With half of the season behind them, the Hawks have plenty of things they want to address as they try to make their push for the postseason.
The Hawks have not lived up to the expectations they set for themselves at the beginning of the season and believe that the team is capable of achieving far more.
“I mean, we should be obviously higher up,” Hawks guard Aaron Holiday said after practice Thursday. “Like, we should have won more games. But again, those games are in the past. So, we just got to continue to push forward on what’s ahead of us and continue to just keep building.”
Following Wednesday’s loss to the Bucks, the Hawks dropped to 19-22. They are tied for 20th in the NBA with the Lakers and sit a half-game ahead of the Bulls in ninth in the Eastern Conference. They sit 3.5 games behind the Knicks and Pacers, who are tied for sixth, and are 10.5 games behind the conference-leading Celtics.
Forty-one games into the season, the Hawks have had a number of games that have come down to the wire, with a couple of them coming down to the final possession of the game.
The Hawks are 9-10 in clutch games, a game in which there are five or fewer minutes left and the score is within five points, this season. Three of their past 10 games have been decided in the final second.
They lost to the Bulls on Dec. 21 on a putback layup at the buzzer. Then they lost to the Nets by one after missing a pair of clutch free throws. Just last week, they lost to the Warriors in double overtime on a putback layup off a pair of offensive rebounds.
So, as they look to the next 41 games, the Hawks look to find the consistency that has eluded them so far. The Hawks have not won more than two games in a row since Nov. 7, and they have been plagued by slow starts. They’ve trailed at the half in four of the past eight matchups.
Of course, injuries have plagued the Hawks throughout the first half of the season. They’ve played only one game with their full roster intact.
The Hawks have not had the presence of Clint Capela (right calf strain) for 12 of their past 13 games. In the midst of that, the Hawks did not have De’Andre Hunter, who has missed eight games this season. Starting forward John Collins has missed eight games this season, while guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray each have missed five.
For much of the first half of the season, the Hawks needed to navigate their rotation without the presence of Bogdan Bogdanovic. The Hawks sharpshooter had surgery during the offseason and spent the first 22 games rehabbing.
“Well, you do expect injuries,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “You know the injuries are gonna come. You hope that you can play through them and you’re not losing guys or a lot of guys for a long period of time.
“But, injuries are going to be a part. That’s why you have these 15-man rosters, and you hope that in situations like that guys can step in and cover for each other, while guys are injured. It’s been unfortunate that we’ve had a number of injuries. And we’ve lost our key defender, anchor on the defensive end of the side of the ball that has really had an impact on us.”
Capela is day to day while recovering from the calf strain, and McMillan said the 28-year-old has done a little more each day. Unfortunately, Capela still feels discomfort in his calf, and the Hawks have decided that they won’t rush him back as long as he continues to feel that.
“He’s doing some running, and he seems to be getting better,” McMillan said. “Seems like every day, but he still feels something there. And as long as he has that feeling, you know that thing hasn’t totally healed or cleared up. We’re not going to put him out there and risk a setback.”
The Hawks signed Derrick Favors to a 10-day contract Wednesday. So the team has a little more depth at center in Capela’s absence. But even with Favors in the mix, the Hawks know that they still have to address other issues besides their rebounding.
They rank 15th in the league in defensive rating (113), and their offense has gone cold too many times in some of their matchups. For McMillan, that starts with playing defense.
“Better play, more consistent play, we’d need to improve our defense, I mean, really, all aspects of the game,” McMillan said. “Certainly, I think it starts on the defensive end of the floor, doing a better job of controlling the ball and rebounding the basketball, in hopes that that will help initiate and establish an offensive tempo that we feel we can play at. But, more commitment in that area and being more consistent with that.”
So, after 41 games, the Hawks believe that they are capable of more than what they have shown, and they understand that they have a lot of work to do to live up to expectations.
“I think we have to continue to work, and we have the potential,” McMillan said. “I think the big key for us is, hopefully we can get healthy and see really who we are. We haven’t played many games together with a healthy roster.
“But, we’re at the halfway point. Now’s the time that teams start to look at the standings, that every game is important because you see where you are. And, normally the second half is going to go, it feels it goes a little faster. So we know that we have some work to do, and we have to play better basketball than we did this first half of the season.”
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