Revenge was a dish best served by veteran Hawks point guard Mike Bibby on Saturday night.
Roughly 24 hours after suffering through one of his worst shooting nights of the season in a home loss to Philadelphia, Bibby helped the Hawks return the favor by draining two huge shots in the final minutes to lift the Hawks to a crucial 92-85 victory over the 76ers at Wachovia Center
Bibby acknowledged that if not for his poor shooting Friday night, he went 1-for-11 in that loss, the Hawks might have been celebrating back-to-back wins over the 76ers.
"I'm the type of person you have to take the good with the bad," Bibby said after the Hawks' (36-41) sixth win in their past seven games. "People with regular jobs don't have perfect days every day. I'm no different. And this is an up-and-down job for every guy in this locker room."
The good came late Saturday, as Bibby was just 2-for-11 from the floor when he hit the first of his two game-changing shots.
The first was a 3-pointer with 2:57 to play that extended the Hawks' lead to 10 points (88-78) and squash a 76ers run that began six minutes earlier.
The second was a pull-up jumper in the lane with 34.4 seconds to play that finished off the 76ers, who clinched their playoff spot with Friday's win.
"I don't care if he's 0-for-15," Josh Smith said. "he's a shooter, and we trust him. In crunch situations, I want to him have that same confidence that he always does. And he gave it to us with those two shots that helped finish this game."
Bibby got an earful from both Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his backcourt mate, captain and All-Star Joe Johnson. Both of them kept reminding Bibby not to let up, no matter how many shots he missed.
"Mike kept telling me he was going to knock one of those shots down," Johnson said after leading the Hawks with 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists. "And I told him I was going to keep passing it to him until he did. He's been big for us all year [since coming over in a trade deadline deal with Sacramento], so there's no reason for us to go away from him now."
Woodson, who has guided the Hawks to the franchise's best win total in a decade, even called Bibby over during timeouts in the second half to prod him into shooting the ball again.
"I just kept telling him to shoot the ball," Woodson said. "Don't stop shooting the ball. And I hollered at him at one point and told him, 'you're going to make one of these in a minute.' And he came back and sank that 3-pointer and then the jumper to seal the deal."
The Hawks' magic number to clinch a playoff spot is three.
With road games coming up at Indiana [Tuesday] and New York [Friday], their opportunity is in their hands.
"These guys are hungry, man," Woodson said of his team. "They feel that urgency like we all do. ... We're in a great position to do something that a young team has not done in a long time in our league. And that's what we're pushing for."
source - By SEKOU SMITHThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 04/06/08
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/2008/04/05/hawks_0406.html
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