AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 13
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Message(s) sent!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - The Hawks might have lost the game Saturday night, but they succeeded in delivering two very clear messages to the league’s best team and their probable first-round opponent in the playoffs.
They won’t go quietly into the dark if they do indeed attain this playoff berth they can’t seem go get their hands around.
They have absolutely no chance of pulling off a shocker the way Golden State did in last year’s wild NBA postseason.
The reason for the latter should have been abundantly clear to anyone watching Saturday’s game - an entertaining affair for most of the night, especially the dramatic and emotionally taxing final eight minutes.
While the Hawks have abandoned their bench since their horrid performance in Memphis two weeks ago, the Celtics clearly intend to ride their reserves’ backs deep into the title hunt.
I’ve debated whether or not the Hawks have adequate resources to work with on the bench with just about everyone I’ve come in contact with the past two months (including repeated back-and-forths with members of the Hawks’ coaching and front office staffs). I’m in the camp that say they do but that the reserve unit hasn’t been cultivated properly.
Now are they a championship-caliber second unit? Well, of course not. But with a collective playoff record of 0-0, why would anyone expect them to be? Last time I checked the Hawks were trying to make the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, not win a title. Would I trade the Celtics’ bench for the Hawks’ bench straight up … well, yeah, so long as Sam Cassell is included.
Back to reality, the Hawks’ reserves aren’t the best group in the league by any stretch, but they’re capable of spelling the Hawks’ starters when need be, something that hasn’t happened recently.
A whopping six players played in the second half Friday in New York. SIX in a game the Hawks led by 21 points at one time. There’s no way that’s supposed to happen. Not this late in a season that the Hawks have a chance of extending by at least four more games.
This notion that the Mike Bibby trade depleted the Hawks’ reserve unit in February is another bit of local folklore that needs to be edited here. The Hawks’ bench mob wasn’t a consistent force before then. They were more experienced, with the likes of Tyronn Lue and Lorenzen Wright available. They were probably more talented, too, at least on paper (though, I can’t for the life of me figure out how Acie Law IV could be the No. 11 pick in a draft and not find his way to the floor anytime over the last four games or how Jeremy Richardson could be signed for the remainder of the season and then be left to style in a warm up every night without so much as playing 30 seconds here or there to help the cause. And I won’t even touch the Salim Stoudamire issue. It just makes no sense).
But they weren’t being utilized any more consistently then than this current group is now.
I keep hearing “they’re not ready” or “they’re not playing with any confidence” or “they’re not capable” and honestly, I’ve heard enough (call me crazy, but I didn’t grow up hearing about what it was I could not do. So I’ve just never understood that form of negligent - and yes, I mean negligent, not negative - reinforcement).
The bottom line is this; if guys keep hearing what they can’t do, pretty soon they’ll start believing the message.
