Hawks guard Mike Bibby takes an outside shot against Toronto guard Jose Calderon in the first quarter. (Gregory Smith/Associated Press)

Jermaine O'Neal showed signs of putting an early-season funk behind him while Raptors teammate Chris Bosh continued his torrid pace, but it wasn't enough to hand the Atlanta Hawks their first loss of the young NBA season.

Mike Bibby scored all of his 19 points in the first half, making four three-pointers during an 18-4 run that broke open the game, and the hometown Hawks routed Toronto 110-92 on Friday night.

Bibby added 12 assists for Atlanta (4-0), off to its best start since 1997, when the Hawks won their first 11 games.

"You can see it, the swagger. We're coming out executing," said Hawks' Joe Johnson, who added 17 points. "The four teams we opened with, we've had problems with in the past. We have to validate that by bringing this same effort day in and day out."

O'Neal, who had a 3-for-10 shooting night in Wednesday's 100-93 setback to the Detroit Pistons, drained seven of 10 shots from the field against the Hawks to up his success rate beyond 38 per cent but below his career average of just under 46 per cent.

Bosh led Toronto (3-2) with 26 points. Jose Calderon, the Raptors' second-leading scorer, had only six points on 2-of-10 shooting, but finished with 12 assists.

"There was just nothing we could do to stop them," said Toronto head coach Sam Mitchell. "We just couldn't guard them tonight. Almost everybody was off. It happens."

Hawks shot 54 per cent (44-for-81) while the Raptors hit on just 35 of 81 (43 per cent).

In playing its best game of the season, Atlanta looked similar to the team that pushed the Boston Celtics to seven games in the first round of last season's playoffs. The Hawks hadn't been in the post-season since 1998-99 before that run.

"It seems we have kind of turned the corner. I think we can shift into another gear," said Johnson.

Bibby on fire

Bibby was 7-for-9 from the field in the first half, hitting five of seven three-pointers. He went 0-for-3 after the break.

"He had the hot hand. He couldn't miss and opened up the floor for us," Johnson said.

"I kept shooting [in the first half]. They were leaving me open," said Bibby. "It's exciting (4-0) start. If we had more offence than we had tonight, we'd be awesome."

Atlanta's Josh Smith sprained his left ankle with 56 seconds left in the first quarter and could miss two to four weeks, the Hawks said.

Atlanta was leading 44-39 when Bibby went on his tear, sparking the big run with his four threes. The Hawks' biggest advantage was 27 points at 110-83 with 1:48 left.

Flip Murray added 16 points for Atlanta. Maurice Evans scored 15 and Marvin Williams 14. The points were season highs for Bibby, Murray, Evans and Williams.

Atlanta got a boost from seldom-used Solomon Jones, who got to play 25 minutes when Smith was hurt and Al Horford got into early foul trouble. Jones scored six points and led the team with nine rebounds.

With files from the Associated Press