Joe Johnson scores 28 to help the Atlanta Hawks outplay Los Angeles Clippers 109-102: NBA Recap
Four players from the Atlanta Hawks scored in double figures to hand the visiting Los Angeles Clippers a tough loss with a score of 109-102 at the Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA on Tuesday night.
Joe Johnson put in a good performance to rack up 28 points in the game, which included a spectacular three pointer in the closing stages.
Three other players made sizable contributions in the game for Atlanta. Josh Smith notched up a double-double performance of 18 points and 10 rebounds and Jeff Teague finally got the better of fellow Wake Forest product, Chris
Paul; he put up 21 points in the game.
Blake Griffin managed to get a game high of 36 points along with 8 boards. Chris Paul was not far behind with 34 points. However the rest of the Clippers line up failed to impress as none of the other players managed to get more
then 9 points individually.
With the loss, Clippers saw their hopes of chasing down the Pacific Division title come to an end as the Los Angeles Lakers now automatically secured that feat.
In the first quarter, Atlanta came out of the blocks early as they raced to an 8-2 lead. However after the next several minutes there wasn’t much to separate the two teams as they rallied back to tie the game at 13 each.
The action went end to end from there on as the scores remained equal at 23 with 1:14 remaining in the game. Clips managed to close out the quarter strongly behind 5 quick points from Mo Williams and were ahead 28-23 after the
first 12 minutes.
Atlanta started the second quarter in the same fashion as they did the first, rallying back courtesy of a 16-5 run to take the lead 39-33 at the 6:41 mark. However the Clippers were not going out easy, responding with an 11-4 run
of their own to take back the lead at 44-43.
Both teams traded baskets for the remainder of the first half, however the lead changed hands once again and the score at the half way point was 50-52 in Atlanta`s favour.
The lead changed hands twice more in the early stages of the third quarter as both teams looked to get ahead in the game. The capacity crowd of 18223 was treated with some end to end action throughout and by the time there were
3:41 remaining in the third the scores were tied once again at 70.
In the remaining time of the period, Hawks asserted their authority in the game as they closed the quarter on a 15-2 run to get their advantage into double figures. The score was 85-72 in Atlanta`s favour.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Clippers were able to cut the lead to 9, courtesy of a Griffin jump shot. However the action was end to end as the Hawks maintained their stance in the game. At the 5:28 mark, Hawks were ahead
by 11 points but the CP3 and Williams combined to score 5 quick points to help the Clippers to pull within 6.
Johnson came up big for the Hawks in the closing as he connected from long range to extend the Hawks lead to 9 at the 1:28 mark. Nevertheless, in just about 30 seconds, Clippers chipped 5 points of that lead to make this one a
two possession game.
From the Hawks side, Johnson was relentless from behind the three point line as he dropped a dagger at the 37.8 mark. In the closing seconds of the matchup, Teague was able to hold his nerve from the free throw line as made all
6 free throws in the last thirty second to help the Hawks take this one by a margin of 7.
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