Harrington: Team needs to have fun By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 04/02/06 Memphis — Al Harrington and his Hawks have exhausted the possibilities in an effort to give meaning to the last two months of the NBA season. There was that pie-in-the-sky playoff push a month ago, a fleeting dream that was dashed by a weak start in March. Then there was that 30-game win total goal, and that playoff spoiler thing they cooked up a few weeks ago. The last two goals are still attainable, though the former will take some serious work with the Hawks at 22-49 with 11 games left, starting with Sunday afternoon's game against the playoff-bound Memphis Grizzlies at the FedExForum. Instead of manufactured motivation, though, Harrington has come up with a new approach. "We need to start having fun, start smiling and remember that this is more than just business because we love the game," the co-captain said, making sure to point out that he was speaking about and on behalf of all his teammates. "We've got nothing to lose. Let me say that again, so you know exactly what I mean. We've got nothing to lose. We need to start playing like it. "We need to smile and enjoy playing these last 11 games together, because we're doing everything else but winning games right now. And maybe if we loosen up and stop pressing, we'll break through at the end of some of these close games we keep losing." The Hawks are playing plenty hard enough, as the recent epidemic of unsolicited opponent testimonials would attest. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle and several of his players praised the Hawks' hustle and perseverance after they wrapped up a season sweep of the Pacers Wednesday night at Philips Arena. New Jersey All-Star Vince Carter spoke in reverent tones about Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his team after the Nets escaped Atlanta with a 91-88 win and their NBA-best 11-game win streak intact Friday night. "It's unfortunate they don't have enough wins to get into the playoffs," Carter said, "but [Woodson] definitely has them playing extremely hard. They come at you from start to finish. We expected that, and we knew if we wanted to continue the streak, we had to keep playing, take that first blow and keep competing to get the win." Nets coach Lawrence Frank was equally effusive in his praise of the Hawks after they held his hot-shooting team to a 34 percent effort from the floor Friday. "My hat's off to them," he said. "Coach Woodson has them playing at a high level. For a team to be 11-22 against teams at .500 or above, that says a lot about them." The Hawks' refusal to go quietly into the summer is one of the traits Woodson said he respects most about his team, which has lost 12 of its last 16 games but only two by more than nine points. "It's coming down the stretch," Woodson said. "But I can't let these guys stop playing. They have to keep competing." Now if they could just do it with a smile. "We've tried just about everything else," Harrington said. "We're playing for pride, for each other, for our city and for our fans the rest of the way. We've given it up night after night this entire season. We haven't won as many games as we wanted to. But we're not ashamed of anything. We've done everything in our power to win these games and just come up short." 資料來源 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0402hawks.html --

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