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Kings lose 5th straight, remain winless on East Coast trip
By Ben Schneider
January 20, 2010
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Atlanta Hawks' Jamal Crawford (11) drives to the basket past Sacramento Kings' Beno Udrih (19), of Slovenia, and Omri Casspi (18), of Israel , in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010, in Atlanta. (AP Photo)
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Jamal Crawford scored 20 points off the bench to pace the Atlanta Hawks in a 108-97 victory against the Sacramento Kings at Philips Arena.
Joe Johnson went for 17 points and seven assists, Josh Smith scored 16 and grabbed nine rebounds and Al Horford added 15 points for the Hawks, who were coming off a 94-91 defeat to Oklahoma City on Monday.
Atlanta improved to 3-1 on a five-game home stand that ends Friday against Charlotte. Marvin Williams came up with 13 points in the balanced win.
Tyreke Evans totaled 24 points and five assists, and Kevin Martin scored 23 with five helpers for Sacramento, which is without a win in four tries on a six-game road trip and has dropped five straight overall.
Omri Casspi posted 16 points and eight boards, and Jason Thompson chipped in 14 points in the loss, the Kings' 10th in 11 games.
"They were tough in the first half, led by their young rookie. He pretty much carried them in the first half. Give them a lot of credit. They fought hard and never gave up," said Johnson.
Atlanta opened the second half on a 10-2 run and quickly built up a 10-point lead five minutes in. The Hawks increased their advantage to 81-68 by ending the third on a 9-0 spurt.
"I'm very impressed with the Hawks. They're a tough team. They kept pressure on us for 48 minutes. I thought we had a lot of good minutes for this game but we didn't have 48 of them. They pretty much cracked us open in the third quarter," Kings head coach Paul Westphal said.
The Kings will also make stops in Orlando and Miami before returning home. They are 3-17 away from ARCO Arena this season. The Hawks are 17-5 at home on the year...Atlanta defeated Sacramento, 113-105, earlier this season and has won five straight in the series. The Kings scored a staggering 66 of their 97 points in the paint...The visitors, though, got to the line half as often as Atlanta, making 12-of-15 free throws. The Hawks drained 23-of-28 from the charity stripe and shot 51.3 percent from the field...Sacramento shot 47.1 percent. Beno Udrih contributed eight points and eight assists in defeat.
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