Are the Hawks just a .500 team?
There were expectations this season after the Hawks got healthy, made offseason moves to improve their depth and defense and had a full season of running the systems of coach Mike Budenholzer.
Yet 10 games into the season, the Hawks stand at 5-5. They are 4-1 at home and 1-4 on the road.
There have been successes. The Hawks had a four-game winning streak. Last season the Hawks finished 38-44 with a season-high win streak of five games. Only two other times did they have a winning streak of at least three games.
There have been failures. The Hawks are coming off two consecutive dreadful losses. They fell behind to the Cavaliers by as many as 43 points, including 35 in the first half, in a 127-94 loss Saturday. That preceded Tuesday’s 114-109 loss to the now two-win Lakers, in which the Hawks trailed by 17 points in the first half.
“There is reason to be encouraged,” veteran Elton Brand said. “We may not have shown it yet, but we will. We are working on it. We are getting it together. … We want to be an elite team. I think we will get there. We are not a .500 team.”
Budenholzer led a fiery film session before Wednesday’s practice. Included on the long list of recent deficiencies were rebounding, defense, slow starts, poor offensive execution and bad fouls.
“Coach is on us right now,” Brand said. “Coach is not happy right now, and he shouldn’t be. It showed. It’s us. We see what we are doing wrong. We see it on the film.
“There are ebbs and flows (to film-session work), but it’s pretty hot right now.”
Much of the Hawks’ recent issues are:
Rebounding. The Hawks rank 27th in the NBA in total rebounds, at 39.0 per game. Only the Knicks (38.6), Clippers (37.4) and Heat (37.4) are worse. They are 23rd in the NBA in opponent rebounding, at 43.0 per game.
The Hawks have been outrebounded in eight of their 10 games. Budenholzer wants better effort from his big men and help from the guards.
“It was good to see the things that we needed to work on as a team,” Al Horford said. “We all have to look at ourselves. That’s what we did in the film today. Everybody has things that they need to improve and work on, and I know what I have to do next game. I have to bring more energy defensively and be better in that end. That is something that is going to be my focus moving forward.”
Defense. The Hawks rank 23rd in the NBA in points allowed at 103.9. The Lakers scored 114 points and shot 54 percent after they entered the game with an average of 101.6 points.
The Hawks rank 26th in the league in opponent field-goal percentage at .472. They are tied for 25th in opponent adjusted-field-goal percentage, which accounts for 3-pointers, at .523.
“We need to get stops,” Budenholzer said. “Teams are scoring at a high rate. Before rebounding can become a problem, you’ve got to make them miss. I think we need to do a better job of contesting, being active, making it more difficult. Then if we do that, we have to figure out how to go get it.”
Poor starts. The Hawks have been outscored in the first half in five games. They rank 25th in the NBA in first-half margin at minus-5.1. They rank fifth in second-half margin at plus-4.1. Budenholzer said he wants the team to start games with a "greater sense of urgency" on both ends of the court.
Budenholzer said he thought the team defense was trending upward before the Cavaliers game. He reiterated that the team has issues on offense in both execution and pace of play as well.
Horford said that despite the past two games, there is reason to be encouraged. The film session showed correctable mistakes. He said the team is still working through a learning curve.
“I’m not very happy right now because we’ve lost two straight, but I’m encouraged that we are going to work our way back,” Horford said.
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