“Go Hawks Go! GO HAWKS GO! Hey, Atlanta, what do you say?...”
Letdown alert! An NBA team comes home trying to avoid a potentially deflating loss on the tail end of a back-to-back, one night after beating the undefeated reigning champs in their house. If the lamestream media eggsperts had to project which team that was, they would never guess the Atlanta Hawks. It would be more of a darling, a media-driven favorite contender like the visiting Chicago Bulls (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, CSN Chicago).
Well, unskew the polls! Turns out, it was the Hawks that swooped in on the Cavs on Tuesday night. They relied upon assertive offense from Dennis Schröder (career-best 28 points) and “Klutch Kent” Bazemore, rebounding and rim protection from Dwight Howard, and fanatical on-ball defense from Thabo Sefolosha to pull off a 110-106 victory that hung an L on Cleveland for the first time since June and stopped the presses. It’s too early to call, but as of today, an NBA East that was once solidly Wine-and-Gold has suddenly become a swing conference, with a chance it could flip to Torch Red soon.
The Hawks face their second-straight set of visitors who were catching Z’s while Atlanta (5-2) played the prior evening. The Rockets laid-in-wait for a couple days, while the Hawks left and then returned to town after losing to the Wizards last Friday. This time, it’s Chicago (4-3) who got to watch Tuesday’s Hawks-Cavs tilt from the comfort of their own Snuggies. They hope they’ll catch a Hawks team that’s sluggish out of the gate tonight.
While the baseball Cubs are on the up-and-up, the Bulls have been up-and-down. They started out the season 3-0, scoring at least 105 points in each contest. Then they dropped three straight, two of those losses on the road to teams they already beat (Celtics, Pacers), and allowed at least 105 points in all three games. “We don’t even look like we’re out here competing,” groused star swingman Jimmy Butler after a 111-94 loss in Indiana, straining to avoid throwing shade on his coach again.
But now, after trouncing Orlando at the United Center on Monday, Chicago hopes they’re on an uptick that will last on the road. They embark on a 17-day stretch that has them playing as the road team in eight of their next nine games, departing right after tonight’s game to head down to Dwyane’s old stomping grounds in Miami-Wade County.
What’s the big challenge tonight for Howard and the Hawks? Chicago comes in as the league’s top rebounding team, averaging nearly 50 per game. Much of the attention has been placed on the arrivals of guards Wade and Rajon Rondo via free agency. But less focus was directed to the biggest prize of the Bulls’ draft-day deal, when they swapped Derrick Rose to New York.
The fateful 2005 Joe Johnson deal that nearly tore the Atlanta “Spirit” Group asunder involved the Hawks dealing away not just espresso aficionado Boris Diaw, but two future first-round picks. The 2006 pick that materialized, Rondo, and the 2008 pick, former Knicks center Robin Lopez, have joined forces and face the Hawks tonight. When the seven-footer isn’t busy bullying mascots, Lopez is crashing the offensive boards, ranking fourth among qualifying players with a career-best 14.9 O-Reb%.
Aside from leading-scorer Butler (career-bests of 21.0 PPG, 89.5 FT%) and Wade each shooting a surprising 43.5 3FG% thus far, Lopez’s extension of possessions for the Bulls (NBA-high 33.1 O-Reb% and 17.1 second-chance PPG) has Chicago ranked right behind the Celts and Cavs with a 110.2 offensive rating (3rd in NBA). While they’re still more of a plodding team, they’re slowly beginning to form the offensive image desired by necktie-shedding head coach Fred Hoiberg.
Howard will have his hands full with the crowd of Bulls hovering around the rim, and he’ll need a big defensive effort from Paul Millsap (21 points, 5 rebounds @ CLE; no steals or blocks in game or first time since February 19) to keep Chicago one-and-done as frequently as possible. Atlanta’s frontline is thinned with Mike Scott (sore knee) out of action, Mike Muscala (sore back) questionable, and Tiago Splitter (hammy) still on the outside looking in, so expect a boost in floortime for Kris Humphries.
While he’s not the caramel-chewy center of days past, RoLo averages just 3.0 defensive boards per game, preferring to chase after blocks (1.6 BPG, only Bull averaging more than one) instead. But while Lopez is flailing at opposing shooters in the paint, Taj Gibson (26.3 D-Reb%, 5th among NBA forwards), Nikola Mirotic and go-getter bench bigs Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio have covered for him in securing the defensive caroms. Butler, Rondo, and Wade all chip to support a team effort.
Although they lead the NBA with 9.4 “contested” D-Rebs per game (i.e., opponent with 3.5 feet of a rebounding chance), the problems for the Bulls have revolved around defensive positioning well before opponent shots go up. Their foes have had little trouble tickling the twine (51.4 opponent eFG%, 8th in NBA), aside from lousy shooters like the Magic. And while they’re not drawing trips to the charity stripe (NBA-low 0.181 FTA/FGA), they’re not facing a lot of pressure, either (12.4 opponent TOs per 100 possessions, 3rd-lowest in NBA).
Wade is not known for his defensive savvy (anymore), or Rondo for his defensive effort (anymore). And despite being named All-Defensive 2nd Team three seasons running, Butler’s production on that end of the floor seems to have waned. His 1.3 SPG is his lowest average since 2012-13, and he has yet to reject a shot in seven games.
The lack of pressure from the Bulls’ defenders will feel like a boon for Schröder (50.8 2FG%, 37.0 3FG%, 82.8 FT%) who, like Millsap (2.9 TOs/game, just behind Dennis’ 3.0) could afford to cut down on the turnovers a little, while inducing a few more from their opposition (six Cav player TOs last night).
Right now, Schröder’s per-possession, per-play, and per-minute turnover rates are below the values from his breakout third season. But the second-half stretches yesterday where the Cavaliers stormed back out of double-digit holes seemed to coincide with Schröder’s ill-timed passes and shot-selection decisions when the ball needed to keep moving.
When Schröder needs a breather, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer won’t hesitate to turn to rookie Malcolm Delaney (4 assists vs. CLE), whose three turnovers last night managed to lower his assist-turnover ratio to 3.0. It was Delaney who was in the game when the Hawks pushed the lead back to double-digits for the last time. His two assists, a pair of 17-foot jumpers, and defense on an empty-calorie Kyrie Irving helped widen a 77-71 Atlanta lead to 96-81, setting the stage for Schröder’s closing heroics (five points and two game-winning assists in the final three minutes).
Korver is likely to return tonight, and is always good to pop-a-shot or two against his former team (117 career O-Rating vs. CHI, highest vs. any team in the East). But he’s got to be a bit exhausted (not as much as the missus, though) from the past couple days, and with Wade and Butler likely to put up shots any time Rondo relinquishes the ball, Coach Bud will again lean on Sefolosha and Tim Hardaway to harass Chicago’s top offensive threats.
While it’s fair to hope that Butler and Wade will cool off from outside, the Hawks’ wings will have little help from the bigs around the perimeter. They will need to remain mindful of reserve shooters like Mirotic, Isaiah Canaan and Doug McDermott when they’re in the game. Chicago’s 41.4 bench PPG ranks 4th-highest in the league, their collective offensive efficiency second only to Cleveland’s.
Tuesday’s win was huge for Atlanta’s confidence, but the game planning deployed versus Cleveland needs to adapt to address a different Chicago offense tonight. If the Hawks can sustain their competitive flexibility, in this and the forthcoming games on the November slate, there may be another ballot surprise in store for the know-it-all pundits next month… when it’s time to begin voting for NBA All-Stars.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
