While dominoes have fortuitously fallen around them in the Eastern Conference playoffs – Toronto, their personal thorn, was swept in its series and Cleveland lost its starting center to a dislocated shoulder – the Hawks have struggled with their identity.
They forget that they were supposed to be really good.
“We got stagnant again. We were passive. We have to stay aggressive and do what got us here,” DeMarre Carroll said Monday night.
This is not the time of year for that kind of slippage.
The team that won 60 of 82 games during the regular season suddenly can’t beat the eighth-seeded Brooklyn Nets more than two out of four when it matters most. The Hawks lost for the second consecutive game to a team that had been so miserable and overpaid that management had started dismantling the roster.
Not that it matters now.
The Hawks blew a third-quarter lead of 12 points, which is what happens when you suddenly look like you’re shooting with oven mitts. Former sharpshooter Kyle Korver missed three consecutive jumpers in overtime and Brooklyn’s Deron Williams — back from the dead – scored 35 points as the Nets dumped the Hawks for the second game in a row, 120-115 in overtime.
Welcome to ghosts of playoffs past.
The best-of-seven series is now even at two games each. Probably not a good time to forecast second-round matchups and wonder who is going to guard LeBron James.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer understandably wasn’t in a great mood after his team allowed 30 points in the fourth-quarter, even if some came from the improbable shooting of Williams (including a 30-footer off his back foot as the shot clock was expiring).
Budenholzer said, “Our defense needs to be better. Obviously they made some big plays and some big shots, and I think some turnovers put is in some tough spots.”
At times, it’s offense. At times, it’s defense. At times they just make the wrong decision (18 turnovers in this one led to 26 Brooklyn points). How does this happen to a 60-22 team?
Budenholzer: “It’s the playoffs; it’s not the regular season.”
The Hawks led 82-74 going into the final period. The third-quarter leader had won every game of this series. But the Nets didn’t get that memo. Alan Anderson hit a three-point shot to tie the game at 85 with 9:16 left. Williams hit consecutive treys to put Brooklyn ahead 93-88.
Barclays Center erupted. Suddenly, the Nets were the “it” team.
The world spun off its axis.
The Hawks scrambled to tie the game at 104 to send it to overtime. They led on four occasions in the extra period, but Bojan Bogdonovich hit a three-point shot to put the Nets ahead at 114-113 and the Hawks suddenly couldn’t hit a shot. Teague missed. Then Korver missed – once, twice, three times, all from three-point range.
That was it. They never recovered.
“We just have to get back to Atlanta and figure it out,” DeMarre Carroll said. “It’s playoff basketball man. We didn’t come here to play safe basketball. This is playoff basketball.”
Millsap again: “We were up by 12 at one point. We have to put teams away when we do that.”
The Hawks went into Monday night’s game knowing that if they eliminated Brooklyn in six games or less, the Eastern Conference semifinal against Washington would begin Sunday at Philips Arena.
But after such a miserable performance in game three, there was no reason to assume a place in the second-round series. Shooting 35.6 percent has a way of grounding a team and messing with digestive systems.
From the outset of Game 4, there seemed to be more flow to the Hawks’ offense. They moved the ball. They moved their legs. They crashed the offensive boards. Nobody was better than Carroll, who had 15 points in the first half.
The Hawks shot better play and played with some sense of urgency, unlike two days earlier. It’s amazing what one loss and a little anger will do. As guard Jeff Teague uttered at practice Sunday: “I hated our game. I hated the way I played. I think the whole team hated the way we played.”
He could have kept going: Most of Atlanta hated the way they played.
The Hawks may have finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference but they generally haven’t looked like the biggest playoff threat in the Eastern Conference. Still, it would be difficult to not notice that there have been two significant developments in the postseason that potentially tip in the Hawks’ favor:
- Toronto, the only Eastern Conference team that had a winning record against the Hawks this season, was swept in the opening round by Washington. The Hawks were 1-3 against Toronto during the regular season and 3-1 against Washington.
- Cleveland, the consensus conference favorite going into the playoffs, will be missing starting center Kevin Love for at least the second round because of a dislocated shoulder and corresponding ligament and labrum damage suffered in Sunday against Boston. Even if Love returns for the conference finals, potentially against the Hawks, logic suggests he probably won't be at full strength.
But the Hawks have come to realize they can’t assume anything. They’re a No. 1 seed suddenly in no better position than the No. 8 seed, something few ever would have expected a week ago.
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