Too bad the Hawks don’t get frequent flier miles.
They are about to embark on a five-city, nine-day road trip that will cover nearly 6,000 miles. It’s one more oddity of the NBA’s compacted schedule this season. The north-south alternating excursion begins in Milwaukee on Monday, goes to San Antonio, Detroit, New Orleans and ends in Toronto on Jan. 31. Three of the legs cover at least 1,000 miles.
“The way I’m looking at it, the one area where we’ve got to grow as a team is we have to be able to play out on the road under abnormal conditions,” coach Larry Drew said. “Certainly, this schedule is very abnormal. We are not the only team that is faced with it. Every team is faced with it. It will give us the ability to grow and really find ourselves on the road.”
The Hawks will make another five-game road trip in February and have a season-long six-game trip in March.
Drew considers the trip a chance for his team to establish itself on the road. The Hawks (12-5) are 8-1 at home but just 4-4 away from Philips Arena. While the Hawks have won eight of the past 10 games, six of those wins came at home. The latest road loss was Friday in Philadelphia, a 90-76 defeat in which Drew said his team “quit” in the second half.
“I’m looking for that consistency on the road where we can go out, night in and night out, and play smart basketball,” Drew said. “We realize when we are on the road, we can’t play on the road like we do at home and just go out there and just fire away. We have to be smarter in controlling the tempo and making sure we get the shots that we want and make sure that we keep crowds out of the game.”
Not surprisingly, the Hawks have better statistics at home. They average 103.8 points at home and just 91.5 on the road. They also have better numbers at home in field goal percentage, free-throw percentage, rebounds, assists and steals.
Drew said success on the road means maintaining good shot selection. Eventually, you take the home crowd out of the game. In the loss in Philadelphia, the 76ers were getting booed by their fans in the first half as the Hawks led 47-39 at intermission. However, the 76ers went on a 20-3 run in the third quarter, the momentum switched and the Hawks did not respond.
“It’s almost like surgery during the course of the game,” Drew said. “You have to do all the things necessary that allow you to dictate the pace of the game and not allow the other team to do so.”
The travel schedule might present the biggest trouble for the Hawks, although there is a day between each game. The combined record of the opposition on the trip is 26-54. In games against Milwaukee (5-9), San Antonio (10-7), Detroit (4-13), New Orleans (3-13) and Toronto (4-12) the Spurs account for nearly 40 percent of the win total. (The Bucks and Raptors played Sunday.)
“We are expecting to take it game by game,” guard Willie Green said. “I know that’s cliché but that is pretty much how you have to look at it. Don’t overlook any opponent.
“You don’t want to let the crowd get involved in the game on the road. It can be very tough to win on the road. But if we take care of the basketball, keep the crowd out of it, execute on offense, I think coming down the stretch we’ll have a chance to win.”
ONE LONG TRIP
The Hawks begin a five-game, nine-day road trip on Monday. Here is a look at the details:
Leg/Flight miles
Atlanta to Milwaukee/668
Milwaukee to San Antonio/1,107
San Antonio to Detroit/1,238
Detroit to New Orleans/939
New Orleans to Toronto/1,113
Toronto to Atlanta/735
Total/5,800
