Hawks beat Heat twice in one day

Post #1 » by **HMFFL** » Sun Mar 9, 2008 4:52 am

Wins have been so hard to come by for the Hawks the past two months that Joe Johnson stopped being particular about the particulars weeks ago.

So surviving the worst team in the NBA twice in the same night was little more than an extra-long day at the office for Johnson, the Hawks' captain and All-Star who led the way on both offense and defense in the nightcap, a closer-than-it-should-have-been 97-94 victory in front of 17,022 at Philips Arena.

he Hawks won the earlier contest 114-111, winning the replayed 51.9 seconds of the protested game from Dec. 19 without either team scoring a point.

The pair of victories lifted the Hawks (26-36) back into the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot ahead of New Jersey, for at least a day or two.

Johnson was stellar Saturday night, piling up 28 points by halftime and finishing with 39, eight assists and six rebounds.

It was his will and relentless effort that carried the Hawks the entire night. It was a struggle, as the Hawks looked to still be carrying the baggage from Friday night's collapse in Charlotte, where they led by 10 points early before being blown out in the second half.

"I went 0-for-8," Hawks forward Marvin Williams said, "so that means he did my job, and let me see who else. He was a beast tonight. He got it done. It was like he gave us a second to see what we were going to do and he just flipped the switch. He wasn't going to wait.

"Without his performance tonight, we would have went home ... we could have lost the first one if he didn't get those two rebounds. You never know. Without his performance, we wouldn't have won these games."

Victories over the Heat, a league-worst 11-50 and counting, wouldn't normally be cause for celebration. But the Hawks have been allergic to winning the past two months, going 11-23 since Jan. 1.

Johnson reminded his teammates after Friday's loss that they must pick up their intensity to make up for lost time in these final 20 games of the season.

"Right now," Johnson said, "we've got to go up to our highest level we can play. These last 20 games, we have to really take advantage of this and buckle down every game and treat every game like it's a one-game playoff."

Hawks coach Mike Woodson knows that without Johnson leading the way, his team's task becomes tougher, especially on nights when hardly anyone else can get anything going. Josh Smith was the only other Hawks player to reach double figures in scoring with 13 points.

"Joe's our All-Star, and you've got to expect that from him," Woodson said. "We needed a big game out of everybody, but I thought Joe stepped up and made play after play."

Link

evildallas · Post #2 » by **evildallas** » Sun Mar 9, 2008 5:19 pm

As an aside it was the 1st time in a long time that there was no RealGM game thread. Was everyone busy, just fed up, or did the special circumstances sour us?

Personally, I quit starting threads half because the Hawks lost every time I started a thread and half because I've gotten fed up with product on the floor. I've still been making it to games, but sometimes I feel like paying for parking and food is throwing good money after bad.

Post #3 » by **HMFFL** » Sun Mar 9, 2008 5:51 pm

evildallas wrote:As an aside it was the 1st time in a long time that there was no RealGM game thread. Was everyone busy, just fed up, or did the special circumstances sour us?

Personally, I quit starting threads half because the Hawks lost every time I started a thread and half because I've gotten fed up with product on the floor. I've still been making it to games, but sometimes I feel like paying for parking and food is throwing good money after bad.

We used this.........

http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=770045

evildallas · Post #4 » by **evildallas** » Sun Mar 9, 2008 7:54 pm

Thanks, I retract my statement then and will read up on the thread.

tontoz · Post #5 » by **tontoz** » Sun Mar 9, 2008 8:47 pm

The really impressive thing about JJ's performance is that the Miami game was the Hawks 4th game in 5 nights and JJ had played 123 minutes in the previous 3 games.

It also should be noted that JJ is shooting 37.7% from 3 on the season.

Post #6 » by **Jamaaliver** » Thu Mar 8, 2018 7:58 pm

Sorry, I just couldn't resist checking to see if this thread was still around.

And I do remember the original game, the protest and the replay.

Read on Twitter

That losing season was one of the best memories of my Hawk fandom!

Hard to believe how much has changed in a decade...

All the players have changed. The coaches have changed. The front office, the ownership, the fanbase...

:cry: