Somewhere right now, Joakim Noah is nudging someone out of a buffet line, outhustling a teammate to the hot tub or maybe sealing off the magazine rack in his hotel gift shop.
The NBA’s top offensive rebounder in the postseason drove the Hawks to madness Wednesday in the Chicago Bulls’ Game 2 victory. If the Hawks don’t counteract Noah and his ball-hawking teammates Friday in Game 3 at Philips Arena, trouble awaits.
“Joakim doesn’t stop,” Hawks forward Marvin Williams said. “He doesn’t care if one guy’s on him, two guys are on him. He’ll find a way to tip it out, somehow come up with a rebound or somebody else come up with a rebound.”
The Bulls outrebounded the Hawks 58-39 in their series-tying win Wednesday. The Hawks’ problems hardly ended there — see more below — but among the primary goals Friday will be not to get hammered on the glass.
“We just have to do a better job rebounding the ball,” Hawks center Al Horford said. “I think that’s the biggest difference.”
Noah, Horford’s college roommate at Florida, led the assault. He had 14 rebounds, tying Horford for game-high honors, half of them on offense. Luol Deng had 12 and Carlos Boozer added 11, three of them on offense. Various Hawks attributed the Bulls’ rebounding prowess to the same hustle that enabled them to capture most of the loose balls.
Their hustle also gave them seven more shots, crucial on a night when neither team operated with offensive efficiency. The Bulls scored 18 second-chance points to the Hawks’ 10.
“They don’t take a possession off,” guard Joe Johnson said. “That’s how they kill you.”
That the Hawks missed 51 shots, shooting 26-for-77, didn’t help their rebounding figures. Another factor, center Jason Collins noted, is the transition threat posed by Bulls guard Derrick Rose. The Hawks place such a priority on retreating on transition defense to slow the league MVP that it limits their offensive rebounding.
This is not new ground. In their three regular-season games, the Bulls outrebounded the Hawks by six, 22 and 14 as Chicago won two of three games. Noah averaged 10.0 rebounds, 4.0 on offense.
“Joakim Noah, Boozer — those guys are animals,” Williams said. “They know it. The league knows it. We know it.”
At the Hawks’ Thursday practice and video session, rebounding was not the only item on the agenda. Shot selection, winning 50-50 balls and response to the Bulls’ aggressive double teaming of Johnson and Jamal Crawford were others.
“We worked [Thursday] to adjust to that,” Crawford said, speaking of the double teams. “If we get in the right spots, we can take advantage of what they’re doing.”
The Hawks successfully walked this road in the first round. The Orlando Magic were second only to the Bulls in rebounding margin in the regular season — the Hawks were 22nd — but the Hawks thwarted center Dwight Howard with a diet of Collins and Zaza Pachulia. In their Game 1 win in Chicago, the Hawks’ hot shooting served to limit rebounding chances for the Bulls.
On Thursday, Hawks coach Larry Drew said the coaching staff considered returning Collins or Pachulia to the starting lineup to add bulk, but sounded committed to keeping Horford at center. That leaves the Hawks to try to match Chicago’s activity on the backboards and keep bodies on Noah and Boozer.
Either that or don’t miss any shots.
About the Author
