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- Jason McDonald
Hawks Stretch Streak to 3
By: Jason McDonald
The Atlanta Hawks overcame 54 combined points from Steve Francis and Dwight Howard to defeat the Orlando Magic 96-94 and run their longest win streak of the season to 3. The victory pushed the Hawks season total to 14 wins, one more than the team collected in the 2004-2005 season.
Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson credits the success to improved communication. "A lot of it is just effort and communication," affirmed Woodson. "It's something we have to get better moving forward and when you do that you don't have two guys running to one guy," he added.
The Magic, who were missing four of their stars (Grant Hill, Jameer Nelson, Kelvin Cato, Bo Outlaw), jumped out to an early 4 point lead behind 14 from Francis. By the half, the lead diminished to just a point 50-49 as the Hawks tightened up the game with a better defensive effort.
Tough defense carried the Hawks forcing Orlando into seven more turnovers that offset the Magic's hot shooting.
A controversial call nearly produced a different outcome. With less than a minute to play and the Magic trailing by a basket, Tony Battie was fouled hard by the Hawks Zaza Pachulia. Pachulia's foul drew a quick reaction from Battie prompting officials to hit the Hawks center with a technical foul and a personal foul. The double foul sent Hedo Turkoglu to the line for one and Battie to the line for a pair.
Turkoglu's earned his check knocking down the free throw drawing the Magic to within one. But as fate would have it Battie clanged both of his shots off the rim.
Steve Francis gave the Magic new life hitting both ends of the bonus and tying the game at 94-94. Hawks scoring leader, Joe Johnson, snuffed that life right out with a twine tickling jumper over the outstretched hand of DeShawn Stevenson. "I pumped faked him (Stevenson) so I didn't know if he would jump," admitted Johnson following the game.
The jumper from Johnson left less than a second on the clock enough for an alley-oop shot. Howard wasn't able to get a control Turkoglu's inbound pass at the rim sealing the victory for the Hawks.