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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > November > 17
Monday, November 17, 2008
Don’t make assumptions about these Hawks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two years ago, when the Hawks jumped out to a 4-1 start, you would have thought within the ownership group that they had just clinched the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Then they lost four straight, 12 of 16 and 22 of 28. Lottery talk moved up to January. Again.
Such a collapse isn’t likely to happen with these Hawks. A deep talent pool should keep them from prolonged stretches of infamy. But if it’s quiet around the team, there’s a reason. They won their first six. Now they’ve lost three in a row.
The problem with projecting an immediate bounce back is the Hawks really don’t have a resume that screams, “Stay calm. All is well.”
As general manager Rick Sund said Monday, “We’re not a team like San Antonio. Whether they start 2-8 or 8-2, nobody there is going panic or say, ‘We’ve got it made.’ We’re a team of young veterans. Let’s face it, we made the playoffs last year with a losing record.”
So consider this the first test.
On Tuesday, the Hawks play at Indiana. It begins another difficult stretch: four games in five nights, seven games in 12 nights, eight of 13 games on the road. The Hawks also have eight sets of back-to-backs in five weeks.
Tired yet?
Fatigue, be it physical or mental, was evident in Saturday’s dreadful home loss to New Jersey. Teams are not defined by how they react during winning streaks, but rather how they react when it looks like the bottom might start to fall out.
“We have to get to playing defense like we were the first six games,” guard Mike Bibby said.
He was sitting in the locker room after practice at Philips Arena, looking up at the white board across the room.
“You see what that says there: 47 percent, 55 percent, 115 points, 119 points — that can’t happen,” he said, referencing New Jersey’s shooting percentages and point totals in consecutive games. “It seemed like they scored every time down the court. When you play 82 games, that’s going to happen sometimes. But you can’t let it happen too much.”
Bibby won at least 50 games in each of his first four seasons with Sacramento before things started to go south. He experienced mostly losing his first three years in Vancouver.
“Good teams bounce back,” he said. “When I was in Sacramento, my main talk was, ‘Don’t lose two in a row.’ String together as many wins as possible. Get to 50 before you get to 20.”
It has been 11 years since the Hawks had a 50-win season. If nobody is projecting a 6-3 start over an 82-game season, there’s a reason.
There is too much unknown about this team. How will the players react to each other as the season wears on? How will they react to coach Mike Woodson? Will leadership become an issue during conflict?
Woodson only knows that he didn’t like what he saw Saturday against New Jersey. The Nets scored 64 points in the second half of a 119-107 win. They hit 12 of 18 3-pointers.
“I don’t like the way we played,” he said, and he let players know as much in practice Monday after giving them a day off.
“The message is the same as it’s always been,” he said. “When you’re on the front end of a 6-0 run and you’re winning games, the energy level can’t go the other way.”
If the dragging continues Tuesday night or in the next few games, he said he’ll shorten players minutes. This will be a feeling out process. There can’t be any assumptions about how the season plays out because, well, as Sund said, these aren’t the Spurs. And to some degree, only nine games into an 82-game season, the Hawks still need to prove they’re not the Hawks.
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