AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 03
Friday, November 3, 2006
Time to get electric
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I could bore you with more of my travel-related horror stories (and trust me when I tell you I have plenty), but that wouldn’t be fair to anyone. Not with the Hawks’ home opener on tap tonight at Philips Arena against the Knicks being the much more pressing issue for the Hawksville faithful.
You’re all wondering the same things I think many of these Hawks are: when is all the hard work we’ve put in going to pay off?
Because these guys know they’ve put in the work required to have some success. But it didn’t translate at Wachovia center Wednesday night.
The Hawks learned the same lesson Mike Woodson has been trying to make clear to them for two years and running. If you don’t play every second like it’s your last, you’re toast. If you don’t strangle every ounce of energy out of yourself on every possession, you’re done. It’s not just coach speak people, it’s true.
It might not ring as true if the Hawks were more talented than their opponents. But there isn’t a night this season, barring injuries, that they’ll take the floor as the more talented team. Or the more experienced team either, for that matter.
That’s why more than strategy, schemes, voodoo or anything else, the Hawks have to find ways to outwork the opposition. It doesn’t matter how many guys they have injured, how tired they might be or whatever else they’re dealing with. They have to become the team that routinely outworks the opposition, much like Utah and Charlotte do on a nightly basis. They don’t always win. But they leave it all on the floor, so to speak, which affords them the opportunity to compete at a higher level than their talent might dictate.
Playing like that is the only chance those teams have to win consistently. Let’s be honest about what we’re dealing with here. This Hawks team has to regularly overachieve to compete (which is something I’ve written regularly here and in the paper for a while now) against the rest of the league. Their roster dictates as much.
An excuse? No. More like the cold, hard truth.
That’s why, for the Hawks sake, Philips better be on fire tonight. This near sellout that’s been talked about needs to be a vocal, electric and raucous near sellout. Because the margin of error for these Hawks is razor thin. They need every conceivable edge, in addition to operating at peak performance.
