AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 29
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Shut up and enjoy the ride!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - Leave it up to my lady to put things in perspective.
I came walking through the door after Friday’s win over Chicago (you know, the one the Hawks almost coughed up thanks to dead legs and Ben Gordon’s Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson routine) yapping into my cell phone with someone else who has to watch Hawks games for a living.
We were doing our usual vent session about what should have happened and what could have happened when wifey piped up out of nowhere with this line of the year: “I thought you said they were probably going to make the playoffs if they won these games? So just shut up and enjoy the ride. Isn’t that what you always say when Michigan is on?”
Well, as a matter of fact I do.
She has a point (never mind that she’s about as interested in basketball at any level as I am in, um, Dancing with the Stars, Lost and all the other stuff Style Channel stuff she’s into). If I had $50 bucks for every time I’ve tried to browbeat someone else into accepting the end and ignoring the means, I’d sleep on a king sized mattress stuffed full $100 bills.
My gut tells me that even if the Hawks make the playoffs (and it’s looking better by the day), that they won’t have much of anything left in the tank for the Celtics. I mean, how many more 40-plus minute nights can Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby take?
But I guess if getting there is half the battle, some people can stomach the grinding down of your star players to get there. Having seen playoff teams go down this path in the past, I realize how shortsighted that approach can be. There’s no more empty feeling than watching a team claw its way into the postseason only to be destroyed in four quick games once they arrive.
Mark my words, the Hawks will pay for playing guys these exhausting minutes if they make the playoffs. And it could get ugly.
Huh? Right, right. I know, just shut up and enjoy the ride.
Still, is it so wrong for me to assume that Jeremy Richardson’s fresh legs would serve the Hawks’ cause better, even if it’s just for five or six minutes a night, than Joe Johnson trying to operate on tired legs for the sake of the mental security that provides?
Not only do I think it’s unfair to both players, I think it’s the worst way to develop the confidence and chemistry every playoff team needs from its reserves because there is going to come a night when those same reserves are the difference between winning and losing. And wouldn’t it be nice to know that when you get to that night your reserves are ready to do work?
The Hawks played six and a half guys Friday night, led by 19 points and lost it, led by 22 points and lost it before hanging on to win by three points.
They should have won by 20 and the starters should have been on the bench waving towels instead of sweating out Ben Gordon’s final shot at the buzzer.
Then again, they got the win. And maybe none of us should care how they got it.
I guess there’s even a remote possibility that wifey might be right (she’s never read the blog so please don’t tell her I said so) …
