The Atlanta Hawks left the Amway Center late Tuesday night knowing that if they fail to win game 6 in Atlanta, they may lose their playoff series against the Magic, a series they once controlled.
Orlando blew the doors off the Hawks 101 – 76 in a game that saw Dwight Howard score only 8 points and snag 8 rebounds. The big man came into game 5 averaging a healthy 32 points a game against the Hawks but the Magic found themselves in a quick 1 – 3 hole despite Dwight and all of his heroic efforts.
In the previous four games in this best of 7 series the Hawks let Dwight get off and clamped down on Orlando’s other scorers, holding the other starting 4 players to a combined 2 – 15 performance in the first half of the first game against the Hawks.
Tonight proved different as Atlanta shot a collective 36% from the field and only 25% from beyond the arc. The Hawks Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford have been major problems for the Magic so far, but tonight they scored a combined 13 points.
Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy spoke on his team’s ability to alter Atlanta’s offensive game plan.
“We played harder… Sometimes it comes down to guys shooting pull-ups and you hope they don’t go in,” said Magic Coach, Stan Van Gundy.
Joe Johnson has given the Magic trouble all series and Orlando did a terrific job of doubling the shooter and taking the ball out of his hands.
“You can’t make him lose his composure or you can’t bother him at all, all you can do is hope he doesn’t get a shot,” continued Van Gundy on Johnson’s production.
For the Magic, a key component of their game went missing on the back of a milk carton and that was the three ball.
Coming into tonight’s contest Orlando shot a very paltry 26% from beyond the arc and tonight they poured in 11 three’s as Ryan Anderson and Jason Richardson hit three 3 balls a piece.
Game 4’s hero, if you will, Gilbert Arenas chipped in 9 points as he played 22 minutes and even snuck in a 3 pointer himself. The former Agent Zero banged in a tough 20 points off the bench in game 4 against Atlanta to keep Orlando in the game.
Because of that performance Van Gundy vowed that Arenas would get plenty of minutes in tonight’s game and Gilbert didn’t disappoint.
In regards to Atlanta, the Hawks were about as motivated to play in this game as LeBron was to stay in Cleveland. They came out flat, falling behind early 19 – 9 as the Magic went on an early 11 – 1 run late in the 1st quarter. The Hawks shot 16% from the field in the 1st quarter, a sign that Atlanta had the bus driver gassing the bus up before this one was over.
While the Hawks players were anxious to get out of Orlando, their head coach Larry Drew was less than appreciative of their, ahem, performance.
“We did not respond well to their runs. We took a lot of ill-advised shots, very uncharacteristic, particularly the first four games that we played,” said Drew.
The Hawks will look to close out the pesky Magic on Thursday as the series returns to Atlanta for a pivotal game 6.
