The Hawks don’t have many people believing that they can make a substantial postseason run.
For much of the regular season, the Hawks’ coaching staff and front office tried to light a fire under the team to snap a middling season. That was one of the reasons that general manager Landry Fields made the decision to dismiss former coach Nate McMillan in February. At the time, the Hawks had a 29-30 record and recently had suffered two bad losses.
“This was something where I felt I needed to light a fire under them,” Fields said to The Athletic in February.
Two months later and with a new coach at the helm, the Hawks finished the regular season at .500 with a 41-41 record, prompting doubts that they could advance to the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs as the seventh seed. Ahead of Tuesday’s play-in game, several people and sports media outlets picked the Heat to advance.
The Hawks responded by handing the Heat a 116-105 loss, despite 17 ESPN writers and reporters unanimously voting otherwise. So, Hawks guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray made sure to tweet their pleasure at proving to themselves what they can do.
Once again, though, not many believe that the Hawks can make it past the first round of the playoffs. They’re set to face the No. 2-seed Celtics, with the first two games taking place in Boston.
“It’s not about proving people wrong,” Young said. “It’s about making sure we do what we need to do and prove ourselves right. So, that’s how I look at it. I know that’s how our team looks at it. Obviously, we see it all and all that, but it doesn’t necessarily affect us in a certain way. I think we know what we put in, the work we put in, and we’re going to try to go out and show what we’ve done.”
For Young, he said people counting him out isn’t new to him.
“It’s just another day for me like (since) in high school,” Young said. “Going into college, I was too small and certain things. Going in the NBA, the same thing. Like, I just don’t let that affect me. I just be myself and try to get my team to win. That’s all I care about.”
The doubt that the Hawks can make it deep into the playoffs doesn’t come from thin air though. Their performance in the regular season is the basis for the mistrust that they can make something happen.
The Hawks ended the regular season with the ninth-worst defensive rating in the NBA, and they’re about to face a Celtics team that has the second-best offense.
The Celtics swept the Hawks in their three regular-season meetings after they scorched them on 3-point shooting. The Hawks have given up 20 or more 3-pointers this season four times, three of those against the Celtics.
For the Hawks though, the regular season is in the rearview mirror. The slate has been wiped clean.
“Every game is different,” Hawks center Clint Capela said. “Every playoff game is different. Playoffs 2022 is different than Playoffs 2023. So, whatever you’re thinking, whatever happened before, would not happen again because every game is different.”
Capela added that the Hawks will have approach things differently with the playoffs a best-of-seven format versus the single games they prep for in the regular season.
“Every game is going to get harder with adjustments, with awareness about actions, about what happened the game before. And so always going to be the same team, the same guys.”
The Hawks and Celtics tip off in Game 1 of the first round at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at TD Garden in Boston.
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