Atlanta Hawks: Clippers 96, Hawks 82

Los Angeles--At the end of a long road trip and with a roster depleted by injuries, the Hawks gave a pretty-good-if-sloppy effort against the Clippers but couldn’t make plays at winning times and finished the trip 2-4.

• “We clearly just ran out of steam,” Larry Drew said.
• Whether you see that as an excuse or a legitimate explanation probably depends on your mood. My guess is it’s not charitable because of the sting of close Ls at Miami, Detroit and, especially, Denver.
• “We can’t hang our heads, but you have got to be a little disappointed,” Josh Smith said. “We had an opportunity to win in Miami. We definitely had an opportunity to win in Detroit. And the game last night was definitely our game and we gave it away. This is our last long away trip. We’ve got to take care of the home games and worry about these Eastern Conference teams and try to climb up.”
• “We have just got to fine tune these last 20-something odd games,” Joe Johnson said. “The trip is definitely not as successful as we wanted. Nowhere near. We have just go to get back home and try to string some wins together and move up the ladder board.”
• The Hawks already were down Al Horford and Ivan Johnson in the frontcourt and another option, Marvin Williams, was out too. Then Vladimir Radmanovic (back) was a late scratch and Josh was in early foul trouble.
• “I’ve got to take my hat off to my guys,” Drew said. “We knew coming in this would be a physical game and, big-man wise, we were limited. Then we got word right before the game Vladimir couldn’t go because of his back. That left us with one big guy coming off the bench, [Erick] Dampier. So basically we were left with figuring out how to stay in the game and manage the game.”
• It turned out the Clips guards Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe hurt the Hawks more than their bigs. But a good deal of that could be contributed to Atlanta playing zone and the guards sagging to help with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Also, Reggie Evans bulled his way 10 rebounds, four of them on offense.
• “We paid so much attention to their inside presence and Chris Paul running the pick-and-roll that [Mo Williams] basically went out there shooting darts,” Joe said.
• “It looked like they were moving a lot faster than we were,” Drew said of Mo Williams and Bledsoe.
• You can see the Hawks’ offense slowly start to evolve to the point where it needs Josh on the court to function effectively. As soon as he entered the game in the second quarter after sitting with two fouls, he scored four straight baskets. As soon as he left after picking up his third, scoring became a struggle again.
• “We didn’t have anybody to go to in the post to go to to pressure their guys,” Joe said. “We basically shot a lot of jump shots and we kind of lost rhythm.”
• The Hawks managed to stay in striking position. Josh scored five points on one trip when he made two free throws after a clear path foul and then sank a 3-pointer. But that’s when it looked like the Hawks lost their legs at the same time Mo and Bledsoe were hitting everything.
• Here’s how their next eight possessions went: Josh missed on a drive, Jerry Stackhouse had his layup blocked on the break, Jannero Pargo turned it over, Tracy McGrady turned it over, McGrady made a 3, McGrady turned it over again, Kirk Hinrich shot an airball, and Joe turned it over.
• Joe: “No excuses. Everyone’s schedule has been pretty tough. We wanted to give ourselves a chance to win but we just kept turning the ball over and couldn’t really close the gap.”
• Ivan Johnson is expected to return to play Friday against the Wizards. Marvin, Vladimir and Willie Green are up in the air. The Hawks just can’t ever seem to get their full complement of players dressed.
• Drew: “It feels a little bit like ’snakebit.’ But it is something we are going to have to work through and push through and face. We can’t make any excuses because a lot of teams go through injuries. We will lick our wounds on this trip and we will go home and be OK.”
• Joe: “We keep mixing and matching lineups. You don’t know who is going to play or not play. It’s a little tough and mind-boggling but, at the same time, the way the schedule is, we have just got to deal with it.”

The Hawks have to get it together because Boston is creeping up from behind in the East.

• Josh: “We are not worried about it. We have just got to stay positive and not worry about anybody catching up to us and just put a strong of games together and not worry about the pressure of dropping a seed.”

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat