It’s only natural that when a team sets a franchise record for wins, the bar is suddenly raised to record elevation levels – so high that if the Hawks don’t win at least two playoff series, which they’ve never done before, and reach the Eastern Conference finals, the tattooed masses in the Atlanta fan base will feel deflated.
But this was your little reality check.
“We hadn’t played a game in while that mattered,” Kyle Korver said Sunday. “Maybe that was the reason for this. We certainly had our chances but we kind of got gummed up, made some turnovers. But, hey, we won.”
So, yeah, after a 60-win season that included an unconscious stretch 33-2, the Hawks didn’t meet anybody’s expectations when the playoffs opened Sunday night, least of all theirs. It was the first game they’ve played in probably a month that had some semblance of meaning — March 18 at Golden State – and they often looked out of rhythm.
They beat the remains of the Brooklyn Nets 99-92, which is all that matters when the object in a best-of-seven series is to win four and move on. But their largely uneven performance after jumping out to an early 16-point lead — which withered to four with 1:33 left — should temper expectations a bit.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
“In the playoffs, you have to win games different ways,” Paul Millsap said. “Tonight we showed we can win ugly.”
Millsap would be Exhibit A.
He is struggling to find his shot after coming back from the shoulder contusion and sprain he suffered against, ironically, Brooklyn three weeks ago. He made only 2-of-11 attempts in Game 1 against Brooklyn after going 2-for-9 in the regular season finale following a five-game icing. Ugly total: 4-for-20.
Millsap said the issue is less about soreness than it is a limited mobility, caused in part by the padded compression undergarment he wears for protection.
“The mobility has to get better,” he said. “If not, I’ll have to learn how play with it. It’s playoff basketball. If I can’t do it, I’ll have to sit down.”
Pause.
“That’s probably not going to happen.”
So the Hawks won a game with Millsap, their leading scorer and best player for much of the season, scoring six points. They also won a game despite heart palpitations in the fourth quarter when center Al Horford left the game after suffering a dislocated right pinky.
Horford eventually returned with his pinky and ring finger taped together, but this isn’t the way the Hawks wanted to start a potential physical playoff series.
Question: Would it be possible for the Hawks to beat the Nets three more times if they put Horford and Millsap in bubble wrap for the rest of the series?
“This is what we’ve done all year. We’re not just one person,” Korver said when asked about Millsap’s struggles. “We’re not playing hero ball. There’s a lot of nights when guys don’t play well. The reality is Paul’s probably trying to find his rhythm a little bit, and he will.”
He needs to. Because the truth is that for as much as the Hawks share the ball and stress balance in their offense, they’re not going to go very far in this postseason without improvement from Millsap.
With a solid Millsap and a healthy Horford, this could be a quick series. It wasn’t a series that anybody projected to be competitive — in either participating city.
Consider this outlook from Lionel Hollins: “I don’t think we have any advantages over the Hawks. That’s why they’re 60-22 and that’s why we’re where we are (38-44).”
Which would be a perfectly acceptable assessment if Hollins didn’t, you know, coach Brooklyn.
Brooklyn took a 2-0 lead 22 seconds into game. Things pretty much fell apart shortly thereafter. The Hawks led by 12 points after one quarter, 16 early in the second and 10 at halftime. There was mild concern in the third quarter when the Nets went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to three points (57-54) but by late in the third the lead was back to 16 again.
They fizzled again. But against an inferior team that includes Joe Johnson — who scored 17 points but was 0-for-6 from three-point range and was booed every time he touched the ball — they were good enough.
“It’s the playoffs. We didn’t expect to blow anybody out,” Jeff Teague said.
Time to tweak the forecast.
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