NBA

Hawks fans finally have a contender to cheer

With pieces in place, years of misery are coming to an end in Atlanta

Sue Ogrocki / AP

With a strong supporting cast, guard Joe Johnson, right, is giving Hawks fans reason to believe they're contenders this season.

And finally, to your enduring disbelief, you have actually seen a snafu work in the Hawks' favor. After the debacle of losing Childress, the front office replaced him with journeymen guards Maurice Evans and Ronald "Flip" Murray. Though it didn’t resonate loudly at the time, in hindsight, it was a stroke of genius (even if accidentally). Because for all of his strengths — hustle, defense, ball-handling, random tip-ins — Childress’ jump shot was less pure than a can of prunes left open for three days on a kitchen counter in mid-July.

Evans, conversely, is a deadeye on corner threes, and Murray’s well-known one-on-one ability has been a huge boost to the creativity-starved Hawks offense. The upshot is that Johnson, the team’s focal point, now has multiple solutions to the many varieties of double teams he sees on a nightly basis.

With all of these pieces working in conjunction — and with the team's often-criticized coach, Mike Woodson, still preaching inspired defense while diagramming broken plays — you saw the team win its first six games, defeating the likes of Orlando, Philadelphia, Toronto and New Orleans. Then so fittingly, you saw the 6-0 Hawks go to Boston, the place where that sublime near-upset ended in carnage last May.

But there, playing on the second night of a back-to-back against the reigning NBA champions — and without injured game-changing power forward Josh Smith — the Hawks did more than simply stay in the game. They went on the assault. At one point in the second quarter, the Hawks led by as many as 16, showing no signs of being intimidated in an arena that haunted them last spring (all four of Atlanta's playoff losses came on the Celtics’ home floor).

Ultimately they lost by one on a late, brilliant, desperation fall-away from Boston's Paul Pierce. And though the Celtics may not have heard it in the midst of their victory celebration, the Hawks sent a clear, resounding message:

We are not those Hawks.

The rest of the league will be receiving that communication soon enough.

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