Nothing against the Knicks, but the Hawks are not unique in that they’d rather not play a recent opponent again quickly – let alone in back-to-back games — outside of the postseason.
The good news is that Atlanta lost at New York Sunday.
It’s a good bet that the Hawks (21-14) will play closer attention to details Tuesday night in Philips Arena than they did while losing 111-97 to the Knicks (16-19) in Madison Square Garden two days earlier.
Listening to head coach Mike Budenholzer said after Tuesday morning’s shootaround, it’s a better bet that his team will try to keep closer tabs on New York’s Arron Afflalo. He scored a season-high 38 points Sunday, making his first seven 3-point tries. The Hawks believe that he got too many easy looks.
“Human nature when you’re responding to a loss, specifically when you’re playing a team again … nobody wants to lose two in a row or start going into a hole,” Budenholzer said. “Our transition defense has got to be better against their transition; find Afflalo, stay connected to him.”
Backup center/forward Tiago Splitter (calf strain) is the only known scratch for tonight’s game.
Where Budenholzer has locked in on deficient transition defense, center Al Horford suggested that the Hawks are not consistent enough in their focus or energy.
“We’ve played them three times, and it’s hard to play a team that close [together],” he said. “We [focus] for stretches, and there are stretches we’re not so good.”
The Hawks whipped the Knicks 117-98 in Philips on Dec. 26. Eight days later, New York was locked in, and Atlanta was often zoned out.
Problems with transition defense weren’t as simple as failing to get back. Sometimes, they got back but too deep. When they didn’t recover high enough to mark Afflalo on the fly, he frequently cashed in with the long ball.
Small forward Kent Bazemore – who figures to defend Afflalo quite a bit — isn’t buying into the rematch having anything to do with the Hawks’ focus. But he agrees there are housekeeping errors in play.
“We approach it as another game,” Bazemore said. “As good as this league is … within two days they [could] give you a totally different look. We focus on ourselves. We got back to the drawing board yesterday and today.”
Hopefully, the Hawks will pay more attention to what’s been on that board.
“We’re looking forward to playing tonight,” Budenholzer said. “When you have a group of competitors and high-character guys, and you’re coming off a loss, I would say [there is greater] attention to detail and you want to make things different.”
About the Author
