Hawks dig out of hole, earn road win By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/08/06 Cleveland — The Hawks brought their hard hats to the office Tuesday night. Their blueprints, too. So they needed five extra minutes to finish the deal. It was time well spent for the NBA's surprise team as they improved 3-1 for the first time in four years with their 104-95 overtime win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers before a sellout crowd of 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena. The Hawks rallied from a 10-point deficit with eight minutes to play in regulation and outscored the home team 14-5 in the extra session to snap the Cavs' 12-game home win streak, which until Tuesday night was the longest in the NBA dating back to last season. Joe Johnson and Tyronn Lue rescued the Hawks late, Johnson's 3-pointer over James with 1:58 to play in overtime sealed the win and Lue provided that opportunity with a running layup at the regulation buzzer to force overtime. "We knew it wasn't over," Johnson said after scoring 25 points, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists. "We just had to regroup and get ourselves together. T. Lue led us down the stretch and into overtime. And in overtime he allowed me the chance to step up for my team and I did that with a couple of big shots. "But it's really about confidence, when you get confidence you start believing. We have guys doing things I haven't seen them do since I've been here. The way Josh Smith took the ball to the hole in the second half was exactly what we needed. Guys are playing defense and knocking down open shots and doing exactly what has to be done to win games. " Lue was smiling afterwards, but he was worried for a moment that he had cost his team a chance to win a game they dominated on the defensive end for most of the night, the Cavs shot just 36 percent (33-for-91). Johnson tied the game at 84-84 on a fade away 30-footer from the wing with 1:59 to play in regulation. And Josh Childress gave the Hawks an 86-84 lead on a layup with 1:09 to play. But with a chance to stretch the lead to five with 56 seconds to play, Lue missed two free throws. Larry Hughes put the Cavs back on top, 87-86, on a 3-pointer with 39.6 seconds to play. Drew Gooden pushed that lead to three with two free throws of his own after the Cavs forced the Hawks into a 24-second violation on the defensive end with 14.3 seconds to play. It wasn't until James, who finished with a game-high 34 points, missed the second of two free throws with six seconds to play, that Lue had his opportunity for redemption. "I was mad at myself, I really felt I had let my teammates down," said Lue, who started the second half in place of Speedy Claxton (who succumbed to sore knees) and finished with 19 points and 11 assists. "But I was able to push it down the court and get a shot up. I saw LeBron coming across the court so I had to throw that thing up high enough to get it in the basket before he got there. "But this is a big win for us. Because last year this time we were always able to fight back from deficits but we were never able to finish games. It was that thing where 'the Hawks always play hard, but ...' we're not that team anymore. We've got the guys who believe in each other and have the confidence to finish games." Tuesday night they had two veterans who stepped up when they needed it most, Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "When you're on the road you have to do almost everything right to beat good teams," Woodson said. "And this [Cleveland] is one of the best teams in the East. We just kept grinding and we made plays down the stretch that we needed to make. Lue was phenomenal and he and Joe made big shots when we had to have them, and then we got key stops when we needed them. You can't ask for anything more on the road." 資料來源 http://myurl.com.tw/r87p 精采比賽的 recap 當然要貼。 --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.230.43.141