Atlanta proved themselves tonight with an upset win over Oklahoma Cty. They came in as heavy underdogs in the major sports lines, as well as most pundits' predictions, but that hardly mattered to coach Bob and his team. "All they hype was 'Oklahoma Cty this; Oklahoma Cty that' coming into the game. It's like we didn't even exist. I think we proved our point." That they did, led by the spectacularp play of their star, Mcnair.

"Coach said that all we had to do was go out and play our best and we could win, and we knew he was right," he said later. "So that's what we did, and we showed that we can play with anyone."

Losing coach Bob was disappointed with his team's effort. "I think we started believing our own press," he said. "Everyone was saying we'd come away with the easy win, so we went in expecting it to be handed to us on a silver platter. But you've got to give credit where it's due, and Bob had his team playing as well as they've played all year."

Atlanta was led by Mcnair (24 points, 18 boards, 2 assists, a steal, 2 blocks), Worrel (22 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, a block), Jackson (18 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, a block). Oklahoma Cty was led by Stanford (25 points, 6 assists, a steal), Golden (16 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, a steal, 2 blocks), Hodges (18 points, a block).

Atlanta jump to 31-24. They hold at #1 in the Southeast and hold at #3 overall in the Eastern Conference. Oklahoma Cty fall to 35-21 and 22-10 at home. They hold at #2 in the Northwest and hold at #5 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Atlanta roster Oklahoma Cty roster