AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > January > 28
Monday, January 28, 2008
Danger
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PHOENIX - I’ll make this brief, since most of you are still chewing on the tail of just about everyone after Sunday’s stunning loss to the Blazers - and when I say stunning, I mean this had to be arguably the most disappointing loss of the season for the Hawks, who squandered a precious opportunity to actually build a little momentum going into Tuesday’s game against the Suns.
The Hawks are obviously in dangerous territory right now, and not because they are losing (it seems no matter how much they lose, that 7th spot in the playoff race remains their space).
It’s the way they are losing that should worry you. The same show almost every night. Start well, big lead, lose it late while abandoning the things that got you the lead in the first place.
It’s beyond foolish for the Hawks to think they can routinely win games playing out of the half court sets that they’ve made painful to watch. They don’t have the type of spot up shooters that other teams have, which would make such an approach feasible.
The Hawks are built to run, love it or leave it, that’s what they are. And it only makes sense to play to that strength (they scored at will in the transition game against Portland, one of the few teams young enough and athletic enough to match them in that regard).
We could come up with countless different ways that they could have handled the end of the game. But if the Hawks had embraced the advantage they had in the transition game, the Blazers never would have been close enough to snatch the game anyway.
Now, back to the chewing …
Services »
