Not even close in Chicago 15-point first quarter seals fate By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 01/29/06 Chicago — At least they know it's not the building. A night after wrapping up a season-long homestand with a fifth loss in seven tries, the Hawks proved neither the Philips Arena walls nor state lines could contain their futility. Their Windy City meltdown needed a little over 10 minutes to reach full velocity as they fell behind 29-11 to the Chicago Bulls with two minutes left in the first quarter at the United Center on Saturday night. When it was over, they were on the wrong side of a 111-99 ledger and sent home losers of three straight. But trying to make sense of how they could begin a game so lethargically less than 24 hours after they'd taken Phoenix to the wire is the least of the Hawks' issues this morning. They're now 11-31 and, barring some unforeseen surge of positive energy, on pace for a second straight 60-loss season, with their most favorable home stretch of the season already wasted. "I think we were embarrassed in the first half," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said of Saturday's latest loss. "They outplayed us in every way. They beat us in all the ways that you could." It's not the start to the second half of the season anyone in the Hawks' camp had in mind when they finished December on a 5-5 tear that seemed, even if just for a few days, to turn their season around. But instead of building on that momentum — they scored quality wins over San Antonio, Cleveland and Indiana in December — the Hawks have continuously found ways to sabotage their own progress. They snapped a four-game losing streak with back-to-back wins at Boston on Jan. 6 and over New Orleans/Oklahoma City on Jan. 7, then promptly went on to lose their next four. And it didn't stop there. In nine of their last 10 losses, including Saturday's, the Hawks have surrendered 100 or more points. "Our season has been like that," Woodson said. "There is a fine line between winning and losing. We've had about 12 games like [Friday] night where we had a chance to win down the stretch. If we win them, we're OK. We just haven't done that or had that chance to taste the winning part." It's a maddening existence for a team still unsure of itself this late in the season. But the uncertainty has been largely self-inflicted. Whenever the Hawks have had an opportunity to take the next logical step, they come up with an effort like the one they gave against the Bulls, when every player on Chicago's roster was able to have his way with the Hawks' defense. Atlanta never got that 18-point Bulls lead closer than five the rest of the way. The Bulls led by as many as 24 in the third quarter. It's not like the Hawks haven't given a valiant effort this season, with just a handful of losses that were one-sided from start to finish. There they were at the end again Saturday night, down just 97-92 with 5:22 to play after a layup by Joe Johnson, who finished with a career-high 40 points on 16-for-25 shooting. But as usual, it wasn't quite enough to dig the Hawks out of the huge hole they'd dug earlier. "Our consistency this season has been terrible," Johnson said. "We come out and play well against the good teams but then play terrible against the bad teams. We need to find a way to get ourselves up and be aggressive against every team." 文章轉載 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0129hawks.html --

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