ATLANTA (AP) — Larry Drew is returning for his third season as the Atlanta Hawks’ coach despite the team’s first-round exit from the playoffs.

The Hawks announced Friday the team is exercising its option on Drew’s contract for next season.

“Larry did an outstanding job this season in guiding our team to the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference, despite a condensed schedule and unfortunate injuries,” said general manager Rick Sund.

“The Hawks have reached the postseason in each of his years on the bench, and we feel Larry’s experience, expertise and dedication to the game were a key ingredient to our success.”

Drew led the Hawks to a 40-26 regular-season record before the team lost to the Boston Celtics in six games in the first round of the playoffs. It was a step back for the franchise after three straight second-round appearances.

Atlanta had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference despite losing All-Star center Al Horford for all but 11 games of the regular season. Horford returned in Game 4 of the Celtics series.

The Hawks also lost Joe Johnson, Zaza Pachulia, Kirk Hinrich and other players for stretches of six or more games.

“This group, we never really got to show what we’re capable of,” Horford said last week.

Pachulia, who was Horford’s top backup, missed the Celtics series with a chipped bone in his left foot. Third-string center Jason Collins started the first four games of the series.

Drew said he and his staff “endured a lot of unexpected things.”

“Obviously when you lose an All-Star at the beginning of the season, you have to make some adjustments and you’ve got to kind of change your way of thinking of how you deal with the team now,” Drew said last week. “Certainly when you have factored a guy in for the entire season and then he won’t be there, you’ve got to change some things around, particularly the mindset of the rest of the team.”

Drew said he did a good job of keeping the team playing hard.

“It’s something I take a lot of pride in and spend a lot of time on,” he said. “Player relationships are very important and how you deal with it, how you deal with your best player all the way down to the guy who may not dress out during games.

“I thought I did a good job with that. I thought my staff did a good job with that. We can only control so much, but the one thing we tried to control is that those guys when they come to that gym they come out and play hard for you every single night, and I thought we got that.”

Drew is 84-64 in two regular seasons and 8-10 in the playoffs. The Hawks were 17-16 on the road this season, the team’s first winning record away from Atlanta in 13 years.

The team’s five starters and Pachulia are under contract for next season. Nine players are free agents, and Sund’s contract expires on June 30.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ATLANTA (AP)

Larry Drew is returning for his third season as the Atlanta Hawks’ coach despite the team’s first-round exit from the playoffs.

The Hawks announced Friday the team is exercising its option on Drew’s contract for next season.

”Larry did an outstanding job this season in guiding our team to the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference, despite a condensed schedule and unfortunate injuries,” said general manager Rick Sund.

”The Hawks have reached the postseason in each of his years on the bench, and we feel Larry’s experience, expertise and dedication to the game were a key ingredient to our success.”

Drew led the Hawks to a 40-26 regular-season record before the team lost to the Boston Celtics in six games in the first round of the playoffs. It was a step back for the franchise after three straight second-round appearances.

Atlanta had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference despite losing All-Star center Al Horford for all but 11 games of the regular season. Horford returned in Game 4 of the Celtics series.

The Hawks also lost Joe Johnson, Zaza Pachulia, Kirk Hinrich and other players for stretches of six or more games.

”This group, we never really got to show what we’re capable of,” Horford said last week.

Pachulia, who was Horford’s top backup, missed the Celtics series with a chipped bone in his left foot. Third-string center Jason Collins started the first four games of the series.

Drew said he and his staff ”endured a lot of unexpected things.”

”Obviously when you lose an All-Star at the beginning of the season, you have to make some adjustments and you’ve got to kind of change your way of thinking of how you deal with the team now,” Drew said last week. ”Certainly when you have factored a guy in for the entire season and then he won’t be there, you’ve got to change some things around, particularly the mindset of the rest of the team.”

Drew said he did a good job of keeping the team playing hard.

”It’s something I take a lot of pride in and spend a lot of time on,” he said. ”Player relationships are very important and how you deal with it, how you deal with your best player all the way down to the guy who may not dress out during games.

”I thought I did a good job with that. I thought my staff did a good job with that. We can only control so much, but the one thing we tried to control is that those guys when they come to that gym they come out and play hard for you every single night, and I thought we got that.”

Drew is 84-64 in two regular seasons and 8-10 in the playoffs. The Hawks were 17-16 on the road this season, the team’s first winning record away from Atlanta in 13 years.

The team’s five starters and Pachulia are under contract for next season. Nine players are free agents, and Sund’s contract expires on June 30.

ATLANTA (AP) — Larry Drew is returning for his third season as the Atlanta Hawks‘ coach despite the team’s first-round exit from the playoffs.

The Hawks announced Friday the team is exercising its option on Drew’s contract for next season.

“Larry did an outstanding job this season in guiding our team to the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference, despite a condensed schedule and unfortunate injuries,” said general manager Rick Sund.

“The Hawks have reached the postseason in each of his years on the bench, and we feel Larry’s experience, expertise and dedication to the game were a key ingredient to our success.”

Drew led the Hawks to a 40-26 regular-season record before the team lost to the Boston Celtics in six games in the first round of the playoffs. It was a step back for the franchise after three straight second-round appearances.

Atlanta had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference despite losing All-Star center Al Horford for all but 11 games of the regular season. Horford returned in Game 4 of the Celtics series.

The Hawks also lost Joe Johnson, Zaza Pachulia, Kirk Hinrich and other players for stretches of six or more games.

“This group, we never really got to show what we’re capable of,” Horford said last week.

Pachulia, who was Horford’s top backup, missed the Celtics series with a chipped bone in his left foot. Third-string center Jason Collins started the first four games of the series.

Drew said he and his staff “endured a lot of unexpected things.”

“Obviously when you lose an All-Star at the beginning of the season, you have to make some adjustments and you’ve got to kind of change your way of thinking of how you deal with the team now,” Drew said last week. “Certainly when you have factored a guy in for the entire season and then he won’t be there, you’ve got to change some things around, particularly the mindset of the rest of the team.”

Drew said he did a good job of keeping the team playing hard.

“It’s something I take a lot of pride in and spend a lot of time on,” he said. “Player relationships are very important and how you deal with it, how you deal with your best player all the way down to the guy who may not dress out during games.

“I thought I did a good job with that. I thought my staff did a good job with that. We can only control so much, but the one thing we tried to control is that those guys when they come to that gym they come out and play hard for you every single night, and I thought we got that.”

Drew is 84-64 in two regular seasons and 8-10 in the playoffs. The Hawks were 17-16 on the road this season, the team’s first winning record away from Atlanta in 13 years.

The team’s five starters and Pachulia are under contract for next season. Nine players are free agents, and Sund’s contract expires on June 30.

ATLANTA – Four years ago, Boston and Atlanta were in much different places when they met in the NBA playoffs.

The Celtics, a champion in the making. The Hawks, a team on the rise.

Watch the NBA playoffs LIVE on Sportsnet ONE at 7:00 p.m. ET.

This time, they’re in a similar situation: playing to stay together.

The Celtics are possibly making a last stand with their aging Big Three – Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Hawks have a younger core but desperately need a long run in the playoffs to justify keeping all the important pieces intact, especially dynamic forward Josh Smith, who has one more year on his contract and a checkered relationship with his hometown team.

Game 1 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday night in Atlanta, which has home-court advantage despite being the lower-seeded team.

“Both teams are playing for their survival as a group,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Saturday. “If we win the series, and keep winning, you’re going to want to build on this group. If we win, you may not see that (Hawks) team anymore.”

Atlanta has made three straight trips to the second round, including a tough six-game loss last year to the top-seeded Chicago Bulls. But the Hawks have never won more than one playoff series in any given year since moving from St. Louis in 1968, which has turned the city into something of a basketball wasteland.

When it comes to attendance, Atlanta generally ranks near the bottom of the league no matter its record (this year, the Hawks were 23rd overall and second-worst among playoff teams). Many of the fans who do turn out in this city of transplants tend to root for the other team, which was certainly the case for Boston’s two visits to Philips Arena this season.

Atlanta star Joe Johnson is hoping the fans will be more like there were in the 2008 playoffs, when the Hawks won all three at home before raucous, supportive crowds to surprisingly force a Game 7 against the top-seeded Celtics.

“There was so much excitement here in Atlanta,” Johnson remembered. “Just the way the crowd was into it and made this a very hostile environment. Man, it was pleasing to play in this building. It was a lot of fun.”

What does he expect this time?

“I know it’s going to be loud,” Johnson said, breaking into a sly grin. “I just hope it’s going to be in our favor.”

Neither team is at full strength. Allen has not played in two weeks because of a sore right ankle, and he’s not sure if he’ll be ready to go in the series opener. In fact, if this wasn’t the playoffs, the 36-year-old shooting guard would already be having surgery. Instead, he took a cortisone shot a few days ago and said Saturday the ankle “feels a lot better.”

“As I stand here, just moving around on it, walking around, it feels great,” Allen said at his team’s suburban Boston practice facility, before the team flew to Atlanta. “Now, transferring it out on the floor and moving around on it is the next step.”

The Celtics won’t get any sympathy from their opponent. Atlanta already played most of the season without center Al Horford, who had hoped to be recovered from pectoral surgery in time for the playoffs but has already been ruled out for the Celtics series. The guy who took his starting spot, rugged Zaza Pachulia, missed the last seven games of the regular season with a sprained left foot.

While coach Larry Drew has tried to be coy about Pachulia’s status for the playoffs, saying again Saturday that it will be a game-time decision, the players have already accepted having to start the postseason without their top two centers.

“With us not having Al and Zaza, it’s going to be tough,” Johnson said.

If Pachulia is indeed out, Drew will have to decide on which way to go with his lineup. He could stick with third-stringer Jason Collins as the starting center and leave everyone else in the roles they’ve played so well, including Smith at power forward and Marvin Williams coming off the bench with a highly effective second unit. Or, the Hawks could go smaller and quicker with their first five, moving Smith to center and promoting Williams to the starting lineup.

No matter who’s on the court, Smith figures to spend plenty of time tussling with Garnett at both ends of the court. That figures to be one of the key matchups in the series, along with the one at point guard, where Atlanta’s Jeff Teague gets the difficult task of trying to contain Rajon Rondo. Boston’s superb floor leader averaged more than 14 assists a game and dished out 20 in an overtime win over the Hawks on April 11.

The teams are much more closely matched than they were before Boston’s playoff victory in 2008 – the Hawks finishing one game ahead in the East standings, the Celtics winning two out of three meetings, none of which was decided by more than five points.

Another seven-game marathon is not out of the question.

“They’ve got three Hall of Famers on that team,” Johnson said. “They’re a great veteran group that knows how to get it done.”

He feels good about his own team, too.

“We’re a lot better, a lot deeper, than we’ve ever been. I think now’s the time,” Johnson said. “The main thing I want to do is try to bring a championship here to Atlanta. The city is well overdue. Why not give it a try?”

ATLANTA – Four years ago, Boston and Atlanta were in much different places when they met in the NBA playoffs.

The Celtics, a champion in the making. The Hawks, a team on the rise.

This time, they’re in a similar situation: playing to stay together.

The Celtics are possibly making a last stand with their aging Big Three – Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Hawks have a younger core but desperately need a long run in the playoffs to justify keeping all the important pieces intact, especially dynamic forward Josh Smith, who has one more year on his contract and a checkered relationship with his hometown team.

Game 1 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday night in Atlanta, which has home-court advantage despite being the lower-seeded team.

“Both teams are playing for their survival as a group,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Saturday. “If we win the series, and keep winning, you’re going to want to build on this group. If we win, you may not see that (Hawks) team anymore.”

Atlanta has made three straight trips to the second round, including a tough six-game loss last year to the top-seeded Chicago Bulls. But the Hawks have never won more than one playoff series in any given year since moving from St. Louis in 1968, which has turned the city into something of a basketball wasteland.

When it comes to attendance, Atlanta generally ranks near the bottom of the league no matter its record (this year, the Hawks were 23rd overall and second-worst among playoff teams). Many of the fans who do turn out in this city of transplants tend to root for the other team, which was certainly the case for Boston’s two visits to Philips Arena this season.

Atlanta star Joe Johnson is hoping the fans will be more like there were in the 2008 playoffs, when the Hawks won all three at home before raucous, supportive crowds to surprisingly force a Game 7 against the top-seeded Celtics.

“There was so much excitement here in Atlanta,” Johnson remembered. “Just the way the crowd was into it and made this a very hostile environment. Man, it was pleasing to play in this building. It was a lot of fun.”

What does he expect this time?

“I know it’s going to be loud,” Johnson said, breaking into a sly grin. “I just hope it’s going to be in our favor.”

Neither team is at full strength. Allen has not played in two weeks because of a sore right ankle, and he’s not sure if he’ll be ready to go in the series opener. In fact, if this wasn’t the playoffs, the 36-year-old shooting guard would already be having surgery. Instead, he took a cortisone shot a few days ago and said Saturday the ankle “feels a lot better.”

“As I stand here, just moving around on it, walking around, it feels great,” Allen said at his team’s suburban Boston practice facility, before the team flew to Atlanta. “Now, transferring it out on the floor and moving around on it is the next step.”

The Celtics won’t get any sympathy from their opponent. Atlanta already played most of the season without center Al Horford, who had hoped to be recovered from pectoral surgery in time for the playoffs but has already been ruled out for the Celtics series. The guy who took his starting spot, rugged Zaza Pachulia, missed the last seven games of the regular season with a sprained left foot.

While coach Larry Drew has tried to be coy about Pachulia’s status for the playoffs, saying again Saturday that it will be a game-time decision, the players have already accepted having to start the postseason without their top two centers.

“With us not having Al and Zaza, it’s going to be tough,” Johnson said.

If Pachulia is indeed out, Drew will have to decide on which way to go with his lineup. He could stick with third-stringer Jason Collins as the starting center and leave everyone else in the roles they’ve played so well, including Smith at power forward and Marvin Williams coming off the bench with a highly effective second unit. Or, the Hawks could go smaller and quicker with their first five, moving Smith to center and promoting Williams to the starting lineup.

No matter who’s on the court, Smith figures to spend plenty of time tussling with Garnett at both ends of the court. That figures to be one of the key matchups in the series, along with the one at point guard, where Atlanta’s Jeff Teague gets the difficult task of trying to contain Rajon Rondo. Boston’s superb floor leader averaged more than 14 assists a game and dished out 20 in an overtime win over the Hawks on April 11.

The teams are much more closely matched than they were before Boston’s playoff victory in 2008 – the Hawks finishing one game ahead in the East standings, the Celtics winning two out of three meetings, none of which was decided by more than five points.

Another seven-game marathon is not out of the question.

“They’ve got three Hall of Famers on that team,” Johnson said. “They’re a great veteran group that knows how to get it done.”

He feels good about his own team, too.

“We’re a lot better, a lot deeper, than we’ve ever been. I think now’s the time,” Johnson said. “The main thing I want to do is try to bring a championship here to Atlanta. The city is well overdue. Why not give it a try?”

ATLANTA — Chris Paul limped out of the Clippers’ training room Tuesday night, his mild left groin strain causing as much pain as his team’s inexplicable performance against the Atlanta Hawks.

He took the blame for the Clippers’ 109-102 loss to the Hawks at Philips Arena, saying it was his job to have his teammates ready for a game that had so much importance.

Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro was upset his team didn’t play better, knowing it would have clinched at least fourth place in the West and the home-court advantage over the Memphis Grizzlies, whom they now will face in a first-round Western Conference playoff series. A victory also would kept alive the Clippers’ chances of overtaking overtake the Lakers for third place in the West.

Now the Clippers need to beat New York on Wednesday night in their regular-season finale or hope Memphis loses to Orlando on Thursday to host the playoff opener against the Grizzlies at Staples Center this weekend.

And the Clippers will need to do it with Paul not being 100%.

He had 34 points against the Hawks and Blake Griffin scored 36, his season high.

The Clippers official listed Paul as questionable for Wednesday.

“I’m all right,” Paul said. “At some point, something didn’t feel right, but I’ll be OK. I’ll be ready to go as soon as they throw that all up.”

Asked to rate his team’s effort, Del Negro wasn’t OK with it.

“From the start, I didn’t think we were hungry,” Del Negro said. “I didn’t think we were physical. I don’t think we played hard enough.”

The Hawks were up for the challenge, knowing they needed to beat the Clippers and Orlando for a chance to clinch home-court advantage against Boston in the playoffs. Atlanta got 28 points from Joe Johnson to make sure it had a chance to start the playoffs at home.

The Clippers can’t overtake the Lakers because they are one game behind and lost the season series, 2-1.

“It’s unfortunate because you’d think we’d come out with a little more of a sense of urgency knowing how big this game was. It was a big game for them, too,” Paul said. “I take that responsibility. That’s my fault for allowing us to come out that flat. But, I guess we just made it real interesting.”

It was the Clippers as a team who played such poor defense, allowing the Hawks to make 50% of their shots, 45.8% (11 for 24) of their three-pointers.

It was the Clippers as a team who got outrebounded, 42-35. It was the Clippers as a team who fell behind by 13 points in the fourth quarter.

It was the Clippers as a team who waited until the fourth quarter to make a push, shooting 50% from the field, pressuring the Hawks just enough to get to within four points late.

“It starts with me,” Paul said. “If I come out and let us do that, then it’s my fault. So I’ve got to do better.

“It was not complacency. It’s just probably lack of focus, of which we had talked about all day, all before the game. It was one of those things where we talked about it but we weren’t proactive with the situation.”

Because the Clippers (40-25) won the season series, 2-1, over the Grizzlies, they would get home court over Memphis in the playoffs even if the teams finish the season with the same record.

Memphis (40-25) finishes at home against the Magic.

“Memphis it is, then,” Paul said. “Tomorrow we’ve got to win so we make sure we have home court. The good thing about it is we still control our own destiny.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

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