The Hawks have moved on.
They have no choice.
There is no use lamenting their Game 4 playoff loss to the Pacers – although it cost the Hawks plenty. The home-court advantage they stole with a Game 1 victory in Indianapolis is gone. The chance to take a commanding series lead, and be one win away from advancing, is no more. The Pacers’ 91-88 come-from-behind win Saturday afternoon tied the Eastern Conference playoff series at 2-2. The series, reduced to a best-of-three, returns to Indiana for Game 5 Monday night.
“We’d all feel better if it was 3-1 and we maintained home-court advantage,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said Sunday. “That is what you are playing for and when you go out and compete that is your ultimate goal. Of course we’d like to be 3-1 now but there is no time or energy or thoughts of what could have been. We just have to move on to the next game.”
The Hawks have beaten the Pacers in Indianapolis before. They will have to do it again.
In addition to the Game 1 victory, the Hawks won in impressive fashion in Indiana in the final two weeks of the regular season. Much of the national conversation about the series has revolved around the top-seeded Pacers and their fragile psyche. The eighth-seeded Hawks have been largely an afterthought. The Hawks will take the confidence of their recent road successes and a bit of a chip on their shoulder back to Indianapolis.
“Home court don’t mean nothing in the NBA these days,” DeMarre Carroll said Saturday night. “Everybody is losing on their home court. We have to go back and fight. We have to understand that we control our own destiny.”
Just how will the Hawks put the latest loss behind them? How will they keep an even keel in a playoff series with the highs of a Game 1 win and the lows of a Game 4 defeat?
For the answers we go to the video.
Budenholzer began his 19-year association with the Spurs under coach Gregg Popovich as a video coordinator. Throughout his first season at the helm of the Hawks he has used film from previous games to reinforce the positive and highlight areas in need of improvement.
“I think a good balance, regardless of whether we win or lose, that we try to have a good balance when we talk about where we need to improve the next day and what we’ve done well the night before,” Budenholzer said. “We’ve done it in wins. We’ve done it in losses. As I’ve been saying all year, when we win games there are a ton of mistakes we’ve made and a ton of things we can improve. I think if we continue that exercise, even through the playoffs when the emotions can be even higher and the pendulum swings can be greater, that is our approach. I don’t know if it’s any good or not but that is our approach.”
The initial message is delivered in the postgame locker room and the details are shown in living color the following day.
The Hawks did not practice Sunday. Instead they reviewed the video from Saturday’s loss before departing for Indianapolis. More lessons. More emotions held in check.
“The fact that we’ve competed there and done some things well there it’s all controlled by our activity, our energy, our effort,” Budenholzer said. “Any kind of success we have in Indiana we are going to have to make it happen. Our group is a pretty resilient group, a pretty steady group, and we are ready to go to Indiana and play.”
Game 6 update: The NBA released several scenarios for the time and network for Game 6 of the Hawks-Pacers series in Atlanta Thursday. The Hawks will play at either 7 or 8 p.m. on NBA TV or 7 p.m. on TNT.
Here are the scenarios:
* If a Game 6 is necessary in the Clippers-Warriors series, the Hawks will play at 7 p.m. on NBA TV.
* If a Game 6 is necessary in the Bulls-Wizards series and not the Clippers-Warriors series, the Hawks will play at 8 p.m. on NBA TV.
* If a Game 6 is not necessary in either the Clippers-Warriors or the Bulls-Wizards series, the Hawks will play at 7 p.m. on TNT.
Game 6 will also be locally broadcast by FoxSport South.
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