Gentlemen, start your engines!

We started from the middle… now we’re here! Postseason time brings our Atlanta Hawks into Naptown for a first-round tilt with the Indiana Pacers.

It’s a show-and-prove time for many of our Hawk players seeking a nice payday this summer. But it’s also the same deal for their coaches, who know their team plays at their peak when they play more like a unselfish team than a bunch of individuals trying to be heroes. The Hawks’ ability to turn up the pace and design plays that will rack up the assists against one of the NBA’s top-notch defenses will determine how successful they will be in this series.

The Central Division champions are also crawling a bit into the playoffs, dropping five of their final six regular season contests after a successful 4-0 West Coast swing that all but clinched their first division title since 2004. They’ve got the league’s most stifling NBA shooting defense, 1^st in the league in opponent FG% (42.0%) and 3-point FG% (32.7%). They went from giving up less than 90 points per game from December through March to over 101.9 PPG (47.9 opponent FG%; 37.4 3FG%) through seven games in April, not all of them intentional tank jobs. Pacer fans fully expect Frank Vogel’s squad to turn up the defensive effort once again the way they have virtually all season.

They sure had no problem while shorthanded (without David West, George Hill, and Lance Stephenson) in their last matchup with the Hawks, running the Hawks out of the gym with a 22-point lead through three quarters. But then Larry Drew’s reserves came in and turned the tables, whittling the lead down to four before Gerald Green could put the game away. The experience built confidence for Drew in his younger bench players John Jenkins, Mike Scott, and Shelvin Mack, who will get ample time to produce in this series.

Atlanta’s 23.5 assists per game were the most given up by Indiana to an Eastern Conference team. But the 16.3 turnovers the Pacers drew from the Hawks were also the highest against any East team. The Pacers will not only need stops, but they have to turn those turnovers into easy points.

Offensively, the Pacers are one of the league’s worst team shooters (43.6 FG%, 26^th in NBA; 34.7 3FG%, 22^nd in NBA; 74.6 FT%, 19^th in NBA). But they get plenty of second-chance points, thanks to 12.9 offensive rebounds per game (3^rd in NBA). The Hawks have to work as a team to box out and isolate the big boarders (Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, West, Ian Mahinmi, George) to keep Indy to one-and-done basketball.

Thankfully for us, we have Josh Smith in our corner. Last season’s first-round series against the Celtics, Smoove averaged a monstrous 13.6 rebounds per game. Plus, he posted the second-highest postseason defensive rebounding percentage (36.6%) last postseason and the fourth highest in NBA postseason history. No one can expect that domination on the glass this time around, given how the Celtics ceded offensive rebounds to get back on defense. But he and Al Horford will have enough to start transition attacks that can force the Pacers to play defense on their heels.

When forced into halfcourt sets, there’s no mystery that “Pick-and-Pop starring Al Horford” will be the order of the day. Rather than draw Hibbert out of the paint, Indiana will try to rotate a defender over, leaving someone open either cutting to the basket or along the perimeter. Horford can throw off the defense with passes from his mid-range spot, and Smoove (or Ivan Johnson) would make for an excellent target in those scenarios.

Indy native Jeff Teague must play heady basketball against fellow Indy native George Hill, who is playing through a mild groin injury but is playing easily the best defense of his career. The Hawks can put their best foot forward with a spry Devin Harris attacking the basket. Having two days off before games 2 and 3 works in Harris’ favor. Atlanta was 15-2 when Harris played 30 or more minutes on the floor this season.

Dahntay Jones was lightly used by the Pacers in the playoffs the last two seasons, but he’ll be deployed early and often to make scoring tough on Paul George (41.9 FG% this season) and the Pacer wings.

Watching the game on TNT can be stomach-churning, especially for a grind-out game when shots aren't falling, so thankfully our familiar friends Bob Rathbun and Dominique Wilkins will be on SportSouth calling the action.

LET’S GO HAWKS!

~lw3