Johnson, Hawks fly into first

ATLANTA — When Al Horford tumbled to the court, his hopes of playing again this season all but snuffed out, some figured he’d take the Atlanta Hawks down with him.

Well, look who’s in first place.

The Hawks have won four consecutive since their All-Star center tore his left pectoral muscle, an injury that required surgery and will keep him out for most if not the entire rest of the season.

A talented team known for buckling under pressure, Atlanta has shown surprising grit and resolve in the wake of Horford’s devastating injury.

“Everyone really sucked it up to do a little more to fill that void,” forward Marvin Williams said. “You can’t really replace a guy like that. The whole team has to chip in a little bit to do the things he does.”

Granted, all four victories since Horford’s injury have come at home, and three were against teams with losing records. Still, the Hawks have impressed even themselves by managing to hang together, led by Joe Johnson (Little Rock Central, Arkansas Razorbacks) and Josh Smith but getting contributions from nearly everyone on the roster.

Smith, in particular, has taken his game to a new level. Only 26, he’s been in the league for seven up-and-down seasons, always appearing on the verge of a breakthroughbut never quite establishing himself as one of the league’s elite offensive players.

Since Horford went down, Smith is averaging 21.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, stirring talk that he deserves his first trip to the All-Star Game.

Johnson is a five-time All-Star, but he was coming off a tough shooting year and got off to a sluggish start this season. That all changed when the Hawks lost Horford. Since then, Johnson is averaging just less than 25 points a game.

“Everybody really made a conscious effort to step their play up, whether it was the bench or the starters,” Johnson said. “There’s an understanding that without Al, we’re missing a big piece of what we do here. Everybody has really focused in a lot more and really stepped their game up.”

The Hawks’ revamped bench has made Horford’sinjury a lot easier to absorb. Even though cost-conscious Atlanta failed to re-sign Jamal Crawford, the NBA’s Sixth Man winner in 2010, some bargain acquisitions by General Manager Rick Sund have paid big dividends.

Tracy McGrady has shown flashes of the skills that once made him such a feared player. Willie Green is giving the Hawks quality minutes. So is former Razorback Jannero Pargo, running the second unit. And then there’s Ivan Johnson, who’s been the biggest surprise of all.

A 27-year-old rookie who’s had problems controlling his temper, he was banned from the Korean league for frequent misconduct, culminating with an obscene gesture toward an official, and he was benched in the NBA Development League for getting too many technicals.

He seems to understand this might be his last chance, playing with the sort of controlled desperation that had always eluded him. He’s got potential, which is why he was on the court in the final minute of Wednesday’s 92-89 victory over Portland.

“The bench has been huge all year,” Williams said. “We’ve started slow a couple of times, but they’ve come in and really turned it up for us.”