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December 2008
New Hawks for the New Year!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
INDIANAPOLIS - If the Hawks want to raise a few glasses for a toast sometime around midnight on Wednesday they’ll have earned it.
They’ve also earned a breather from the relentless, doubt-filled analysis that’s been prevalent around here.
Because even with all of us (and yes, I’m just as guilty as anyone else here) waiting around for the bottom to fall out of this run they’ve been on for most of this season, they keep on playing and they keep on winning.
It’s clear that they’re not going to do it in the most artistic way every night. The run-and-gun Phoenix Suns they are not.
But when you put together the type of first third of the season (and if you figure in the potential playoff run, 31 games is just about a third of a season) they have, why bother complaining about aesthetics?
We all know the Hawks will face stiffer tests on the road in the coming weeks, the Pacers are just 10-21 this season. But they’ll also enter the New Year with five straight home wins on their resume and they’ve now pulled to within a game of .500 (7-8) on the road for the season.
Raise your hand if you thought this is where your team would be at this stage of the season … didn’t think so.
We’re going to have plenty of time to roast those who need to be roasted. And there will be loads of opportunities for second-guessing and all that other fun stuff.
Just not tonight. I’m giving it a rest until 2009.
Your team is 21-10 for Baby New Year’s sake (43-42 in the calendar year for 2008, just fyi), show ‘em a little love for once.
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The root of all things!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Go ahead and scoff at 20-10 all you want.
But a tip of the hat is in order for these Hawks (and if you were here for 13-69 or any of the two seasons directly after that, you know what I’m talking about).
They’ve not only handled their business with the Charlottes and Washingtons of the world, they’ve done it against the Clevelands and now the Denvers of the world as well.
If you’re looking for the source, just look at the way the Hawks have been winning games. It’s been a methodical, by-any-means-necessary approach that’s worked night in and night out.
Bigger than any one player, because it’s been all of them collectively, it’s been the way they’ve played for each other that’s made the difference.
From Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby’s continued offensive prowess to Al Horford continued improvement on both ends to Josh Smith’s ability to play effectively through obvious pain to Zaza Pachulia thriving in his role as the super sub inside to Flip Murray and Mo Evans finding a way to make plays whenever they’re pressed into service to Marvin Williams accepting the challenge every night to guard some of the most explosive and dynamic players the NBA has to offer (he’s seen LeBron and Carmelo at the start and finish of the home stand with Paul Pierce in the middle and more than held his own every time), these Hawks seems to get it.
The root of this turnaround is in the way they’re playing as a group.
The Hawks aren’t even playing as well as they did during that 6-0 stretch to start the season. Btu they’re winning anyway, which is the biggest sign of improvement. They don’t have to play their very best basketball to win every night, which by my estimate is the surest sign of a good team.
The 109-91 thumping of the Nuggets tonight was impressive against an explosive, high-scoring bunch with Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony at the controls (though Kenyon Martin was the only Nugget to be effective from start to finish).
Just look at the way opposing coaches talk about the Hawks these days for proof that we’re not the only ones that see the changing of the guard with this team.
“We didn’t do enough fundamental things well and we fell apart in the fourth quarter,” Denver coach George Karl said. “When you don’t pass the ball as you should, you’re not going to beat the good teams. Atlanta does a good job defensively by switching, and they made Carmelo see a lot of different bodies, which disrupted him tonight. The Hawks are good at finding the 3-pointer and they have a lot of guys who are confident enough to shoot it. They’re a pretty efficient offensive team with a great player in Joe [Johnson], and Bibby is playing at the level he played in his early days in Sacramento. Mike Bibby’s shooting is as good as I’ve seen in many years from him.”
Bibby (5-for-6 from long range) and Murray (3-for-4 from deep) served up the biggest daggers Monday night. The next time it might be Johnson and Williams. Or maybe even Evans and Smith.
You just never know with this bunch.
But it’s clear that whatever it takes, particularly at home, they’re going to get it done some way and somehow.
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Superstar?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - The debate has gone on since the day Joe Johnson came to town.
Is he a real “superstar” or one of the many wanna-bes around the league that are paid like true superstars while only performing the corresponding duties occasionally?
With so many impostors running around the NBA these days it’s easy to see why this debate has lasted for so long.
But after watching Johnson as closely as we all have the past three-plus years, I can’t for the life of me figure out how anyone thinks he’s anything but a legitimate All-Star (the term I’d use for players like Johnson, guys that are No. 1 options on legitimate teams).
After his 41-point explosion to lead the Hawks over Chicago Saturday night an advance scout from an Eastern Conference power the Hawks have vanquished once already this season stopped me in the hallway to discuss this very subject.
“I love this dude, man,” my scout friend said. “He’s got so many different shots he can go with. He can put it on the floor. He can stroke it from deep. He can pass. He can play in the half court. He can go up and down the floor. I’m not saying he’s better than Carmelo [Anthony] or LeBron [James], but in a pure one-on-one situation, and I’m just saying purely him against another man with the ball and the basket between them, I might have to go with Joe because his game is so much more versatile right now.”
We didn’t have long to hash this one out since he was heading out the door for his next stop and I was on my way to the Hawks’ locker room for the post game scrum.
But what he said stuck with me overnight. Might he be on to something that I’m not seeing?
Because I’m a fan of the way both LeBron and Carmelo aren’t shy about bulling their way around inside when they want to dominate and demoralize opponents.
That’s the one and only knock I have about JJ’s approach. Having watched him when he was at Arkansas (he was barely 200 pounds back then but still had all the wicked off-the-dribble stuff he uses to this day), I realize just how smooth his game is. But if he wanted to play the like physical monster he is now (at a chiseled 240 pounds), he could really make life miserable for opposing teams.
I decided to look at it another way. Would I trade Joe Johnson straight up for Carmelo Anthony right now? I don’t think so. LeBron, of course, is another story. So I can see where my scout friend was going with his analysis.
The best part is we get to see Melo and Joe on the same floor Monday night and judge for ourselves which guys is more valuable to his team, which me be far more important than which one is the better player in general.
NO CONTEST: If they wanted to collect Mike Woodson’s ballot for Rookie of the Year today he’d be ready.
After watching Bulls point guard Derrick Rose shred his team for season scoring highs in both matchups so far this season, Woodson is convinced that the lightning-quick Rose is the man for the top spot.
“Rose is just a special young man in terms of his talent,” Woodson said after Saturday’s game. “He looks like he’s been in this league for a long time playing this game. He’s going to be good for a long time if he stays healthy.”
With time to review the tape from Saturday’s game, Woodson’s praise for Rose was even more effusive after his team’s practice Sunday.
“How good is Rose?” Woodson said. “That guy is ridiculous. He’s ahead of all these other young kids at the same stage. He has no fear. No fear. You’d be stupid not to pick him Rookie of the Year. He’s the real deal. You can’t double him. You can’t keep him in front of you. He can go get his shot anytime he wants to. They showed a stat the other night that said he was 95-10 in high school and in college he was 38-2. All he knows how to do is win.”
STREAKING: The Hawks have won four straight games with a chance to finish off their home stand with their fifth straight win.
It’s a huge rebound for a team that looked anything but confident during a humbling 0-3 swing through Texas.
Woodson believes the seeds for his team’s 7-1 turnaround since then began in Miami Dec. 12 with a huge win over the Southeast Division rival Heat.
“That was a huge game for us just in terms of getting back to playing the kind of basketball we’re used to,” Woodson said. “We needed one of those kinds of games to energize our team and move forward.”
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Holiday perspective in Hawksville
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Nothing should spoil your mood this Christmas Hawks fans.
Nothing.
Not an atrociously bad economy, lousy weather (rain included) or the fact that you’re still waiting for Santa to show up with that Mercedes you’ve been asking for the past 20 years (yes Mr. C, I’m still waiting for the fly whip).
As bad as times might seem all over the place, there’s too much good going on in our twisted little Hawksville world.
The Hawks are 18-10 and in the hunt for a top four playoff seed. Gas prices are still hanging around $1.43 in my ‘hood. And as long as your loved ones are healthy and safe, there isn’t much more you could ask for this time of year.
Hawks forward Marvin Williams had a particularly interesting take on the season the other night, one that’s worth sharing here:
“With the life we all get to live, it goes without saying that we are blessed,” he said. “So there’s much to be thankful for, not just now but all the time. The bonus for us [the Hawks] this year is that we’re finally in a position to chase our goals as a team. And this [eight-game] home stand has only added to that. We’re here in front of our fans and playing the way we have [5-1 so far], it couldn’t be any better … well, except if we had beaten Boston. But compare this to my first [three] years, when we were already out of it by now, for the most part. People don’t understand just how good this feels. I wish I could explain it, because it’s huge.”
I’d say that explains it all.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
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Are you watching this?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Go ahead, close your eyes and count to 10 and then open them.
It’s not a mirage.
That’s your Hawks sitting in the fourth slot in the Eastern Conference standings with Christmas just a couple days away.
I know, I know.
You didn’t see this coming did you?
You didn’t know they’d get here this fast did you?
But are you watching this franchise renaissance take place before your very eyes?
The Falcons aren’t the only ones that can rise from their own ashes (and kudos to the other birds for giving their haters the business and the gas face and making the playoffs - I’m never mad at anybody for proving their haters wrong). The Hawks want in on this thing, too.
After Sunday’s win over Detroit (the current holder of the No. 5 spot in the conference standings and a team, based on what I saw today, that would have a hard time knock these Hawks off in a best-of-seven playoff series - which would be the matchup if the postseason started this morning) it’s become increasingly clear that these Hawks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
They like this side of .500.
It feels good.
Way better than the mud holes they’ve been in this time in recent years.
“Being 11-2 at home sticks out to me more than anything else right now,” Josh Smith said after Sunday’s game. “It’s been a long time coming for me and all the rest of these guys that have been here for a few years. I like to mess with Al (Horford) and tell him that all he’s ever known is the good times. We made the playoffs his rookie year and we’re winning now. He doesn’t know what it’s like to struggle.”
That could turn out to be the best thing for Horford and anyone else that is a part of this franchise going forward.
Having been here through the leanest of times, I can tell you it hasn’t been particularly pleasant for anyone (though this job is a lot easier when the stories are coming at you left and right). I’ve worked big winners and big losers in this league and I sleep the same whatever the situation.
The toll extreme losing takes on everyone else, however, is rough to witness up close.
Heads inevitably must roll when things are sideways.
The Hawks, unlike most others, have resisted the urge (and I’m sure there have been many) to throw folks overboard. Even Billy Knight was given the option of staying or going (and he chose to bounce).
It’s an approach I don’t believe most franchises would opt for. But looking back on where they’ve been and where they are now (and all we’ve got is now folks, I can’t promise Tuesday let alone March or April. But right now, these Hawks are in the mix … in a place it was hard to see as recently as this time a year ago), it has to be a refreshing change for all involved.
That said, now that the Hawks have crawled this far, the real test becomes keeping it going. There’s no going back now. No one will tolerate it. I know you die-hard Hawks’ fans certainly won’t allow it, having tasted the good life, even if only for a little while now.
So I’ll ask you again, and I’m serious when I say this stuff, you didn’t see this coming did you?
You didn’t know they’d get here this fast did you?
But are you watching this franchise renaissance take place before your very eyes?
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Execution trumps effort
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It’s the morning after and I still can’t tear myself away from this Hawks-Celtics saga that seems to sprout new legs every time these teams meet.
Just take a small sampling of the some of the postgame stuff from both teams (and there was plenty from both sides) and you’ll know what I mean.
“If they played everybody the way they play us they’d be a top five team in the league,” said Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, who by the way, has slowly morphed into the most complete point guard in the Eastern Conference and the best defender at his position in all of basketball.
Hawks Center Al Horford was already looking forward to the next meeting against the Celtics, “Shots are going to fall next time,” he said of the Hawks’ inability to convert on what seemed like numerous easy scoring opportunities.
And that’s without a doubt the one thing that stuck out about last night’s game. The Celtics converted in the fourth quarter where the Hawks did not, for a variety of reasons.
A few hard facts to ponder:
— The Celtics shot 69 percent (11-for-16) from the floor in the fourth quarter, led by Kevin Garnett’s 5-for-5 showing.
— The Hawks made just 30 percent (6-for-20) from the floor in the final 12 minutes, with the misses spread pretty evenly up and down the roster.
— Neither team turned the ball over excessively in the fourth (two each), the rebounds were even at 10-10 and for all the fuss that’ been made and will be made about the Hawks’ free throw woes, they were 8-for-11 from the line while the Celtics went 6-for-8.
So in the end, the three-point lead the Hawks started the quarter with vanished by the end with a Celtics winning the fourth quarter battle 29-23.
There were four ties, nine lead changes and all the drama you could want in just the final 12 minutes.
Beyond all the numbers, the one glaring statistic that screams at me (and anyone else nit-picking) illustrates where the Celtics played in the fourth quarter and where the Hawks played in the fourth quarter.
Boston scored 18 points in the paint in the fourth quarter and the Hawks scored just four. That’s the game right there.
The Hawks gave all the effort you could ask for from a team. The world champs, however, executed the way the world champs are expected to when they’ve won 15 (now 16) straight games, and counting.
Now it’s time for the Hawks to move on until the next they meet.
But they need to make sure to learn from the mistakes, big and small, from last night’s game.
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Worth all the hype!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - You can’t make this stuff up.
Underdog team pushes eventual champs to the brink in a first round playoff series, so what do they do for an encore?
Their first game the very next season is a thriller in the second week, they play an instant classic won by an All-Star with a clutch 20-footer with 0.5 seconds to play after the champs gave up a killer 3-pointer 6.5 seconds earlier that gave the upstarts what looked to be a chance to finally dethrone their nemesis on their home floor.
Now, the Hawks and Celtics will double-dip tonight in the second installment of The Game part 9 at Philips Arena with the Hawks having lost just once at home since last season’s rousing playoff series and the mighty Celtics, leading the league again this year, with a 15-game win-streak in tow.
Again, you simple cannot make this stuff up. It’s too rich.
Few games in the NBA regular season are worth the kind of hype being heaped upon these two teams.
This mini-drama is worth all the hype.
And while there are plenty of good feelings about the games played here in Atlanta, Marvin Williams explained why this matchup remains a major sticking point for the Hawks.
“The only thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is how we played for six games and then in Game 7 we really don’t even show up. They put the hammer down us on early,” he said. “We played them so well. All season we hadn’t won in Boston and all series we hadn’t won in Boston. We obviously knew we could play with them, though. The series was tied at 3-3. I just think in Game 7 we weren’t ready to play.”
I asked Williams and several of his fellow teammates who were tasting the playoff-rush for the first time if they thought their inexperienced in such situations might have caused the Game 7 meltdown, an obvious conclusion to draw after watching the entire thing up close.
It made sense to Josh Smith. But he also pointed out that the Hawks’ current rise was born out of the same series, making it the turning point that we all know it was.
“What really sticks out to me is just the way we pulled together.” Smith said. “When we were down 11 points going into the fourth quarter in Game 4 and LD [Hawks assistant coach Larry Drew] came up to me and put his arm around me and said, ‘This is when players are made. You’re the man when you’re up 11. Let’s see what happens when you’re down 11.’ We huddled up and got everybody involved. It started at the defensive end and it started with us playing together and the rest of the series went from there.”
Losing the rematch game Nov. 12 in Boston the way they did only served to stir the flames of this budding rivalry for the Hawks.
Williams canned that 3-pointer from the corner with just seconds to play, scaring the life out of the fans at TD Banknorth Garden and giving the Hawks’ fans everywhere a reason to believe they had finally figured out these Celtics in Boston, only to have Paul Pierce snatch that dream away with his crazy-big jumper with 0.5 seconds to play and the 103-102 win.
Up until then the Hawks had been perfect on the season. Smith, who missed that game with a high ankle sprain that didn’t even allow him to make the trip to Boston, watched in agony from Atlanta.
“Yeah, it hurt to miss the first game in Boston. There’s nothing like being out there with your team and helping them win,” he said. “I watched it on TV, and the game was so good and close up there. And we didn’t do that in the playoffs, so it was hard to miss that. But hearing those fans boo [Mike] Bibby and then he hit those 3-pointers and had them so worried about winning the game. It was exciting to watch. It shows you over and over again that situations like these are what the NBA is all about.”
And what this rivalry is all about.
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Trap game?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It’s only 12 minutes and 21 seconds old, but everything about this Hawks-Bobcats game smells like a trap game to me.
The whole world knows that the Hawks are hosting the blazin-hot Boston Celtics here Wednesday night.
The ESPN cameras will be out, the first time they’ll grace Philips Arena since the Hawks’ Game 6 win over Boston in last season’s playoff series.
No one had to talk about it out loud for me to know that most everyone around here is thinking about (the ad on the jumobtron for the Celtics game in the second quarter certainly reminded anyone that wasn’t thinking about it).
Having this game against the Bobcats sandwiched between Saturday’s win over the Cavaliers and the Celtics game looked ominous to me as we got closer and the circumstances for all four teams came into focus.
With the Cavs and Celtics playing lights out and the Celtics doing the same, you knew the Hawks would be amped up for those games.
But the Bobcats?
The Hawks have plenty of time to dig out of this current hole. But their energy right now is low and they’re not playing with any kind of rhythm on either end of the floor.
They better start now, though, before they dig too deep a hole …
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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.
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Heatin’ up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MIAMI - Whatever cushion the Hawks think they built up with their hot start is quickly coming unraveled with what could be their latest four-game swoon of this still young season - lose to the Fighting Dwyane Wade’s here tonight and that’s two four-game losing streaks in the span of seven weeks.
That seems highly unusual for a winning team in the NBA.
That seems highly unusual for a team that has, for the most part, played some pretty complete basketball throughout the fist month and a half of this season.
Yet the Hawks are stuck in this polarizing matrix where they can’t seem to find the consistency that carried them earlier this season.
They’re going to face a player tonight in Wade that won’t allow his team’s focus to waiver the way the Hawks has of late.
Wade, who aside from LeBron James (Saturday’s dinner date at Philips Arena) is playing as well as any player on the planet right now, simply won’t allow it.
If the Hawks come skipping out on that floor tonight and take a few punches early, they’ll be on their backs quickly.
While the Wade’s team isn’t the most talented, they play beautifully off of their leader. And they’ll follow his lead if he smells blood early and tries to the choke the Hawks out before halftime.
These teams understand that the Hawks are capable of turning up the tempo whenever they get ready to (the Mavericks, Spurs and Rockets all saw it). If you let the Hawks get up a head of steam, it’ll be a long night. Because when they’re playing well, they’ve got the athletes, the shooters and the ability to run you off the floor (you might remember that from early last month when they were doing it routinely).
The common denominator during that period, however, was community basketball. Everyone was involved in the offense, the defense was swarming and the energy level was off the charts.
Somewhere in the time since then all three of those things have gone missing, sometimes all three have gone missing at the same time (the perfect recipe for disaster).
The Hawks can’t afford that type of power outage going forward. The season’s taken a crucial turn. The next three weeks leads into the three weeks after that and so and so forth.
Stumble now and see how long it takes to get up.
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Don’t mess with .500!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SAN ANTONIO - Having already slogged through a four-game losing streak this season the Hawks know that they are dancing dangerously close to the line they don’t want to cross after such a strong start.
Don’t mess with .500.
Not when you hit the road for this week’s four-game road trip six games above sea level.
And not when you’ve got an inviting December schedule waiting for you to take advantage of it.
Now is not the time for things to come unhinged in Hawksville.
Which is why is as good a time as any for an intervention for these Hawks.
And since they reached 6-0 together, sharing the love accordingly and collectively, it’s only right that they share the heat accordingly and collectively now that they’re marred in a 6-9 slide since then.
After all, the facts are the facts.
One of the league’s elite defensive teams in the first two weeks of the season, the Hawks have suddenly become a punching bag for opponents.
In the first six games of the season the Hawks allowed opposing teams just 89.5 points per game. In the 14 games prior to Wednesday night that averaged ballooned to 98.9 points, the only noticeable difference during that stretch being the absence of the team’s leading shot-blocker, Josh Smith (high ankle sprain), for a 12-game stint on the inactive list.
During that same 14-game span the opposing team’s shooting percentages in every category rose as well, the clearest sign that the Hawks’ defensive focus has run away from the nest.
So again, with a quarter of this NBA season already completed the Hawks remain above sea level in the standings, but just barely.
By the time the Hawks make it home from Friday’s game in Miami they’ll have completed an early season sprint that saw them play 14 of their first 22 games on the road, a rough start by any standard.
But they’ll make up for that tough early road over the next three weeks with home games every other day.
And Saturday’s game against a smokin’ hot Cleveland team isn’t even a retreat to some sort of safe ground, even though the Hawks are an impressive 7-1 at Philips Arena this season, because that first home game (on a back-to-back no less) after a long road trip is always a tough one to deal with.
You have roughly 48 hours to lock back in and get your focus back Hawks.
Because once you dip below .500, the road back above that mark is a rugged one, no matter how inviting the schedule might look.
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The big lead …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HOUSTON - In the NBA a big lead means nothing.
A hot start, like the 13-0 run the Rockets got off to here Tuesday night never spells doom for the opposition.
The Hawks were down as many as 16 in the first half yet they found themselves down just 46-38 at halftime.
The Rockets didn’t stop playing.
The Hawks just started playing better. And hence the problem with any early lead in the NBA, if you’re not careful it won’t mean a thing by the third quarter.
An advance scout for a team the Hawks play later this week is sitting next to me right now schooling me on why a huge early lead never holds against these Hawks.
“They turn you over and get out and run,” he said as the Hawks were in the midst of three straight turnovers and conversions on the other end to start the second half. “It’s the Larry Brown, North Carolina way. George Karl does it, too. They’re going to turn you over, take off running and prove that they’re better than you.”
By the time he finished that speech the Hawks were trailing just 49-45 and had the ball after yet another Rockets’ timeout.
Now it’s 49-47.
These advance scouts know their stuff. And this guy is one of the best.
Marvin Williams for 3 from the corner and a 50-49 Hawks lead. I’m taking this cat to the racetrack.
Bibby for 3 and a 53-49 Hawks lead … this is getting ridiculous.
Maybe he’s right. This is what the Hawks do.
However frustrating it looks, these Hawks find ways to make you play their game.
This is so crazy.
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Where’s the bench?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS - A road trip halfway across the country isn’t exactly the ideal place to try and find yourself.
But for the Hawks (actually for the Hawks’ bench), that’s exactly what’s going on.
What looked like a vibrant unit a month ago has suddenly gone missing, what with starters going down with injuries seemingly every game - the latest being Al Horford, who missed Saturday’s loss to Dallas with a sprained ankle.
The crew that made the pundits eat their words for calling them a “FEMA disaster” during the early stages of this season has struggled to find its niche as Thanksgiving has given way to Christmas.
Granted, the bench is only going to be as potent as it is allowed to be - and to be fair, the minutes have been up and down for the reserves as Hawks coach Mike Woodson tries to strike the right balance between working his starters and relying on his reserves.
It all works in lockstep. And right now the Hawks’ cadence is off. For example, the starters had to play huge minutes to get past New York Friday night, so it would have been ideal for them to get a good breather in the first and third quarters Saturday against the Mavericks. That would allowed the Hawks’ first unit the energy needed, if necessary, to make a late-game push for a win in a place they haven’t won in years.
As it was, the Hawks mustered the juice for that late-game push anyway. And if you missed the wild finish to Saturday’s game you missed a good one.
The challenge for the Hawks going forward is finding ways to keep from needing those sorts of late-game bursts to keep pace.
I know there is now way to eliminate the need for those things completely. But the Hawks finally have the personnel to mix and match their way to competitiveness every night.
There’s no sense wasting it.
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Playing fast!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Before I get to the point hinted at above (Hawks-Knicks Friday night at Philips Arena), I have to ask one quick question.
What kind of town allows a stunner like Ciara to sit all by her lonesome, at courtside no less, at a Hawks game for three full quarters without anyone having the courage to sneak down there and keep her company?
If I didn’t think I’d get in trouble, I would have headed over there myself.
Well, that and I didn’t want to miss any of the fastest game I’ve seen all season.
Whoever said Mike D’Antoni didn’t have the personnel to run his offense doesn’t know basketball, NEWSFLASH … it doesn’t take a group of Navy S.E.A.L. trained cats to play offense 100 miles an hour and treat defense like the plague.
Because these Knicks, however flawed they might be, certainly know how to play 7-second basketball (seven seconds is about all the time that goes off the scoreboard before one of the Knicks takes a shot, some good and some not so good).
The Knicks are no more despicable at 8-10 (prior to Friday’s finish) than half the rest of the sub-.500 teams in the NBA right now. And at least they’re playing a high-octane brand of basketball that keeps the fans interested.
They were all up in the Hawks’ mix for every second of the first half, trailing 57-55 behind 20 points from former Hawks captain Al Harrington.
Harrington told me Thursday that the beauty of D’Antoni’s system is that it fits whatever personnel he has. Players that wouldn’t seem ideal can be melded into the offense because it’s form fitting. Whatever it is you do well, and everybody in this league can do a little something, that’s what your staple is.
That makes good sense to me. And it certainly makes offense look a lot easier than it does most nights, specifically for teams that run a lot of half court sets.
The Knicks get plenty of easy shots, basically off of creating for each other. The ball moves around the floor without any regard for whose hands it will end up in, and there’s no better boost for team building than indiscriminate ball sharing.
The rest of the league should be worried about this team in the future (the hawks, down 67-65 with 4:52 to play in the third quarter need to be worried right now), like some time around the fall of 2010.
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What’s changed?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It’s taken a little more than a month for it to come into good focus, but I’ve finally discovered what has changed most about these Hawks from last year (really, the last four years) to now.
They’re tighter than ever. And I’m talking about the players and coaches as a unit, and specifically the players.
By no means am I suggesting that there have been major rifts between factions in the locker room in the past couple of seasons. But there was a time, say in the second half of the 13-69 season, where it would have taken a Gabrielle Union-led peace summit to get all the players on the same accord.
Those sort of locker room splits (it used to be the young guys the Hawks were trying to groom versus the veterans that thought they shouldn’t be “given” time) are impossible to prevent. And you’ll find them in every sport.
But the Hawks, because of external forces and some internal which have since been removed, always seemed a bit more dysfunctional than usual.
They’ve had shed all of that unique dysfunction in the last 10-12 months.
It’s been a slow and at times painful process, for sure. And the poison that ailed the Hawks for all those years was potent. But they seem to clearly be on the other side of the malaise now.
“I’m probably speaking for everyone here when I say that this is the closest group of cats we’ve had in my time,” said Josh Smith, the longest tenured player on the roster. “I don’t know if it was the playoffs that did it or what. And really, the group we had last year before the trade [for Mike Bibby] was tight as ever. But since training camp this group has just come together without any worries. We’re not letting anything bother us. We’re not letting anything get in the way of what we’re trying to do as a unit.”
Ask any player on a successful team that’s had to come from humble beginnings what the difference is between those good times and bad times and I’d be willing to be that they say something similar to what Smith said.
WHERE’S ZAZA?: Lost in the euphoria of the Hawks’ finally snapping that five-game road losing streak in Washington the other night was Zaza Pachulia’s absence from the playing rotation.
With rebounding games of 18 and 17 sandwiching three subpart efforts, a few of our of most loyal FOBs (Friends of the Blog) suggested that our favorite Georgian big man might be in the process of being phased out of the rotation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Young JaVale McGee is the reason. With the Wizards going with their nimble rookie big man exclusively, and not bruiser Etan Thomas, Hawks coach Mike Woodson said he decided to play the matchup game and try and beat the Wizards with his smaller group.
And it worked, with Al Horford and Solomon Jones handling things inside (and to all those folks who wondered just how legit the training camp praise of Solo was, I think he’s answered any questions pretty well so far).
With Marc Gasol and Darko Milicic in town tonight with the Memphis Grizzlies, I’d expect to see plenty of Zaza.
SPEAKING OF THE GRIZZ: I can’t lie, I’m as eager to see Josh Smith back on the floor tonight for the Hawks as I am to see how these Grizzlies are operating with three rookies in their starting lineup.
O.J. Mayo and Gasol were probably expected to be in the first five. Darrell Arthur, though, is a bit of a surprise to me.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Hawks handle a team that looked a lot like they did a couple years ago in terms of the obvious youth movement that’s going on. Even more interesting will be how long the Grizzlies ride this thing out.
The Hawks rode it four years and have finally resurfaced as a playoff contender. The Grizzlies seem light years away from that (1-8 on the road and just 4-13 overall despite some huge offensive showcases for both Mayo and Rudy Gay).
MOVE OVER NOSTRADAMUS: As much as it pains me to report this, there’s a guy running around town that was perfect in his prediction of the Hawks’ first 16 games. He was even dead on about which games they’d win and lose, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.
He was pushing for a front-page story about his prognosticating prowess, but has since decided that he’ll accept a mention here as adequate recognition for his skills. So this is the tip of the hat to you D.
And kudos for being crazy enough to go out on that limb the first day of training camp, for believing your own hype that entire first month and then accepting something less than our bargained front page spread. Ha.
Now we’ll have to see if the rest of you predictions come to fruition.
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