HAWKS BEAT TWOLVES FOR 8TH STRAIGHT HOME WIN

The Atlanta Hawks continued their solid play at home on Tuesday night, opening a big first half lead en route to a 109-97 triumph over the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves.  It was the eighth straight win for the Hawks at Phillips Arena, raising their home record for the season to an impressive 28-7.  The victory also allowed the Hawks to maintain their grip on 4^th place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference with the Miami Heat still 4 ½ games behind.

While everyone has beat up on Minnesota this season, the Hawks have been doing it for a while now—they’ve now won eight of their last nine games against the Timberwolves.  Atlanta also won their sixth straight game overall, while Minnesota continues to flounder.  The Twolves have lost five straight overall, seven straight on the road and eight of their last 10. 

Hawks reserve guard Ronald ‘Flip’ Murray scored a season high 30 points to pace his team’s scoring, followed by Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby with 20 points apiece.  Al Horford contributed a ‘double/double’ with 12 points and 13 rebounds, with Maurice Evans adding 10 points.  Minnesota was led by Randy Foye with 19 and Kevin Love with 17.  No other TWolves starter had more than six points.  Reserves Rodney Carney and Bobby Brown took up some of the slack with 13 and 11 points respectively.

After the game Hawks’ coach Mike Woodson commented on his team’s solid play at home:

"I feel good about the way we've been playing at home. I know the players individually feel good about it as well."

The eight game home winning streak is the longest in over a decade—Atlanta won twenty straight home games in 1996-1997 when the team still played at the now demolished Omni Arena.  While the Hawks play their next three games at home, adding to the current streak won’t come easy:  they’ll face the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, the Boston Celtics on Friday and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.  Despite the high level of competition, the team is confident according to guard Joe Johnson:

"It's going to be a big stretch, man, but I feel good about our chances here at home. We've just got to come prepared and play our hearts out every night because it's going to be tough."

Ronald Murray agreed with his teammate about the high level of confidence that the Hawks have on their Phillips Arena home court:

"We're confident in our building. The fans are behind us. The energy that they're feeding us out there is really helping us and motivating us out there on the court."

Minnesota, meanwhile, is just playing out the schedule and trying to avoid a last place finish.  They’ll continue on the road this week against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.  They’ll return home on Sunday to play the New Jersey Nets.