Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford is a sixth man who does his best work in the fourth quarter.
Crawford dictated the Hawks’ end-game strategy in the final two minutes to secure a 102-96 victory against the Celtics [team stats] in an emotionally fueled encounter last night at the Garden.
The Hawks clinched their third win against the Celtics this season and their second in the last four days. In the Hawks’ 93-85 victory Friday night in Atlanta, Crawford scored 14 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. Crawford leads the NBA in scoring (16.9 ppg) among players that have not started a game, and matched that almost exactly with 17 points last night.
“We called his number and if he didn’t have it he would kick it out to Joe (Johnson) and let Joe play,” Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said.
Crawford scored the final six points of the game with two from the line, a driving layup and a pull-up jumper along the baseline. Crawford’s final two buckets were set up by excellent ball movement that burned both the clock and the Celtics.
“They couldn’t really key on one person,” Crawford said. “When you give the extra pass you give yourself up for the team and good things usually happen.
“Everybody is doing that right now.”
Crawford had to get his defensive house in order before Woodson would allow him to call his own number in the Celtics end. C’s point guard Rajon Rondo [stats], who was coming off a triple-double Sunday in Toronto, scalded the Hawks with drives and jumpers en route to a team-high 26 points. The Hawks amped up their defense in the fourth quarter and held the Celtics to 16 points. Rondo’s lone bucket in the fourth came on a goaltending call.
“I had to turn it up (defensively),” Crawford said. “Coach challenged me at halftime and said, ‘I need you to be a better defender and now is the time to step it up.’
“I just wanted to do a better job and my teammates did a great job helping me.”
Johnson, who finished with 36 points, opened Atlanta’s scoring run in the fourth quarter with a trey and a pair of medium-range jumpers to tie the game at 84 with 7:26 to play. He gave Atlanta a 94-93 lead on a fallaway jumper along the baseline to set the stage for Crawford’s heroics.
“I just took pretty much what the defense gave me,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be aggressive, I took a lot of contested shots tonight.”
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