AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 24
Friday, November 24, 2006
Getting on the boards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I don’t know about you but there are plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers around here. Here’s a few extra mental scraps leftover from the road trip to Detroit that seemed like it never wanted to end (fog and a baggage handlers strike/mess in Minneapolis made getting out of Detroit on time Thanksgiving day darn near impossible for me and any of the other unlucky souls trying to get where we were going for Turkey Day).
My day after Thanksgiving version of the five things (well, today it’s just the five things):
— Shelden Williams makes it awful hard to pan him as the fifth pick when he posts numbers like he did against the Pistons (20 point on 7-for-12 shooting and 13 rebounds in 40 minutes). If nothing else the guy has been consistent. He’s battled inside and done his job. The scoring is a bonus. Now, if the Hawks could only get someone else to help him on the glass -– and I mean really go after rebounds and make it a priority on both ends of the floor -– they might be on to something.
— Let’s see, the Hawks shoot 43 percent from the floor, 54 percent from beyond the 3-point line and 83 percent from the free throw line and lose the rebounding battle by just five points and still lose? Hard to imagine huh? Well, the only numbers that mattered against the Pistons were the season-high 18 offensive rebounds the Hawks allowed their hosts and the 27 points they delivered off their 18 turnovers.
It’s one of the reasons it’s hard to study NBA box scores for clues to why a team won or lost. On most nights there isn’t that one stat that you can point to in other sports (turnovers or rushing yards in football for example) as the one pivotal stat that determines who wins or loses. (The Pistons, one of the league’s most experienced teams, had just eight turnovers, one from each starter and three from the bench).
— While sitting in Detroit Metro Airport (all freakin’ day Thursday) I had time to evaluate all sorts of things about these Hawks. I have to admit that I’ve become an advocate of increased roles for all the bench players. When the Hawks were streaking through that 4-1 stretch no one could make a case to me for tinkering with the rotation. But now, with opposing teams clearly figuring out what the Hawks are trying to do and making every effort to limit Joe Johnson’s effectiveness, it’s clear to me that alternative offensive options are needed (someone else gets paid to come up with those, not me). And that’s where the lack of another 6-5 to 6-7 playmaker that can handle the ball and create scoring opportunities not only for himself but others becomes an issue.
Marvin Williams is the only player on the Hawks roster other teams are worried about in that vein, and he’s still not ready to play. But the Hawks need their second unit to really become just that, a point-scoring, game-changing unit. They need to come into games and change the pace and tempo the way they did at times late last year with Tyronn Lue leading the way.
— Who knew losing Josh Childress would hurt this bad? I had a bad feeling when I saw him at practice last week and he said his foot was bothering him and he might be out a while. I understand that players of his ilk (role players who do an assortment of things really well and can do them without ever being a focal point of the offense) make the difference between winning and losing much more often than they are given credit for. But the Hawks need him back in the worst way.
— We talked a while back about the schedule and how well it set up if the Hawks could play .500 or better basketball early. Well, they’re 4-5 and have nine of their next 13 games on the road. That smells like trouble to me, especially if the Hawks don’t find a way to stop this losing skid and steal a game or two on the road before going west Dec. 3.
