Letting another one slip away By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/05/06 Miami — Detroit. San Antonio. Denver. Cleveland. New Jersey. Indiana — three times. All those playoff-bound teams have been victims of the once-hapless but recently fearless Hawks this season. For a long time Saturday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Miami Heat looked like they were headed for the Hawks' hit list. Instead, Saturday night's late-game meltdown and 95-93 loss can be tossed on the mile-high pile of games the Hawks should have won this season but didn't. The Hawks couldn't hold leads of 16 (early) and 10 (late) to secure their latest upset. The Heat got the basket they needed from backup center Alonzo Mourning on a dunk with 1.8 seconds left. He picked up a loose ball from a missed Udonis Haslem jumper for the winning points. Hawks rookie guard Salim Stoudamire, who missed a jumper on the possession before Mourning's game-winner, barely got off a potential game-tying shot as time expired. The Heat didn't tie the game — at 89-89 — until there was just 2:15 to play. The Heat played without All-Star guard Dwyane Wade, inactive with a sore wrist. They had Shaquille O'Neal, but he didn't score his first basket until after halftime. The Hawks didn't have reserve forward Josh Childress, who sat out with a swollen left ankle sprained the night before in a loss to Sacramento. They had Joe Johnson, though. And as good as both Wade and O'Neal have been on their home floor this season, Johnson owned the place for a long while Saturday night. He scored 14 of his game-high 28 points during a seesaw third-quarter stretch when the Heat tore into the lead and the Hawks waffled a bit before Johnson took over. But he cooled off in the fourth quarter, when the Heat had Gary Payton guard him. O'Neal brought the Heat back to within a basket, 86-84, before fouling out with 3:45 to play. But he sent Zaza Pachulia and Esteban Batista to the bench with six fouls each first. O'Neal finished with 21 points (11 on foul shots), eight rebounds, two blocks. Had Johnson let go of his 60-footer at the halftime buzzer a split second sooner, the Hawks would have had an absurd 51-33 lead at the break. But after two minutes of review, the shot was ruled no good at the end of the Hawks' jaw-dropping first half. They limited O'Neal to a startling 16 free throw attempts and without a single field goal attempt. While the Heat tried to figure out what to do without O'Neal dominating and Wade in street clothes, the Hawks were busy burying shots (19-for-34) from all over the floor. Johnson (12) and Harrington (11) did most of the damage. But it came from everywhere. Even seldom-used reserve center John Edwards got in on the action, draining two jumpers before halftime. 資料來源 http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/0305hawks.html --

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