Marvin Williams had 14 points and nine rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks opened a double-digit lead early and cruised to a 106-70 victory against the sluggish New Jersey Nets on Tuesday night in their final home opener at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Jeff Teague added 13 points, Joe Johnson had 11 and the Hawks got big games off the bench from Zaza Pachulia (13 points and 11 rebounds) and Vladimir Radmanovic (17 points) in finally opening the lockout-delayed season by embarrassing the Nets in a game in which the crowd was booing the Brooklyn-bound team by halftime.
Entering Tuesday, only Atlanta and Utah had not played a game.
Rookie MarShon Brooks had 17 points to lead the cold-shooting Nets, who looked tired coming off a season-opening win Monday in Washington.
The Hawks, who held the Nets to a dismal 31 percent shooting from the field, took command early as Williams hit two 3-pointers in a game-opening 11-2 spurt.
Atlanta led 28-11 at the end of the first quarter with Radmanovic supplying a late spark with nine points.
Atlanta, which has made the playoffs the past four seasons, was not overly impressive.
It shot 44.2 percent from the field and only showed flashes of good basketball.
The best came early in the second half when Williams and Josh Smith combined on a fastbreak in which the ball did not touch the floor and they exchanged four passes before Smith hit a layup.
The Hawks increased their lead to 22 points at halftime on a long 3-pointer by Teague with less than a second to play.
They led by as many as 39 points while resting most of the their starters for the final 18 minutes.
Hawks guard Willie Green played in his 500th game.
The Hawks had lost in their previous two visits to New Jersey.
The Nets, who never led in the game, also gave up early, sitting Deron Williams and Kris Humphries most of the second half.
Deron Williams finished with 10 points on 3 of 11 shooting with six turnovers, while Humphries had 11 points and six rebounds.
The most shocking part of the night was the cheers that Humphries got.
He has been booed early in the preseason because of his embarrassing failed marriage to Kim Kardashian.
He was wildly cheered by the fans at the Prudential Center.
When he played well early, there were even cheers of "We love Humphries!"
Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
First published on December 28, 2011 at 12:00 am
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11362/1199652-275.stm?cmpid=sports.xml
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