Crawford or Teague to fill Hinrich starting role

By Michael Cunningham

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Hawks coach Larry Drew still hadn't decided on a starting lineup when the team left for Chicago on Sunday.

“I'm just going on feel right now,” Drew said.

There's a lot for Drew to think about as he decides on his starters for the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The first issue is point guard, where starter Kirk Hinrich isn't expected to play during the best-of-seven series. Jeff Teague could take Hinrich's place since he's best suited to defend Chicago's Derrick Rose.

Drew said he's also considering starting veteran Jamal Crawford, who hasn't started a game in his two seasons for Atlanta. Drew and predecessor Mike Woodson have favored Crawford's scoring off the bench.

“The decision that I have to kind of ponder is whether to disrupt what we do off the bench versus just going back and starting Jamal,” Drew said. “The last few days, we've looked at both situations. We've used [Crawford and Teague] in the starting lineup and out of the starting lineup [in practice].”

Crawford would provide considerably more scoring punch from the start than Teague. With Crawford in the starting lineup the Bulls would have to account for five capable scorers on the floor at the same time.

But Crawford usually is an indifferent defender as he focuses on scoring. That could cause problems for the Hawks against Rose.

“We know we are going to see a high, high volume of pick-and-rolls,” Drew said. “We have to make sure we have the right mixture and the right guys that will do the best job to defend that.”

Drew said he hadn't ruled out a big lineup that most likely would include Zaza Pachulia at center. In that alignment, center Al Horford and power forward Josh Smith would shift over, and Marvin Williams would come off the bench.

Pachulia is a good match against Chicago's Joakim Noah.

“You have got to have an energy guy playing an energy guy,” Drew said. “Noah is certainly an energy guy for them and Zaza is an energy guy for us. So we are probably definitely going to have to use him more.”

Etc.

Hinrich is officially listed as doubtful for the series but Drew said he's not counting on Hinrich playing. “From what I was told, going into this series and hearing how the injury was, personally I'm not looking for him to come back,” Drew said. ... Bulls forward Carlos Boozer (turf toe) sat out practice Sunday. Coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters in Chicago the plan is for Boozer to test the injury prior to the game. ... The league announced Sunday that Thibodeau was named coach of the year in a vote of media. In his first season as coach Thibodeau led the Bulls to a league-best 62 victories.