Jamal Crawford showed the New Jersey Nets Tuesday night why he's the odds-on favorite to win the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award.
After a tightly contested first quarter, Crawford exploded for 15 of his game-high 25 points in the second quarter, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the first half. Behind Crawford, the Atlanta Hawks turned the game into a laugher as they blew out the Nets, 108-84.
With the Hawks playing without All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson, Crawford stole the show. After the Nets grabbed a 27-26 lead with 8:32 left to play in the second quarter, Atlanta outscored New Jersey 29-12 to end the half.
"Jamal really came in and gave us a boost off the bench," said Hawks' center Al Horford, who notched a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. "It's a luxury that we have on this team. We really don't take him for granted. He can come in and change games for us."
After Crawford's three-pointer gave Atlanta a 55-39 lead at halftime, the Hawks never looked back. They outscored the Nets, 33-17, in the second quarter and subsequently bested New Jersey in the third and fourth quarters.
Josh Boone, who had a career night for New Jersey with 13 points and 20 rebounds, said Crawford's last-second triple essentially ended any chance the Nets had of coming back.
"He came off the bench and got hot very quickly," Boone said. "Then he hit that three at the buzzer at the end of the second quarter. That was a big shot, that was a big momentum shot.
"He was big for them tonight... He's one of the best scorers coming off the bench in the league."
Outside of Boone and center Brook Lopez, who scored a team-high 21 points, the Nets couldn't throw the ball in the ocean against the Hawks. As a team, the Nets shot 38.5 percent from the field. Not counting Lopez and Boone, the rest of the team shot 17-of-56, good for 30.4 percent.
"Unfortunately, [the shots] just didn't fall for us tonight," Boone said. "We shot 38 percent from the floor, so it's tough to win games when you do that."
The lead ballooned to as many as 20 when Marvin Williams knocked down a three-pointer to give Atlanta a 76-56 lead with 1:05 left in the third quarter.
The Hawks pushed their lead to 26, their largest of the night, when rookie guard Jeff Teague elevated for a dunk with 2:09 left in the game. Atlanta led, 104-78, but it still kept pushing the envelope. The Hawks' reserves continued to press and attempt highlight-reel dunks.
The only noteworthy play in the final frame came when Terrence Williams hacked the Hawks' Maurice Evans, who was attempting another dunk with 13 seconds left in the game and Atlanta leading, 107-84. The officials assessed Williams with a flagrant foul.
Williams attributed the foul to Atlanta's aggressiveness in the last few minutes of a game that was decided by halftime.
"It's never frustration, but a player and a team, I think, should only take so much when you know you're down and you know the other team is going to win, and everybody just [wants] to dunk," Williams said. "That's not the type of basketball I grew up playing, for either team, high school or college."
In the three times the two teams have met this season, Atlanta has won by an average of 25.7 points. Luckily for New Jersey, it does not have to face Atlanta again this season.
The Nets dropped to 7-60. They now must win 3-of-15 to avoid the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers 9-73 mark for worst record in NBA history. Fittingly, New Jersey travels to Philadelphia Wednesday night to finish the back end of back-to-back games.
Both Lopez and Boone emphasized the need to get a win, but did say every game is a must-win at this point.
"We need every game," Lopez said bluntly.
"At this point, we need any game we can get," Boone said. "The Sixers game is one of those games that we've kind of been playing tight with them throughout the course of the season. Every game has been close so far. It's going to be a big game for us, but tonight was a big game for us and we let it slip away early."
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