Hawks coach Nate McMillan said zone defense has always been in the team’s package. But after the team’s successful deployment of it Wednesday night against the Knicks, the Hawks are more comfortable utilizing it more often moving forward.
“Are we going to become Syracuse?” McMillan joked after the Hawks’ practice Friday. “Of course, again, it’s a part of our package, you know, we just haven’t played it a lot. It’s only been seven, eight games into the season. But it was going to always be a part of something that we added to our defense. So, certainly, after we played (the Knicks), we’ll look to try to take advantage of opportunities, certainly to play it for the rest of the season.”
The Hawks have the eighth-best defensive rating over their last two games after holding the Knicks to 99 points Wednesday, then challenging the Pelicans through overtime Saturday.
That doesn’t mean the Hawks’ defensive problems are fixed, and they’ll be the first to say so. The Hawks rank in the middle of the pack defensively, after giving up 126 points to a Hornets team without LaMelo Ball, 123 points to the Bucks and 139 points to the Raptors.
The Hawks have averaged 22 fouls per game through nine games. So, they will look to maintain their physicality while limiting the number of times they send opponents to the free-throw line.
With the Bucks, the NBA’s lone undefeated team, making a trip to Atlanta on Monday night, the Hawks want to make sure they’re learning from their mistakes.
The last time the Hawks faced the Bucks, they allowed them to get to the free-throw line 29 times. So, they’ll look to keep the Bucks out of the paint. McMillan said they’ll have to stay in front of their opponent and force them to shoot over the top. They’ll also need to outscrap a big Bucks frontcourt on the glass.
“I want them to be aggressive,” McMillan said. “I want them to be physical and, you know, continue to work at it. I don’t think they’re going out there and just fouling, but there’s some times we are reaching, and we’re putting ourselves in situations where if we were there early as opposed to being late we probably wouldn’t be in that situation.”
The Bucks (9-0) have averaged 24.2 free-throw attempts per game, and they’re making them at a 73% clip. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo leads his team in free-throw attempts with 12.9 per game, and he will look to take advantage of the Hawks’ aggression.
When the teams played Oct. 29, the Hawks did a good job of limiting the two-time league MVP to 13 points through three quarters. Now they’ll look to do so again, while cutting off the Bucks’ options on the perimeter.
“We have to anticipate what’s going to happen before it’s going to happen,” Hawks assistant Mike Longabardi said. “So that’ll put us in the right position, which will hopefully help us, you know, get a stop, get the rebound. And then we can go off to the other end.”
The Hawks know that settling on their defensive identity is still a work in progress. They also understand it won’t happen overnight. But they are finding ways to take steps in the right direction.
“We’re just still striving for consistency,” Longabardi said. “I think that’s as simple as it is. I know. It’s cliché, but those are the teams that have the most success are the teams that are the most consistent. And we got to just continue to just preach that and emphasize it. And hopefully it’ll pay off like in the end.”
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