It’s Time for yet another trip to the Second Round for Isaiah! Right, SLAM???
Welp, No Excuses Weekend didn’t turn out so hot. Still, because Atlanta Hawks fans live such a charmed existence, our Fine Feathered Friends have plummeted from fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings all the way down to sixth place. And that leads us to Spoiler Days!
Kicking off against an even more charmed NBA team, the Boston Celtics (8:00 PM Eastern, 92.9 FM in ATL, TNT), the Hawks are presented with prime opportunities to stick flies in the ointments of several teams, and not just the ones they’re playing.
The Hawks’ next three games are versus two teams fighting for the top spot in the conference. The Celtics flew into town feeling quite ornery after getting blasted last night at home, 114-91, by the Cavaliers, who reclaimed the #1 seed and await Atlanta’s arrival tomorrow. Neither opponent wants to look back on the Hawks (39-38) as the team that kept them from securing homecourt advantage.
Should we be so fortunate as to enjoy another win at any point this month, the Hawks’ next win would formally put the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons, both losers at home last night, in Atlanta’s rearview mirror. A single Hawks victory would also leave it to any of the next three teams below them in the standings (Chicago, Miami, Indiana, all at 38-40) to not lose three of their final four contests, the heat’s closing schedule (Toronto, Washington twice, Cleveland) looking the most suspect.
“We are going to make the playoffs,” insists Hawks floor corporal Dennis Schröder, evidently unfamiliar with a past ownership regime’s checkered history when it comes to brash postseason declarations. Yet the adage doesn’t go, “If you want to get the job done, you have to hope others will do it for you.”
Yes, this team has barely been able to skate by the depleted Suns and 76ers in recent weeks, and they have blessed the last-place Nets with a pair of wins in the past two weeks. But with the downturn in the season, the Hawks now have the look and feel of an eliminated 13-seed. During Spoiler Days, that’s good news.
Bowing out of the postseason chase hasn’t stopped the Knicks from tripping up the playoff-hungry Pistons, heat, and Bulls in recent days. The Sixers put it to both Chicago and Boston, and even the Magic smashed the whiteboard on the Pistons’ heads just weeks ago, each lottery-bound club making playoff-clinching just a little bit easier for Atlanta.
Despite at least three key Hawks (the rusty Paul Millsap, Junior Hardaway, and Kent Bazemore) playing through nagging injuries under closely-monitored minutes, Atlanta returns to the Highlight Factory rested and in position to put other teams in a sour mood, for a change. They can work toward clinching a playoff seed, and simultaneously screw with the desired seeds of others. Tonight, they can also plant a seed into the minds of the Celtics, one that suggests they won’t want the course toward the Eastern Conference Finals to have to come back through the ATL.
To that end, a quick flashback. “After he led the Celtics to the second round, the so-called doubters have been very quiet regarding this 5-9 PG.” No, these aren’t tweets from the future, that was SLAM Magazine’s momentary lede for Isaiah Thomas’ entry into the #SLAMTop50 preseason player rankings, an October 2016 entry scripted by a diehard Celtics fan that should have known better. Fake News!
But for a certain Squawker’s relentless nagging, that Alternative Fact would have gone unchallenged and uncorrected, if only because it “felt right” to the larger populace (Edited to… “After he led the Celtics to a 48-win season…” Wow, that sure silenced those haters!). Months later, SLAM is hoping to redeem itself by plastering Thomas, a player with a 2-8 postseason record over two of his six NBA seasons, on the new Playoff Preview cover of their rag.
Seven years prior, the magazine breathlessly pinned their hopes on another high-scoring playoff newcomer. “BREAKOUT: Brandon Jennings Rocks the NBA”. Well, to an extent: the rookie’s Bucks rocked the Hawks in three unwatchable games during a first-round series, before bidding adieu in the pivotal Game 7. Now in 2017, Jennings’ next real chance of winning his first playoff game since that 2010 series needs to occur while hiding behind John Wall.
Thomas can only hope his cover modeling doesn’t go the way of Jeff Francoeur or the Upton Boys. But that’s part of the reason he wooed Al Horford to Beantown in the first place. His whole idea was, “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Poach ‘Em!”
But with first place in the East on the line at TD Garden, the center endowed with the second-highest salary in the NBA could only muster six shots, seven rebounds, and three dimes over the course of 27 minutes last night. Another first-round exit, this time as a favored seed, could have I.T. pondering just how long he and Al Green should stay together.
The TNT studio crew will spend ample time yapping about the Celtics’ ascension toward the top of the East, a couple minutes about last night’s loss, maybe a minute dismissing the Hawks for their lackluster efforts, and not a nanosecond about what transpired the last time these two teams faced off.
Combining a balanced offensive attack with decent perimeter D (the Celts shooting 29.4 3FG%) and a smothering rebounding advantage, the Hawks shot just 6-for-25 on threes in Boston yet still cruised to a 114-98 victory back on February 27. Atlanta pounded Boston 60-34 in the paint, and was 40-for-70 on all shots inside the 3-point-arc, compared to the Men in Green’s 24-for-53.
Millsap (8 first-quarter rebounds, 10 third-quarter points) and Howard (9 second-quarter points) encountered little resistance collecting double-doubles in that game (much like LeBron and Kevin Love yesterday), and Atlanta managed to coast from midway through the third period on without their starting center. Dwight got the heave-ho from the zebras after collecting two petty technical fouls, one drawn thanks to Al’s fake-tough-guy dramatics, another from trying to collect the rim as a souvenir after an easy dunk.
Getting next-to-no help from Horf (3-for-9 FGs, incl 0-for-4 on threes, six rebounds, five assists), Thomas (4-for-21 FGs vs. ATL on Feb. 27) needed about half of his 17 misses to fall, just to keep his team in the running. His Hawks adversary, Schröder (9-for-11 2FGs @ BOS on Feb. 27) amassed just two turnovers in nearly 30 minutes while leading the Hawks with 21 points. Thanks to ball control and transition offense, the Hawks’ 25-11 scoring advantage off turnovers was the key difference in that game.
Avery Bradley (1.3 SPG) hopes to tip the turnover game back in his team’s favor. He had just returned to face the Hawks after missing over a quarter of the season with an Achilles injury, and was minutes-restricted to less than one half of play.
Serving doubly as the C’s second-leading scorer (16.4 PPG, 39.8 3FG%) and top perimeter defender (Marcus Smart’s flopping shenanigans notwithstanding), there’s little doubt that Bradley is the secret to the Celtics’ sauce. Along with Smart, he’ll be tasked with forcing Schröder and Hardaway (who joined Howard with 5 TOs apiece during Sunday’s 91-82 loss in Brooklyn) into uncomfortable shots and fruitless drives. On offense, Thomas will look to Bradley often to help bounce back from Thursday night’s loss, Bradley having shot just 1-for-8 from the field against the Cavs; Jae Crowder, Horford and Gerald Green to a lesser extent.
Back in that February 27 game, Atlanta cruised in the final frame thanks to solid wing play, specifically from Bazemore (9 fourth-quarter points) and Taurean Prince (5 fourth-quarter rebounds). Despite falling behind by double digits, Boston was unable to take more than three three-point shots in the fourth, not even making one until 28 seconds remained in the game with the Hawks up by 19.
Atlanta has only scored 114 points once since beating the Celtics; coincidentally, it was during a 135-130 home loss to Cleveland, back on March 3. Even if the iron remains unkind, the Hawks must again maximize their chances against an opportunistic Celtics club.
In addition to Schröder and the Hawks’ ballhandlers not forcing plays that aren’t there, and Howard dominating the vacuum around the boards, that means staying tight defensively on any Celtics camping out along the perimeter, goading Thomas (31.0 FG% vs. ATL) into premature heroball jumpers, and guards helping the bigs seal off the paint only after shots go up. The inability for Celtic wings and point guards to help secure rebounds and second-chances puts pressure on Horford to play like the All-Star talent he’s paid to be.
April 2016: “Horford, as much as you think he’s a great player, he’s not a great player,” says Celtics blowhard legend Tommy Heinsohn. April 2017: Al receives the Red Auerbach Award, bestowed upon the player who “best exemplifies the spirit of what it means to be a Celtic.” Tonight, and perhaps in a couple weeks, the Hawks could find themselves a perfect situation to demonstrate just how true that statement is.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
