With Al Horford (ankle), Marvin Williams (back) and Josh Powell (conduct detrimental) all back in Atlanta, the Hawks can ill afford to lose anymore players to injury. Yet Joe Johnson left the game with an injured knee after landing awkwardly on a drive to the basket. Johnson immediately had his knee wrapped in ice and there is no report on his status as of yet. Before exiting, Johnson was off to a wonderful start scoring 16 points while shooting 6-10 from the field. Josh Smith added eight points and Jamal Crawford seven for the Hawks who shot 39% from the first half.
The Hawks will have to dig in defensively as the Bobcats shot 50% from the field in the first half with D.J. Augustine leading the way with 11 first half points. Stephen Jackson added nine points with all of them coming from three point range. Kwame Brown scored seven points for Charlotte.
At the half, Charlotte has a 20-18 advantage in rebounding and is leading in assists 13-9. Atlanta turned the ball over four times while the Bobcats only had three in the first half. In addition to picking up their play defensively, Atlanta is going to have to finish quarters better as the Bobcats closed both the first and second periods with late runs enabling them to take a five point lead into the half.