind out win over Kings at home

By Matt Winkeljohn, for NBA.com
Posted Wednesday January 20, 2010 10:57PM

ATLANTA (NBA.com exclusive) -- Promotionally speaking, Wednesday would have been good for jumper cable night in Philips Arena, where the Hawks faced a trio of problems: a shortage of juice from a late-arriving and light crowd, the task of getting "up" to play a Sacramento squad that's down and a hangover from Monday's home loss to the Thunder.

So reserve guard Jamal Crawford scored 20 points to lead the Hawks -- which is nothing new, really -- to a 108-97 win over Sacramento. He had help off the bench, too, as Atlanta reserves pitched in 45 points to give the Kings their fifth straight loss, and 10th in 11 games.

The Hawks (27-14) stayed atop the Southeast standings, and moved to within half a game of the Celtics (27-13) for the second-best record in the East after Boston lost to Detroit.

Like a lot of teams, the Hawks had occasional issues slowing Kings rookie guard Tyreke Evans, who scored a game-high 24.

The more wide-ranging issue was simply a general shortage of voltage.

"We can't do anything about the fans not showing up," said Hawks coach Mike Woodson. "The bottom line is we still have to play the game, and we've got to be professional about how you approach the game when you step out on the court. You've got to generate your own energy. I thought we were kind of up and down a little in the first half."

The Hawks opened the first two quarters in funks.

Sacramento (15-26), which fell to 3-17 on the road, led 17-7 on a short jumper by Jason Thompson with 5:25 left in the first quarter, and to that point Atlanta had made just two shots. After a 23-all quarter-ending tie, Atlanta trailed 44-33 halfway through the second.

Following a rush that was good for a 54-52 halftime lead, the Hawks put the hammer down in the third quarter. Reserve Maurice Evans scored five points in the period, and the bench had 10 as Atlanta expanded the lead to 81-68.

"The Hawks shifted gears on us in the second half," said Tyreke Evans, who was 9-for-17 from the field with five assists. "You can definitely tell they're a team that's been playing together for a while. In the third quarter, we took a couple bad shots and then the Hawks turned it up defensively, and that was the turning point."

That push started with defense, as the Hawks cluttered passing lanes for the Kings. Sacramento was just 8-for-26 in the third quarter and missed all three 3-pointers after hitting 50 percent of all shots in the first half.

"I thought we had a lot of good minutes tonight, but we just didn't have 48 of them," said Kings coach Paul Westphal. "They pretty much cracked us open in the third quarter (26-17). Their defensive pressure took us out of our comfort zone."

Crawford scored 10 in the fourth quarter to continue a recent trend, and All-Star guard Joe Johnson -- often matched against Tyreke Evans on both ends of the floor -- finished with 17 points despite missing his only fourth-quarter shot.

The Hawks may be closing on the Celtics, and showing more signs of maturing rather than back-sliding, but they're not a finished product.

Asked if his team is better this season than last at shaking off losses, Woodson did not demure. "No, because you don't expect to lose, especially here at home," he said. "That's how it should be."

That's how the Hawks played for much of the first half before tightening the screws.

Atlanta scored eight third-quarter points off five Sacramento turnovers, and that was the end of that.

No starter played more than center Al Horford (32:07) Wednesday in one of those games that required grinding.

"We had to create our own energy tonight, and we got there by playing good defense," said Atlanta's Maurice Evans. "We still gave away a few games we shouldn't have. If we put everything together, we can go really far."

• Kings: Garcia, May, Thomas
• Hawks: Collins

• Kings: Evans, Thompson
• Hawks: --

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA
• Officials: #13 Monty McCutchen, #62 Brian Forte, #67 John Goble
• Attendance: 14809
• Duration: 2:16