Johnson pulls out another win By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/08/06 The true measure of this Detroit Pistons team won't be clear until the summer, when an NBA champion is crowned. But in the meantime, with the league-leading Pistons winning at a wicked clip — they're on pace for 60-plus wins and a third straight trip to the NBA Finals — the conversation is worth having. Just how good is this Pistons team? Not 70-wins, among the greatest teams of all time good, as some predicted when they stormed to a 37-5 start. But they're still about as good as a team can get in this era. Tuesday night, though, they ran into a Hawks team looking to jumpstart its own trek toward destiny. Joe Johnson's knifing layup past the outstretched arm of Ben Wallace with 7.5 seconds to play was the final dagger in the Hawks' 99-98 come-from-behind thriller that stunned the basketball world, not to mention the 17,033 screaming fans at Philips Arena who served as eyewitnesses to the slaying of the league giant. It was Johnson's second straight game winner at home, he did the honors with a nothing-but-net pull-up jumper with seven tenths of a second to play against Orlando Friday, and the third straight home win for the Hawks, who improved to 15-32 this season. "I settled for a jumper last time but I knew I had to attack the basket and go at Ben [Wallace] and Rasheed [Wallace]," Johnson said after finishing with a game-high tying 29 points. "I knew it wasn't going to be a jump shot this time, not against this team. I knew I had to take whatever they were going to give me and get it high up off the glass so Ben couldn't get it." Johnson said the Hawks had two things on their minds before the game. Losing backup point guard and invaluable veteran leader Tyronn Lue for a month when he sprained his right knee in practice Monday and the memory of the whipping the Pistons administered here last month. It was that 117-89 thrashing that Johnson said he couldn't stop thinking about when that game-winning possession began with 26.9 seconds to play. Second-year starter Royal Ivey and rookie Salim Stoudamire filled in for Lue, combining for 18 points, five rebounds and two assists. It was Stoudamire who stood behind the 3-point line waiting for a pass from Johnson on the game-winning drive as Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups decided against helping on Johnson to cover the Hawks' most dangerous long distance shooter. "I saw Chauncey was in a bind," said Stoudamire, who scored 12 points and made 2-of-5 shots from beyond the 3-point line. "He had to make a choice and maybe that helped Joe get to the basket a step quicker. But my main focus tonight was on being positive because that's what T. Lue brings to the table and that's what everybody was worried we'd be missing." It was just what the Hawks needed if they were going to go after the Pistons from tip to buzzer the way Hawks coach Mike Woodson preached for them to do in practice Monday and before the game. "We knocked them off stride because we came out hard and never let up," Johnson said. "The last time they were here they embarrassed us and that was in the back of all our minds. We withstood their assault and fought back and took this game. Nobody gave us anything out there tonight. That was every man on this team stepping up when we were a man down, playing with pride and dignity and getting a win." The Hawks denied the Pistons their 40th win of the season, leaving the title favorites at 39-8 and losers of two straight for the first time this season. "I thought we came into this one a little too overconfident," Billups said. "We came in thinking they couldn't beat us. And those are the teams that are the most dangerous." The lead changed hands five times in the game's final six minutes, with Johnson, fellow Hawks co-captain Al Harrington and center Zaza Pachulia matching the Pistons big shot for big shot. This after the Hawks trailed by as many as 10 early on. But they finally took a lead, 89-87, on a Johnson jumper with 5:55 to play. Harrington set it up a possession earlier when he tied the game with a layup over the Wallaces. The Pistons had a chance to put the game away in the final minute, leading 98-97. But Billups missed a step-back 25-footer, a kill shot he's used many a night the past few years, with 27.9 seconds to play setting up Johnson's late-game heroics. "What can you say? Joe played solid all the way through," Woodson said. "And this was a great team we beat tonight, a team that I think is going to get back to the [NBA] Finals and have a shot at winning again. "But we competed all the way across the board, I thought Royal and Stoudamire came in and gave us a big lift and everybody was solid. We refused to lose tonight and Joe came up big. He hit the shot of the night." 资料来源 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0208hawks.html --

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