Wire-to-wire win for Bulls By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/12/06 The math just didn't add up for the Hawks Saturday night. They had four days off before facing the Bulls at Philips Arena, while the Chicago Bulls came to town on the second half of a home and away back-to-back. And somehow, the Bulls looked like the team with all the energy in a gritty 95-90 win over the previously soaring Hawks, who fell to 20-40. "That team played harder than we did, and that's disappointing because they played last night and we've been sitting for two or three days," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said after watching his team get down by 14 and rally to within three in the final minute. "They got loose balls and key rebounds. . . . They beat teams because they play hard. And we were right there, still at the end we had our opportunities. "But it's what happens early in a game. We kept getting behind and fighting back, and that takes a lot out of you." There are nights like these, of course, when logic and momentum and every other intangible factor weigh in one team's favor and the outcome leaves everyone scratching their head. The Hawks have been on the positive side of plenty of games like that in the past two months. But the Bulls (28-35) are still trying to will their way to a playoff berth. And it showed in their demeanor from opening tip to final buzzer. "We had good life from start to finish," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. It helped that Skiles' team is the Hawks' equal in every category and exceeded them Saturday night in the ones that mattered most. They were much nastier, more defensive-minded and finished the game like a more seasoned team should — draining all but one of their free throws in the final 90 seconds. "Mentally we weren't in tune to what we're supposed to do tonight, " Hawks co-captain Joe Johnson said. "We thought they would roll over tonight because they played last night, and that just wasn't the case. They are a hard-working team, and they wanted this one more than we did." The fact that the Hawks were within 91-88 with 30.7 seconds to play is a testament to their improved mettle this season. After doing themselves in all night with missed free throws (20-for-33) and toothless defense around the basket, they bowed up for one final run with four minutes to play. But they didn't have enough energy to finish the comeback. Josh Smith missed a reverse dunk on a lob from Al Harrington and the air seemed to come out of the Hawks' rally. "I wish he could have just laid it in," Woodson said. "We missed and still got the ball back. But we turned it over right after that, and that was pretty much the game after that." The damage started much earlier than that, though. The Bulls, coming off of a disappointing effort in a 107-96 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Friday night, wasted little time in taking control of the action. Their lead was 10 six minutes into the game. And the advantage was theirs every time the Hawks rallied from that point on. "We had way too many days off," said Harrington, who finished with a game-high 32 points and 10 rebounds. "We lost our rhythm a little bit, our feel we've been having. We weren't far off. We had spurts where we played hard. But before that, the previous five games we'd been playing exactly the same way for 48 minutes, and we didn't have that tonight. "Hopefully we just had to get this one out [of our system] and we'll bounce back Monday night [at Milwaukee]." 资料来源 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0312hawks.html --

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