AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 14
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Another 48 hours (and more)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Ride the roller coaster with your team during the NBA season and there’s a good bet that the course changes every 48 hours.
One minute you’re up and the next you’re down.
One night the Hawks can’t win for losing.
And two days later they’re on a two-game win-streak with wins in Miami and at home over Cleveland to prove that, as far as the funky times, nothing lasts forever.
Before Friday’s win over the Heat, the Hawks were in danger of going on their second four-game losing streak of the season, prompting all sorts of questions about whether or not they were sliding down that slippery slope back to mediocrity.
By early Sunday morning, after a win over one of the hottest teams in the league in Cleveland, the better question is can the Hawks really challenge for a home court slot in the playoffs?
“You keep telling me how they’re struggling and then I watch them and wonder what the [this is a family blog, so no foul words here] you’re talking about,” one fan joked to me last night as I was leaving the floor at the end of the game. “I’m not going to keep reading your stuff if you keep lying about my team.”
Again, every 48 hours we need to take the pulse of the situation and keep it updated.
STATEMENT TIME: To a man, the Hawks insist that Saturday’s impressive 97-92 win over Cleveland wasn’t a statement game.
“Naw, man,” Joe Johnson said. “Don’t get me wrong. It was a great game for us to win against a team that won [11 straight]. It was a great win for us to get. So as long as we keep taking care of our business at home, we’re going to be fine.”
Again, this wasn’t supposed to be some sort of statement game.
But it sure felt that way from where I was sitting.
And there’s no doubt it was a respect game for the Hawks, who are still fighting that negative perception battle this season, despite going 11-1 at home since the start of the playoffs last year.
“I think we’ve already made it known that we’re a team to be reckoned with,” Josh Smith said. “Teams are not just going to come in here and walk all over us. Teams show a lot of respect for us, but at the same time they’re going to make it competitive. So we know we have to be ready for a fight at all times.”
They took the fight to the Cavs, LeBron James included, from start to finish Saturday - something the Cavs acknowledged on their way out of the building.
“You have to give the Hawks credit,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. “They did a nice job defending us and scoring down the stretch. I thought Joe Johnson was a monster. We tried to blitz their pick-and-rolls, and he would make the right play. You have to give Joe Johnson, Mike Woodson and the Atlanta Hawks credit. They played a heck of a ball game. This was also a great test for us, to see how our composure would be in a tough game. Starting with me, I don’t think we had good composure down the stretch. Joe Johnson made play after play towards the end of the game, so you have to give him credit for helping their team win tonight.”
While the Cavs had cruised to those 11 wins in a row, all but one by 12 or more points, the Hawks have endured their fair share of nail-biters this season. That experience was never more useful than in the late-stages of what turned out to be a fabulous game against King James and the Cavs.
“I think both teams played exceptionally well and very hard,” James said of squads that both played their fourth game in five nights against each other. “It was just a matter of who got more stops at the end, and the Hawks came up with more than we did. We definitely had our chances, but the Hawks just made more plays. The Hawks are a pretty good team. With them getting Josh Smith back, it’s going to help them out a lot. Tonight they made a lot of big shots. They’re a big, long and athletic team that can get our and run, score and jump. They did a great job of executing and getting the win.”
Those words should resonate with those of you that believe, like me, that the Hawks MUST continue to play to those strengths James mentioned if they want to maximize their potential this season.
LIL’ DUDE: It’s not often that Marvin Williams finishes a game feeling small.
At 6-9 and 240 pounds, that’s never an issue.
Except, of course, after dealing with LeBron James.
Williams spent the bulk of his night matched up on James, and he did a pretty good job considering he was dealing with the NBA’s most explosive super-sized player at any position.
James got his points, 33 of them, and assists and rebounds, too (nine and six). But he didn’t dominate this game from start to finish. And Williams had a lot to do with that.
“That guys just makes me feel like I’m a little dude,” Williams said. “I’m serious, you feel like a little dude when you’re out there scrapping with him. But it’s not disheartening or anything, because I’m sure he makes a lot of guys feel like that.”
James is conservatively listed at 6-8 and 250 pounds. Toss in his otherworldly athleticism (my man was an All-State wide receiver as a 10th grader in football-mad Ohio), always improving strength and the fact that James knows he can do basically whatever he wants to on the floor, and he becomes arguably the hardest player on the plane to guard one-on-one.
The Hawks tried to push him into their double-team traps all night, but James managed to squeeze in and out of that trouble whenever he wanted to.
“Seeing him the night after D. Wade is something,” Williams said. “I’m not sure you could face two tougher physical specimens in back-to-back nights.”
POSTER CHILD: Josh Smith was a target for the Cavaliers last night on the defensive end.
And credit their scouting department and coaching staff for making clear to their players that if you’re going to finish around the rim against a great shot-blocker you have to do it with emphasis.
Both Delonte West and James dunked on Smith during the game, leaving him no choice but to foul them or make a great, great play at the rim.
Smith would be wise to follow their lead, as he too often finishes with a finger roll off the side of the rim rather than cramming on someone the way he used to. Of all the parts of his game that he needs to tone up (I won’t even go to the 3-point deal), finishing with a vengeance at the rim is No. 1 on my list.
Folks are already worried that he’s going to dunk anything near the rim. He needs to stop worrying about proving that he’s more than just a dunker and start using one of his best tools around the rim.
Services »
