“Great game, Mike. Hey, maybe you’ll compete for titles like my Hawks, someday? Who knows?”
Atlanta Hawks fans at Philips Arena for tonight’s meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Prime Ticket in La-La-Land) may be able to tell their grandkids they were there, when three of their team’s best-ever point guards graced the hardwood at the same time.
No, there are no jokes forthcoming about Chris Paul, Atlanta’s would-be 2005 NBA Draftee, who will sit out for the next month or so following surgery for a thumb ligament torn last week. I’m not even jesting about Sam Cassell, the current Clipper assistant and former Florida State star who had to watch his college teammate, Doug Edwards, get plucked by the Hawks nine picks before him in 1993.
Since coming on the scene in 2013, Dennis Schröder (6.2 APG this season) has assisted on 33.6 percent of Atlanta’s field goals when he is on the floor. That’s the highest assist percentage in franchise history, and he’s just getting warmed up. He has already compiled 1,031 assists, midway through his first full season as an NBA starter. If all goes well, he’s got at least four more guaranteed years to go under the watchful eye of pace-pushing coach Mike Budenholzer.
Knocking on wood, 857 assists from now, Schröder will surpass Armond Hill (5.2 APG as a Hawk), the current Clippers assistant coach who helped guide neophyte head coach Hubie Brown’s Hawks through the late 1970s.
Hill was taken with the 9th pick in the 1976 Draft; if the Hawks had waited until the second round, they could have gone after the late Dennis Johnson, taken one spot after Atlanta chose Bob Carrington. But I won’t quibble with the past, because 2,836 assists from now, Dennis would surpass Armond’s boss, a player the Hawks drafted almost exactly 30 years to the day before him, as Atlanta’s all-time leader.
Perhaps the best draft work in Hawks history transpired over the course of three years. In 1982, the team traded with Utah to keep Dominique Wilkins in Georgia. In 1984, they stood pat and took Kevin Willis (John Stockton went five picks later, but I promised I’d stop). Having traded away their 1983 first-rounder (who would become Derek Harper… there I go again) back in 1979 for Terry Furlow, the Hawks’ first selection arrived in the second round, in the form of Glenn “Doc” Rivers.
Building up his NBA rep by serving as Nique’s steady caddie for many seasons, Rivers (6.8 APG in Atlanta) eventually hung up his sneakers with a Spurs team, well-video coordinated by Budenholzer, in 1996, and has had fortune shine upon him in his subsequent career.
Within four seasons, he would become the NBA Coach of the Year in his first try as a head coach, directing a Magic team led by Darrell Armstrong, John Amaechi and no-name Ben Wallace to a 41-41 record. First in Orlando, then in Boston, Doc built up a rep as an affable coach who simply couldn’t get his teams over the hump. This, after eight consecutive seasons without producing a second-round playoff team.
Fate would smile upon him, though, in at least two inconceivable ways. Just before he could be canned in 2007, Minnesota decided that, yes, Al Jefferson, Gerald Green. Theo Ratliff and flotsam would be enough to hand over Kevin Garnett, before the athletic forward could fully pass his prime. Doc and the Celtics rode cagey KG and friends to the NBA championship.
Before that ship could sail, in 2013, Danny Ainge swung a deal shipping Doc to the Clippers, a move that allowed the coach to inherit two potential Hall of Fame players: Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin. Like KG, CP3 was a superstar that could coach the team himself, if needed. A third stroke of luck came the next year via TMZ-leaked audio, leading to an ownership shakeup that granted Rivers even more power as a team executive, fully in charge of basketball ops.
With Paul and Griffin in tow, Coach Doc helped the Clips eclipse the blinding shine of Kobe’s Lakers in L.A. But he has not been able to make a dent in the Clippers’ quest for championship greatness. Four seasons into his Clipper tenure, Doc is back to being perceived as an affable coach who simply can’t get his franchise over the hump, in this case, to at least the Western Conference Finals.
Which brings us to tonight’s challenge. Besides having to soldier on without Paul (6th in NBA for Net Rating, 3rd for Assist/TO ratio), the Clippers (29-16) have been without Griffin (arthroscopic knee surgery) since December 18. While he insists he’s ready to go, the temptation is to sit Griffin out tonight, in advance of the back end of this road back-to-back in Embiid-less Philadelphia tomorrow. But the minute the power forward steps on the court, L.A. will have, by far, their team’s best available passer. After their most recent performances, it’s reasonable to suggest that Rivers and the Clippers cannot afford to wait much longer.
Beyond Hawksquawk gamethreads, a two-game slide is not normally cause for concern. After all, L.A. outlasted visiting Oklahoma City last week, even after Paul exited the game late in the first quarter, to win their seventh-straight.
But the Clips sure have been streaky, even with Paul around. That winning streak was preceded by a six-game losing skid, including a Christmas Day lump-of-coal from their housemate Lakers. Last Thursday, Karl-Anthony went to town on the Clippers with 37 points to help the Wolves steal one at Staples Center. Then, kick-starting a five-game road swing in Denver, the Clippers were breathless at high altitude. One of the league’s worst defenses (stop me if this sounds familiar), the Nuggets held L.A. to 98 points, while scoring 123 themselves.
Looking ahead, the good news is the Clippers get a four-day break after playing the Sixers on Tuesday. The bad news? That rest precedes a trip to Golden State. This run of away games is part of an arduous stretch that includes 10-of-11 games on the road, broken up only by a visit next week from the Warriors. Flights to Boston, Toronto, Charlotte, and Utah await. To go into the All-Star break, they’ll conclude with Schröder and the Hawks at Staples, and they’ll kick off the back half of the season in Oakland once again. All of this, without CP3.
This upcoming slate doesn’t appear to ease up for Los Angeles until early March. In the meantime, things could go very sideways with a spate of bad losses, and that could imperil the coaching status of not just Rivers, but other former Hawk luminaries on the staff, namely Hill and Mike Woodson. Even with their stars back, a 4-or-5-seed in April spells a titanic first-round clash ahead of pending doom versus a likely-rested Warriors club. An even lower seed would be unfathomable to owner Steve Ballmer, and maybe untenable. But a 6-or-7-seed might be the only rational path to the long-awaited conference finals for Paul and Griffin, who could each opt out and hit the exits this summer if they choose.
Tonight, needing a spark of momentum, the Hawks’ all-time assist-maker could stand to catch a break from the most likely candidate (Schröder) to be Atlanta’s future banner-holder. In any case, what Rivers needs even more is some sense of composure and resolve from the key remnants on his roster. That includes his son, guard Austin Rivers. That includes a roster loaded with experienced veterans. And that especially includes Doc’s max-contract, All-NBA 1st Team center.
Without Paul around to order him to crash the glass and own the paint, DeAndre Jordan came thoroughly unglued during the third quarter in Denver. As the Nuggets widened the 8-point gap into the twenties, Jordan seemingly wanted out of the game. Rivers would not oblige, so Jordan reacted with three quick fouls, the last one an egregious whack at Nikola Jokic’s arm that earned him a technical, and the rest of the night off.
Whichever of the starting centers in tonight’s matchup, Jordan (NBA-high 69.0 2FG%, 64.0% of FGs are dunks, NBA career-leading 67.2 FG%; 34.6 D-Reb%, 3rd in NBA) or Atlanta’s Dwight Howard (31.1 D-Reb%, 6th in NBA), brings less histrionics and more end-to-end production to the court today puts his team in good standing over the course of 48 minutes.
With continuously thin rebounding options coming off the bench, Howard must avoid early foul trouble. Plus/minus-wise, Dwight is -38 on the season (14 games) when he piles up four or more personals, +49 (25 games) otherwise.
The Clippers have an array of experienced bigs to turn to, including the floor-stretching Marreese Speights (39.4 3FG%) and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (39.1 3FG%). Paul Millsap has to trust that Howard can hold his own keeping Jordan off the offensive glass, stepping out of the paint to make catches-and-shots from three-point territory tough on the Clipper forwards.
Three early fouls by Austin in Denver had Papa Doc scrambling, turning to Raymond Felton more than he’d like. Jamal Crawford (25.4 FG% since Dec. 28, 1-for-20 3FGs in past 7 games) and J.J. Redick are not at their best when they’re relied upon as ball-movers, but that’s what the Clippers need when Austin cannot stay on the floor.
Backcourt options aside from Rivers should continue to struggle tonight to keep up with Schröder, who remains a cunning passer (9 assists, 1 TO vs. PHI this past Saturday) even when his shot is occasionally off-kilter, and Kent Bazemore (7-for-12 FGs vs. PHI; 41.0 January 3FG%), who continues to seek out his offensive comfort zone while meeting Coach Bud’s defensive demands.
Dennis averages 4.8 APG and 2.8 TOs/game on the season when he shoots below his season-average of 47.1 FG%, values that have improved to 5.9 APG and 2.6 TOs/game this month. Schröder also contributed on the defensive end with a pair of steals in the win over Philly, and should continue those efforts tonight to match Rivers’ attempts at steals and deflections. Baze and Thabo Sefolosha need not sag on L.A.’s struggling perimeter shooters, and must make Crawford and Redick (36.1 3FG%) put the ball on the floor and drive inside in search of offense.
The Clippers want to stem their downward momentum now, not waiting for Griffin and Paul to get back up to speed. If they struggle now, and in a couple weeks, with teams like Atlanta, Budenholzer may find himself taking queries, from Hawks point guards of the past, about the availability of assistant seats between him and the Hawks point guard of the present and future.
Rise Up! And Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
