It's all about Orlando now for the Hawks.
So forward Josh Smith (knee) and center Jason Collins (ankle) stayed behind while the Hawks left Thursday for back-to-back games at Indiana and Washington. Coach Larry Drew said he plans to reduce his starters' minutes over the final four regular-season games as well.
And Drew and his staff already have turned their attention to building a game plan for Orlando in their first-round Eastern Conference playoffs series starting next week.
"We have the blueprint," Drew said.
It appeared that plan might have to be altered significantly when Collins crashed to the floor during Atlanta's loss to the Spurs on Tuesday. Collins' defense against Dwight Howard was key to Atlanta's success against Orlando during the season.
It turned out Collins suffered what he says is a mild ankle sprain but both he and Drew said they initially feared the worse.
"You don't know how bad it is until you actually stand up and put weight on it," Collins said. "But I knew it would be OK once I was able to stand up and walk on my own."
Smith has been nursing his right knee since he suffered a sprain on Feb. 28. He said he plans to play against Miami on Monday, by which time he will have had a week off.
"I think it is going to help a whole lot," Smith said Thursday. "It has already been going down, the swelling. I got in the weight room today to try to strengthen my quad and build the muscles around my knee so I really won't be having any problems in the playoffs."
The Hawks beat the Magic in three of four games during the regular season after losing to them by an NBA-record margin of 101 points in the East semifinals last spring. But it's unclear how much Atlanta's series victory in the regular season will mean in the postseason.
The Magic only had their regulars available for the final meeting, Atlanta's 85-82 victory on March 30 at Philips Arena. Also preparation, intensity and focus all tend to increase during the playoffs.
"We have a whole different beast to tame," Drew said. "They are going to look at film and they are going to make some adjustments and we have to anticipate those adjustments. We have to have our own little wrinkles. I am happy that we stepped up in the regular season against them but I also know what we accomplished in the regular season can have very little meaning going into the playoffs."
Etc.
Drew said he doesn't plan to hold his healthy starters out of any of the last four games. "I do think it is important not to just completely shut them down," he said. "I think our approach these last four should be to gain some momentum going into the playoffs." ... With three away games remaining, the Hawks are two victories short of tying the franchise record of 22 road victories set during the 1986-87 season. The Hawks last finished better than .500 on the road with a full schedule in 1997-98, when they were 21-20.
