The Atlanta Hawks jumped out to a 28-11 lead in the first quarter and never looked back running away with a 106-70 season opening victory over the New Jersey Nets. Atlanta used a balanced scoring attack and one of the team's best defensive efforts in recent memory.
Coming into the game, Atlanta's bench was a big question mark but it delivered against the Nets and enabled Larry Drew to rest his starters for the entire fourth quarter. Newly acquired Vladimir Radmanovic scored a team-high 17 points and also chipped in five assists and four steals. Marvin Williams hit his first two three-point attempts on his way to 14 points and nine rebounds in just 21 minutes of action. Jeff Teague and Zaza Pachulia each finished with 13 points. Pachulia logged a double-double by also grabbing 11 rebounds. Tracy McGrady also came off the bench to score 12 points.
Marshon Brooks led the Nets with 17 points. Kris Humphries finished with 11 points while Deron Williams had 10 points and just one assist and six turnovers.
Atlanta dominated just about every statistic hitting 44 percent of their shots and building a 51-36 rebounding advantage. The Hawks scored 24 points on 18 New Jersey turnovers.
Atlanta gets to enjoy this win on their flight home but are right back in action on Wednesday when they host the Washington Wizards in their home opener at Philips Arena.
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