Some satisfaction in a sweep By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/29/06 When Hawks forward Al Harrington shows up Thursday night in Indianapolis for Reggie Miller's jersey retirement ceremony he'll be prepared for the worst from the crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse. And rightfully so, because there's little to no chance fans will cheer the co-captain of a team that's just swept their beloved Pacers in a season series. It's a small price to pay for Harrington, who led the Hawks with 23-points in their thrilling 94-93 win over the playoff-bound Pacers, his former team, Wednesday night at Philips Arena. "I don't care if nobody says one kind word to me," Harrington said after the Hawks, 22-48, snapped a five-game losing streak. "We needed this win more than anything else. We had to have it tonight." It was the Hawks' first season sweep of the Pacers in 21 years and their first four-game sweep of any team since the 2002-03 season, when they swept Cleveland. "I guess I wish we could play them 80 times this year," said Harrington, who missed two free throws with 9.8 seconds to play that would have given the Hawks a three-point cushion. "That's a great team over there, but for some reason we just seem to play well against them. Now that we've got the sweep, we just need to move on and get another win Friday," when the New Jersey Nets come to town. "They play hard, they play so hard they're liable to beat anybody on a given night," said Pacers guard Stephen Jackson, whom the Hawks traded for Harrington in July of 2004. "I love the way they play." The Hawks almost let Wednesday night's game slip away. Leading 86-75 with six minutes to play, they watched as Peja Stojakovic shot the Pacers back into the game. Stojakovic, who led the Pacers (35-35) with a game-high 31 points on 12-for-19 shooting, drained four of his seven 3-pointers over the next five minutes and 50 seconds to bring his team within a point. With two chances to win the game and needing just one basket, the Pacers never got the ball back in Stojakovic's hands. Jermaine O'Neal missed a turnaround jumper and Fred Jones bricked a 3-pointer that the referees ruled came after the final buzzer to end the game. Hawks coach Mike Woodson raced on to the floor and hugged Josh Childress after the buzzer, a move that surprised Childress since he didn't make a play late to help win the game. "I didn't know where that came from," a smiling Childress said after scoring 13 points off the bench, "but I think I understand it. We've been struggling for a while now and like the rest of us, he was just happy that we found a way to get it done at the end of a game." Woodson was just happy to see his team finally stop someone, anyone, after what seems like weeks of playing Matador defense. "Tonight our defense was where it needed to be in terms of how I like to play defense," Woodson said. "Our defense was pretty solid, even though Peja hit some three's. He hit some big bombs and you just have to live with those. But for the most part our interior defense was solid. "We only gave up 13 layups tonight as opposed to the 33 we gave up last night (in a 125-117 loss to lowly Charlotte). And that was the difference in the game right there." Harrington 嘴贱XD 资料来源 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0330hawks.html --

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