Mavericks-Hawks Preview

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN
Posted Apr 25 2012 2:07PM

The Atlanta Hawks are looking to nail down home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks know they will be opening their title defense on the road.

The Hawks will ensure that they open the postseason at home by defeat the visiting Mavericks in Thursday night's regular-season finale.

Atlanta (39-26) will be the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and begin the playoffs against Boston, guaranteed the No. 4 seed as the Atlantic Division champion. The Hawks, though, are one game ahead of the Celtics and can secure home court for the series with a victory Thursday or a loss by Boston to Milwaukee.

"It's important to try to get home-court advantage," guard Willie Green said. "We'll see what happens last game."

Dallas (36-29) will be the sixth or seventh seed in the West. The Mavericks know they'll face a tough opponent in the first round as they embrace the challenge of trying to repeat.

"A sixth or seventh seed is generally gonna be viewed as an underdog-type team and that's OK," coach Rick Carlisle told the Mavericks' official website. "But either way, we've got to approach it the same way. We can't look for external motivations to get fired up to defend a championship."

The Hawks won for the fourth time in five games Tuesday, 109-102 over the Los Angeles Clippers. Joe Johnson scored a game-high 28 points and made two 3-pointers in the final 1:28 to help seal the victory.

"We've been playing pretty good lately, we have not been finishing games the way we hope that we finish - it's just a few games as of late - but coming down the stretch of tonight's game, I could tell our guys were mentally focused," coach Larry Drew said.

Atlanta's bench also came through with 32 points, led by Marvin Williams with 11.

"If you're going to get over the hump in the playoffs, you've got keep advancing with the bench," Johnson said. "They've got to play a big role."

The Hawks won't get any minutes Thursday from center Al Horford, who has been out since Jan. 11 with a torn pectoral muscle and says he won't play in the first round against the Celtics. Horford practiced earlier this week and was hoping to return before that series.

Dallas has not played since a 93-83 defeat at Chicago on Saturday, in which veteran guards Jason Kidd and Jason Terry were rested. It's unclear who will suit up Thursday for the Mavericks, who are clearly looking ahead.

We're excited, and there's gonna be 15 other teams excited about the possibility as well," Carlisle said. "And we want to be healthy, we want to make sure we're thinking the right way, we want to make sure we have an edge and to go into this thing - and when I say 'this thing' I mean the game Thursday and games beyond - with a mental edge and a real understanding for exactly how we've got to play to be successful."

The Mavericks have won three straight and 19 of 25 against the Hawks.

Hawks clinch home court, beat Mavs 106-89

By PAUL NEWBERRY
Posted Apr 26 2012 11:34PM

ATLANTA (AP) Having already exceeded expectations, the Atlanta Hawks weren't about to let home-court advantage slip away in the final game of the regular season.

Led by Josh Smith, Atlanta raced to a 23-point lead in the opening quarter on the way to a 106-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, ensuring the Hawks will open the playoffs at home.

"We showed a lot of determination," Joe Johnson said. "You could see that hunger in our eyes even before the tip."

The Hawks (40-26) wrapped up the fourth-best record in the East and host Boston on Sunday. The defending NBA champion Mavericks (36-30) begin the playoffs Saturday at Oklahoma City.

Atlanta pounced on the Mavericks right from the tip, making 16 of 23 shots (69.6 percent) in the opening period. Smith had the outside jumper working and seemed to be everywhere, scoring 12 points, grabbing seven rebounds, dishing out five assists and making a steal. A 28-7 run, capped by Willie Green's 3-pointer, pushed the lead to 36-13.

"It just opens up my game when I have the opportunity to gauge whether I should be driving in or shooting the jumper," said Smith, who finished 10 for 14 from the field. "Whenever I'm shooting the ball like that, it just makes me that much more deadly on offense."

The Hawks led 60-44 at halftime and held off a brief spurt by the Mavericks at the start of the third quarter, capping a season in which Atlanta improved on its winning percentage from 2011 even after losing All-Star center Al Horford early in the lockout-shortened year.

Horford, who is still recovering from pectoral surgery, has ruled himself out for the Boston series but still hopes to play if the Hawks advance from the opening round for the fourth year in a row. While the team hasn't gotten past the second round since moving to Atlanta in 1968, Johnson feels a special vibe with this group.

"I'm very proud of what we've accomplished," he said. "You saw a lot of guys come into their own this year."

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 22 points, but it was another tough night for the reigning champs. Dallas wasn't nearly as dominant coming off its first NBA title, finishing far behind the top seeds in the West, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. With only its first-round opponent in doubt, the Mavericks had little to play for in Atlanta - and their performance reflected it. "

"The first quarter was horrible," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It'd be a stretch to say we're playing our best. At this point, we have to move forward. We're going to have to flush this one - very quickly."

Jason Kidd rested up for the playoffs, watching the game from the bench in street clothes.

"The dress rehearsal's over," he said. "Now it's time for us to protect our crown."

Jeff Teague added 17 points for the Hawks, Johnson had 15 and Kirk Hinrich contributed 12. Smith finished with nine rebounds and seven assists.

With the home court no longer in doubt, Atlanta was finally able to rest its starters in the final quarter. Green scored 11 points, Ivan Johnson finished with 10 and the Hawks got 33 points overall from their reserves.

Rodrigue Beaubois scored 13 points for Dallas. Jason Terry had 11.

"We're ready," Terry insisted. "That's what you play for, another championship."

The Mavericks closed the season losing four of their last six games.

"It doesn't matter if you're on a high or a low," Terry said. "The last few games don't matter. It's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how we come out in Game 1."

The Hawks are looking forward to matching up with the Celtics. The teams faced in the opening round in 2008, after Atlanta made the playoffs for the first time in nine years and surprisingly forced top-seeded Boston to seven games.

This season, the Celtics won two of three meetings by a total of 10 points, including an overtime victory in Boston.

"We've had a lot of chippy moments with them, a lot of good games," Smith said. "We've played this team well. It's going to be an exciting series."

NOTES: Hawks G Jannero Pargo did not dress because of a sore back. ... Atlanta coach Larry Drew is sounding less and less optimistic about C Zaza Pachulia (sprained left foot) coming back for the opening round of the playoffs. "Personally, I'm not getting my hopes up too high that we'll have him," Drew said. ... This was the only regular-season meeting between the teams. The Mavericks had won the last three games against the Hawks, including a 2-0 sweep of last year's series.

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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Notebook: Hawks 106, Mavericks 89

Posted Thursday April 26, 2012 11:14PM

By Matt Winkeljohn, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Both teams had something on the line Thursday when the Mavericks closed the regular season in Atlanta, but the Hawks had far more riding than the visitors and it showed as the home team raced to a huge lead on the way to a 106-89 win.

That clinched home-court advantage for Atlanta (40-26) in its first-round playoff series against Boston (39-27).

The Hawks ran out to a 31-11 lead in the first quarter against Dallas, who did not look like the defending NBA champions while landing in the No. 7 spot in the West. They'll play at Oklahoma City Saturday.

As it turned out, even if the Mavs (36-30) had won they would have fare no better because Denver beat Minnesota to earn the sixth seed and a date with the Lakers.

Josh Smith had 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a steal in the first quarter, and finished with game highs of 23 points, nine rebounds, seven assists. Jeff Teague added 17 points for Atlanta, which shot 52.9 percent.

Jason Kidd did not play for Dallas as coach Rick Carlisle rested him for the second game in a row, and Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 22 points while playing a modest 26:09. He did not play in the fourth quarter as the Mavs lost their second straight game.

QUOTABLE: "It feels good. We definitely wanted to be able to get home court advantage. We understand the importance of it, and we came out like a team on a mission tonight."
-- Josh Smith.

THE STAT: The Hawks beat the Mavs every which way other than at the free-throw line, but their 50-38 edge in the paint was most significant.

TURNING POINT: Tied at 6, the Hawks went on a 25-5 run during which Smith had 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Game over.

QUOTABLE II: "I thought the first quarter was horrible. [Oklahoma City] is a great, young team. We had an intense series with them last year. We don't have a lot of prep time."
-- Rick Carlisle.

HOT: The Hawks made 16-for-23 shots (69.6 percent) in the first quarter on the way to a 38-21 lead. Smith was 5-for-6, Joe Johnson 4-for-6 and Atlanta starters were 14-for-20. . . . Nowitzki made all seven of his free throws and finished the regular season making 40-for-41 over Dallas' final six games.

NOT: Dallas sub Dominque Jones missed all five of his shots. He did grab a season-high six rebounds, however.

IN THE ARENA: Former Falcons running back Jamal Anderson, who rushed for 1,846 yards on an NFL-record 410 carries while leading Atlanta to Super Bowl XXXIII following the 1998 season, was in the house.

NOTABLE: Hawks center Zaza Pachulia missed his seventh straight game with a sprained left foot, and coach Larry Drew said, "I'm not getting my hopes up," for his return for Game 1 Sunday. . . . Reserve point guard Jannero Pargo missed the game for Atlanta with a stiff back. . . .In addition to losing to the Celtics in seven games in the first round of the 2008 playoffs, the Hawks lost in seven games to Boston in 1988 -- when Celtics coach Doc Rivers played for Atlanta -- after failing to clinch the series in Game 6 in Atlanta.

UP NEXT: For the Mavericks, Saturday @ Oklahoma City. For the Hawks, Sunday vs. Boston.

• Mavericks: Kidd, Odom
• Hawks: Horford, Pachulia

• Mavericks: Nowitzki
• Hawks: --

• Lead Changes: 1
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA
• Officials: #13 Monty McCutchen, #33 Zach Zarba, #35 Kane Fitzgerald
• Attendance: 14595
• Duration: 2:00