“You heard Deez is going fishing?”

“Deez? Deez Who?”

“Deez Nets!”

I’m at Ruby Tuesday (don’t judge… I had the salad) and my buddy orders the Mega-Super-Duper Colossus Burger or whatever it’s called. The thing comes out like a Big Mac on HGH: big juicy double-decked patties, cheese bubbling out between the fluffy buns and pickles, onions and lettuce hanging out everywhere.

My friend advises the server: “Ma’am, sorry, take this back. My burger’s not DONE.” About five minutes later: same burger patties, a little more scorched and sizzling with new toppings. My table partner is not impressed. “Ma’am… this burger’s still not DONE. You know, DONE… like on the menu?”

The lightbulb goes off in the server’s head, and on the third try they get it right: same exact burger, but with a giant steak knife jammed through the middle. Now, it looks friggin’ delicious. It’s DONE.

The Atlanta Hawks have thrice taken care of business in their first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets, but their fans have not yet seen enough to whet their postseason appetites. There are several things left to do to sate Hawks fans’ hunger, but the overarching goal is a convincing road clincher in Game 6 (8 PM Eastern, Fox Sports South, ESPN) at the Barclays Center. Hawks fans hope the Nets are just the appetizer, not the main course, and a strong finish to the series tonight would make that abundantly clear.

With apologies to the Nets’ former minority owner, Hawks fans aren’t looking at these dudes, we’re looking past them. A forced Game 7 back in Atlanta on Sunday would grant the Washington Wizards an additional 2-3 days of rest and preparation for the second round. The Hawks have seen more than enough of Joe Johnson and company, and there’s no need to wrangle with these cats for more than 48 additional minutes. Sunday needs to be about John Wall, Paul Pierce, Marcin Gortat, et al., and in order for that to happen, Friday needs to be about every Hawk player working together to outduel every Net Lionel Hollins can throw out there.

Hollins has done everything he’s needed to do, guiding the Nets ever-so-barely into the playoffs and then keeping them competitive while winning just enough to get his bosses three games of home playoff revenue. All things considered, he’s certainly in a better spot heading into the summer than his Atlantic Division champion colleague Dwane Casey. But Hollins knows he’s still got a shot to cement his legacy as a professional Number-1-Seed Killer, and a two-game sweep of Mike Budenholzer’s Hawks would seal that deal for him.

Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson gave the Nets productive minutes off the Nets’ tight bench in Game 5 (16-for-24 combined FGs). The duo and ironman Joe (44 minutes average last three games) allowed Hollins to rest ineffective starters Deron Williams, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Thaddeus Young at the close of Game 5, looking ahead to tonight’s elimination game.

For the Nets’ Big 3, this is pretty familiar territory. Two seasons ago, they had their backs to the wall 3-2 against Joakim Noah, a still-green Jimmy Butler and the Bulls in Chicago. Last year, without Lopez, Joe and D-Will were down 3-2 and facing elimination in Game 6 at home against a hungry Raptors squad. On both occasions, the Nets prevailed, holding their Game 6 opponents to a combined 39.5% shooting. And last season, they went on to survive Game 7 on the road. Suffice to say, yes, this is still an 8-seed. But these aren’t the Milwaukee Bucks coming into a Game 6 at home.

The wild card for the Nets is what condition Lopez will be in on one day of rest. Averaging almost 40 minutes in this series (most among any NBA playoff centers), Brook finally succumbed to fatigue in Game 5 (4-for-13 FGs, 3 rebounds in 39 minutes).

Perhaps benefiting most from the extra days of rest prior to Games 2 and 3, Lopez ebbed just as Atlanta’s Al Horford (10-for-17 FGs; 15 rebounds, 5 offensive; 20 points, 2 steals, 2 blocks) rediscovered his mid-range jumper and played his best game of all-around Bawse-ketball since beating the Nets in Brooklyn back on April 8 (24 points on 11-for-20 shooting). “He was gassed the last two games,” Hollins noted of his big man. Yet Lopez knows he’s one loss away from at least four more months of rest.

Hollins is likely to damn-the-torpedoes and use Mason Plumlee (21.3 minutes/game in regular season; 8.2 per game in this series) to give Lopez valuable recovery time in the second quarter. The Nets know they’ll be subject to Hack-a-Plumlee (49.5 regular-season FT%, 2-for-8 FTs this series), but they’re also aware they can extend the game while this strategy is going on. Brooklyn can offset the impacts of Plumlee’s free throws by relying on Young (3.2 O-Rebs/game this series) to crash the offensive glass on second shots.

The Hawks’ bench mob continued to be less-than-productive in Game 5. It would be good to see Mike Scott get his giddy-up back, but being on the floor for the Nets’ first three three-pointers of Game 5 (cutting a 15-point second-quarter lead down to six) had him galloping back to the pine in all of two minutes. Kent Bazemore has been atrocious as a shooter (1-for-25 3FGs in his last 11 games) since going 3-for-3 versus the Nets back on April 4, but at least he has an understood role as a short-term defensive stopper. Finding ways to be beneficial on the floor has been an ongoing struggle for Scott and Dennis Schröder.

Schröder (5.5 TOs per 36 minutes, most in NBA Playoffs ahead of Jack’s 4.9; 40.5 FG%) has spent more time trying to establish his own offense than that of his teammates. Dennis will again be the primary point guard off the bench, but if he turns the ball over a couple of times in short order, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer needs to treat Game 6 like an elimination game. Coach Bud should turn to Shelvin Mack (3.2 regular-season assist/turnover ratio, 8^th among NBA guards) to control the ball the rest of the way for the Hawks’ reserves.

Until Game 5 (8 assists, 2 TOs), Jeff Teague (3.9 TOs per-36, 7^th most in Playoffs) hadn’t been much better in terms of ball control. But after two early fourth-quarter flubbed passes, right as the Nets started riding Jack, Bojan Bogdanovic and Johnson to narrow Atlanta’s double-digit lead, Teague Time showed up.

The final seven minutes of Game 5 had Atlanta’s All-Star point guard finding Horford open for a pair of buckets, connecting with Paul Millsap for a triple, hitting one himself, stealing the ball from Williams, converting a layup and a floater, and finishing his free throws to put the game on ice. The same intensity and focus from that stint needs to be there from Teague throughout Game 6. If his ability to control the pace of the game and the ball is on-point, no amount of shot-bombing will allow the Nets to keep up.

Going forward, anyone fouling the Nets players beyond the 3-point arc (including lightly-used Mirza Teletovic) should be flogged. No more errors of commission! DeMarre Carroll was a godsend in the first half (19 of his 24 points) of Game 5. Yet he and Kyle Korver must force tough shots and, when they’re not closing on Brooklyn’s shooters, must get into position to keep the Nets’ possessions one-and-done. And they must do all of that without fouling. Brooklyn thrives on second-chances and padding their points with the clock stopped.

Millsap has seen his offensive production decline in each of the past four games (19, 18, 16, 10 points) despite an uptick in floor time. His shooting efficiency (41.5 FG%) is actually a bit better than his past two playoff seasons, but it’s still nowhere near where the All-Star forward wants to be.

Sap must make more decisive moves in the post. Much of his offense in 2014 against the Pacers came from drawing fouls and getting free throws (8.0 FT attempts per game, 80.4 FT%), things that haven’t come as easy so far in this series (2.4 FTAs/game; 1-for-4 FTs in Game 5). The Nets have no shot-blocking threats when Lopez (12 of Brooklyn’s 17 blocks this series) is sitting or drawn out of the paint by Horford or Pero Antić, so Millsap must go up quickly on post-up touches, and not waste possession time putting the ball on the floor.

Both the Nets and the Hawks will come into Game 6 hungry for a momentous victory. Whichever team shows up on the floor playing like they could use a Snickers^TM will be the one wearing long faces after the final whistle. Will the Hawks be done-in on the road once again? Or will they look like a 1-seed that knows how to get it DONE?

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3