Hawks halt Oklahoma City’s winning run

WASHINGTON: The short-handed Hawks defeated Nba-leading Oklahoma City 97-90 in Atlanta on Saturday, snapping the Thunder’s seven-game winning streak.

Josh Smith scored 30 points with 12 rebounds for Atlanta, delivering the big game the Hawks needed as they coped with the absence of leading scorer Joe Johnson and reserve guard Willie Green.

“We were able to compete at a very high level against probably the best team in the league,” said Atlanta coach Larry Drew, whose team also lost Tracy Mcgrady to a knee injury in the first quarter.

“I thought our guys did a phenomenal job and just competing given what the situation was. I take my hat off to every guy in the locker room.”

Atlanta surrendered a doubledigit lead late in the third quarter, but they opened the fourth with an 11-4 scoring run.

“We didn’t get rattled,” Smith said. “We tightened up the defence and we willed ourselves on the offensive end to make plays.”

With less than five minutes to play the Hawks led 87-79, but the Thunder – who came into the game with a league-leading 29-7 record – pulled within one before the Hawks turned them back.

Smith drained a three-pointer with 2:01 to play to make it 92-88. With a minute left a Smith basket stretched Atlanta’s lead to 95-90.

Kevin Durant, the NBA’S secondleading scorer, finished with a gamehigh 35 points for the Thunder and Russell Westbrook added 25.

“Nobody would have probably ever given us a chance to be able to win this game,” Smith said of a Hawks team that improved to 22-15. “We played well ... we just played together.”

Dallas Mavericks ended a fourgame losing streak with a 102-96 win over the Utah Jazz in the on Saturday.

Dirk Nowitzki scored a seasonhigh 40 points.

In Portland, Oregon, Kevin Love scored a season-high 42 points and added 10 rebounds as Minnesota ended a 16-game losing streak to Portland.

The Timberwolves had not defeated the Trail Blazers since a 94-93 victory at home on March 25, 2007.