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Friday, November 2, 2007
Hawks impress but need more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
You could tell in so many ways Friday night before an absolutely delirious gathering at Philips Arena that these aren’t the same old Hawks.
First, they won.
Let that sink in, and it gets better: They accomplished such a rare feat in recent years on opening night with a 101-94 victory over a standout Dallas Mavericks bunch. Not only that, much of the stuffed house spent the game’s stretch drive delivering a loud and spontaneous collection of dancing, shouting and cheering.
Actually, when it came to the Hawks, all of that was secondary to this: They looked interesting. They looked enthused. They looked improved.
They looked good.
The only thing more impressive than the Hawks’ energy throughout the evening was their refusal to collapse after several late runs from their typically explosive visitors who regularly travel deep into the NBA playoffs. “Our team is growing up,” beamed Hawks coach Mike Woodson, telling the truth in the aftermath. Rookies Acie Law and Al Horford often played as splendid complements to Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, the Hawks’ youthful veterans.
Woodson added that this was a team victory, with nice efforts from Marvin Williams and definitely Tyronn Lue, who contributed so many clutch shots near the end that the crowd wildly chanted “Lue, Lue, Lue” during one of his trips to the foul line.
That’s all splendid, but the Hawks can’t get around this: They could have gotten Chris Paul before he became a certified star for the New Orleans Hornets, but they didn’t. They could have gotten Deron Williams before he became a rising star for the Utah Jazz, but they didn’t. They could have gotten Mike Conley Jr. before he became a rising and certified star in waiting for the Memphis Grizzlies, but they didn’t.
Instead, with the Hawks preparing earlier in the night to spend a dandy time against the Mavericks and threatening to become relevant for the first time in years, their starting point guard was Anthony Johnson, not exactly a clone of Paul, Williams or Conley.
Johnson is what he is, and that is a serviceable backup in his 11th NBA season after stops in Sacramento, Orlando, Cleveland, New Jersey, Indiana and multiple ones in Atlanta. In fact, how many times has Johnson been the starting point guard on opening night for one of your teams? He paused, while thinking. “This is my first time. Yeah,” Johnson said, before taking the court against the Mavericks in search of trying to become the spark that turns the Hawks into an up-tempo inferno featuring all of that youth and athleticism.
Well, at least that was Johnson’s designated mission in the short run. We’re talking about the very short run. As for the long run, it came less than four minutes into the game. The long run even has a name for the Hawks, and it is Acie Law IV, the accomplished shooting guard from Texas A&M that the point-guard challenged Hawks drafted anyway this summer. He entered this one when Johnson misfired after hoisting an off-balance shot from the lane and traveled soon afterward.
In came Law, who instantly impressed.
That is until he instantly accumulated two fouls in three minutes for an early exit until the second quarter. Before that, he fed Marvin Williams with a nice assist in the lane, drove fearlessly to the basket into Dirk Nowitzki territory to draw a foul and barked commands like a veteran. They were wonderful signs of things to come for Law and the Hawks.
It’s all encouraging. And remember: Hawks officials are promising a renaissance this season with new uniforms and a new attitude. The thing is, unless Law or somebody else is for real at the point, the Hawks will have an old problem - no adequate and consistent guy at the point, which wouldn’t be good. Not when the NBA has evolved from a league of the dominant center to that of the prominent point guard.
If you don’t have a Steve Nash or a Tony Parker or a Jason Kidd or a Chauncey Billups or a (ahem) a Paul, Williams or Conley, you better have an overwhelming force such as a LeBron James or a Kobe Bryant to compensate.
Joe Johnson is the Hawks’ LeBron and Kobe in spurts. That means he needs help, so this was a start. A spectacular start.
Permalink | Comments (85) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
Gailey or not, the better squad won
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I know what you want. You want me to rip Chan Gailey for losing by 24 points in a game he was favored to win. You want me to demand that he be fired on the spot. You want — drum roll here — accountability.
But sometimes the other team is just better. Sometimes the oddsmakers have it wrong. (Did the guys in Vegas not get wind of Tashard Choice’s injury? Do they not get ajc.com out there?) And sometimes a head coach is let down by those who work for him.
I know how Georgia Tech people think. They believe Jon Tenuta is the man who has propped up Gailey these past six years, and in large measure, he has. The Jackets’ offense has never been a thriving enterprise, and Tenuta’s defense has been seen as the program’s shining light. But there are some games when Georgia Tech really needs to win 9-7, and last night’s was one. It wound up 27-3 instead.
Virginia Tech entered with the 11th-best offense in the 12-team ACC. It exited having amassed 481 yards, its biggest yield of the season. (Bigger than against Duke. Bigger than against William & Mary.) It managed this because Tenuta’s plan is based on the blitz, which has its rewards — statistically Georgia Tech has the conference’s top defense — but also carries a massive and constant risk.
The Jackets sacked Sean Glennon six times, which is a lot, but it was what happened when they didn’t sack him that turned this game into a wipeout. When you blitz, you leave your defensive backs on the proverbial island. When you blitz and don’t reach the quarterback, you’d better hope your secondary can cover. Tech’s cannot. It happened against Boston College and Matt Ryan — the visitors had 527 yards that night — and now it happened against the underwhelming Glennon, who ranked below Taylor Bennett in pass efficiency.
Here’s what happened when the Jackets didn’t wrestle Glennon to the ground: He completed 22 of 32 passes for 296 yards and two touchdowns. He was 18-of-22 in the first half, when the Hokies built a working lead, and it must be noted that this is the same Glennon who passed for 96 yards and threw three interceptions in Virginia Tech’s collapse against Georgia last December.
Another defensive coordinator might have dialed back his blitzes and employed a soft zone and put the burden of proof on Glennon. As ever, Tenuta put the burden on his men. And they buckled under the strain.
This wasn’t a night to be brave/foolish. It was a night to be conservative and hope for the best. The Jackets weren’t going to score many points without Choice and Rashaun Grant — Taylor Bennett threw four interceptions, Josh Nesbitt a fifth — and a more basic defensive scheme might have kept the Hokies similarly bottled up. Tenuta doesn’t believe in basic defense. He believes in the blitz.
I know what you want. You want another rip of Gailey, who often seems the least popular man on his own campus. (When a taped Gailey don’t-drink-and-drive message was played on the matrix board in the fourth quarter, a volley of boos rang out.) But the head coach has always left the defense to his defensive coordinator, and many Tech fans will tell you that Tenuta is the only reason Gailey still has a job. But Tenuta isn’t perfect. Sometimes his stuff doesn’t work, either.
Said Gailey: “We gave up some big plays. Other than that, we played good [defensively]. But you can’t say ‘other than that’ — those count.”
My problem with Gailey isn’t so much scheme as consistency. Georgia Tech can vary from week to week, even from half to half, in its mind-set. That wasn’t the issue Thursday night. The Jackets played hard enough with limited resources. They just didn’t think well enough. I’m not going to call Gailey the greatest coach in the history of toe-meeting-leather, but this loss was beyond his control. His heralded and high-salaried assistant didn’t give Chan a fighting chance.
Permalink | Comments (291) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
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