Magic crush Hawks in Game 5

The Hawks still have home-court advantage and history on their side. They can win the series with a victory in Game 6 on Thursday at Philips Arena, and only eight of 194 NBA teams that have faced a 3-1 series deficit have rallied to win.

But Tuesday the Hawks looked nothing like the focused, poised group that had won six of eight games against the Magic this season. The Hawks instead resembled the group that Orlando swept by an NBA-record margin of 101 points in the second round of the 2010 playoffs.

The Hawks now must recover from their first lopsided loss to the Magic since last spring. The Magic took control with a torrid burst of points in the first half, and the Hawks never recovered.

The Hawks said they expected Orlando’s best game of the series and got it.

“This is the first time we’ve been in this kind of position where we are up 3-1,” Hawks center Al Horford said before the game. “We are a different team, but they are coming out and giving us all they have. We have to make sure we come out ready and expect it, and it will show some growth if we are able to come out on top.”

The Hawks flopped. They failed in their bid to become the first Hawks team since 1996 to close out a series on the road and only the fifth since the franchise moved to Atlanta in 1968.

In the past three games of the series, the Hawks had trouble holding big leads. This time the Hawks never led after they were up 6-5 and were down by more than 20 points early in the second quarter.

The defensive strategy that had worked so well for the Hawks — focus on the Magic’s shooters while not double-teaming center Dwight Howard — disintegrated amid a flurry of points by Orlando’s role players.

Magic players who previously couldn’t make a shot in the series, suddenly were hot. Jason Richardson, J.J. Redick, and Hedo Turkoglu combined to make 16 of 29 shots, including four of seven 3-point attempts.

The Magic didn’t need another big game from Howard, who scored a series-low eight points after he had averaged 32.3 in the first four games. The Magic also didn’t need their starters after building a 79-53 lead after three quarters.

Howard had played 181 of a possible 192 minutes in the first four games, and coach Stan Van Gundy planned more of the same in Game 5.

“I don’t want to give away a big secret, but he’s not going to get a lot of rest,” Van Gundy said before the game.

But the Magic had what proved to be a decisive surge when Howard went to the bench with two fouls in the first quarter. Orlando closed the quarter on a 9-0 run to lead 26-13 when Howard returned.

The Magic continued to pour it on in the second quarter and led 58-35 at halftime. Magic fans who had watched the Magic lose Game 1 and sputter to victory in Game 2 here finally got to celebrate a complete effort.

“Coming back to this building, the energy is going to be high,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said before the game. “The Magic have a lot of pride. They play hard. We have to expect we are not going to get a lot of calls. There’s a certain mentality you definitely have to have to come in and close out a team.”

The Hawks didn’t have it. As the Magic sizzled on offense, the Hawks struggled to get quality looks at the basket because of Orlando’s defensive pressure and the Hawks’ poor shot selection.

The Hawks had hoped to end the series Tuesday after they needed seven games to win playoff series during each of the past two postseasons. Now they will try to win a series in fewer than the maximum number of games for the first time since defeating Indiana 3-1 in a best-of-five in 1987.