Five observations from the Hawks’ 97-82 victory over the Mavericks Saturday night.
1. Tim Hardaway stepped into an expanded role and scored a game-high 22 points. He was 7 of 13 from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range. While it's easy to focus on the outside shots, Hardaway had several drives to the basket to loosen up the Mavericks defense.
“We know he’s a good shooter,” Paul Millsap said. “Tonight, he kept them off balance with some drives and get him going early.”
The Hawks won their first game after trading Kyle Korver. That means more time for Hardaway and the rookies Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry. Hardaway played 31 minutes. Prince played 14 minutes and Bembry was not with the team for personal reasons.
“Coach just said to be ready to go tonight,” Hardaway said. “I felt good today at shootaround. We all know that we all prepare for this moment and you just have to take care of business and take care of the opportunity at hand.”
2. The Hawks starting unit was clearly most effective. They were a combined plus-92. The reserves were a combined minus-17 and that's with Hardaway a plus-4 by scoring 22 points.
The Hawks let an early lead slip away as the Mavericks went on a 21-7 run between the first and second quarters. They turned a six-point deficit into an eight-point lead. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer re-inserted several starters and the Hawks answered with a 16-5 run and they took the lead for good.
“In that second quarter, we lost our way a little bit,” Budenholzer said. “The starters came back in and I was really proud of the way they took an eight-point deficit and turned it pretty quickly with Paul (Millsap) and Dwight (Howard) and Dennis (Schroder).”
3. The Mavericks tried the Hack-a-Howard strategy in the fourth quarter. It didn't work. The Hawks big man made 4 of 6 free-throws in the three times he was intentionally fouled.
“Step up to the line and make the free throw,” Howard said. “If they foul me again, do the same thing.”
Budenholzer took Howard out with 4:34 remaining. He said the move was not due to the Mavericks’ strategy nor to keep a high pace of play.
“We shortened our rotation a little bit in the second half and only played three bigs,” Budenholzer said. “He was due for a rest. We don’t play our guys in really, really long stretches. It kind of coincided. We decided to leave him in a while and he made his free throws. At some point, we had to take care of his body. It was more about giving him a break and the game stayed where it was.”
4. The Hawks again used an aggressive push defense and it paid dividends. Although it leads to some defensive mismatches at times, Budenholzer and players believe it helps it getting steals, deflections and increases the pace of play.
“Everybody likes the push defense,” Schroder said. “We are being aggressive and it’s better than the high center and just go over the screen and the big being back. Now we push and are more aggressive and creating more turnovers.”
5. The Hawks are on a roll. They have won six straight games and 11 of their past 15 games. They did what they were supposed to do on the current three-game road trip by beating inferior opponents.
“We did what we set out to do,” Millsap said. “We got three out of three. We are pleased with it. We are pleased with our play. We still can get better in some areas but we are happy with where we are now.”
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