“Oh, come on! That dress is clearly Black and Blue!”
So, all’s better, right? Right?
The Atlanta Hawks think, maybe, their offense has turned a corner after scoring a season-high 127 points on the 1-26ers on Wednesday. Their previous season high? That was scored most recently against tonight’s hosts, the Boston Celtics (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, CSN New England), who fell 121-97 in Atlanta back on November 24. Of course, the Hawks thought they shook out of their slump for good back then, as well.
“We had some hard practices,” Jeff Teague said following that victory over the Celtics, almost a mirror image of the commentary that preceded the win over Philly, following three weeks of floundering play. “Great practice,” glowed Paul Millsap this past Tuesday. “Very intense. It was great. Something we needed. Hopefully, it’s the turning point.” One can only imagine the torturous tricks Mike Budenholzer has up his sleeve for the Hawks on their newly-remodeled practice court, if the Hawks (15-12) regress against superior competition like the upstart Celtics and Magic (Sunday night) on the road.
Many Eastern Conference teams re-tooled their defenses in the offseason, and it shows. Each of the East’s momentary Top-8 are giving up under 99 points per game to opponents. Atlanta (100.0 PPG; 14th in Defensive Rating) and Boston (99.2 PPG; 4th in NBA for Defensive Rating) are each striving to get back to that level.
Similar to the Hawks, the Celtics (14-12) have struggled to sustain success for terribly long, having prevailed in three straight games just once this season, and that was a month ago. Their defense can be best characterized as uneven, particularly following the departure of Marcus Smart back before Thanksgiving (bruised knee, out until probably January).
Prior to Smart’s absence, Boston surrendered triple digits in regulation in just four of its first 12 games. Since that time, they’ve given up 100 or more in half of their 14 contests. The Celts went 1-6 in those games, including 119 points ceded in a wild shootout loss in Detroit on Wednesday, one night after holding Cleveland to 89 but scoring just 77. All-Star candidate Isaiah Thomas’ 38 points were insufficient to fend off the Pistons, who sunk half of their 20 three-pointers (neglecting a lucky Andre Drummond half-court heave) and shot 48.7 percent from the floor on the evening.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens needs Smart’s replacement in the starting lineup, Avery Bradley (career-high 15.9 PPG and 41.7 3FG%; 25 points @ ATL on Nov 24), to have a stronger defensive presence around the perimeter, lest he turn instead to Evan Turner, who is a far worse shooter (13.5 3FG%) but a similarly-skilled on-ball defender and a superior passer.
Boston GM “Trader Danny” Ainge is on the hunt for a “go-to scorer,” a “reliable scorer at the end of games, night in and night out.” While such a comment would make Thomas (career-high 21.2 PPG) feel like chopped liver, Ainge clarified his preference is for a scoring complement among the big men, where Jared Sullinger leads Boston’s PF/C’s with just 10.0 PPG. Knowing that Ainge doesn’t want to part with his stockpile of future picks, either David Lee’s expiring $15 million contract, or Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko’s 2016-17 team options, could sweeten the pot for teams willing to take Bradley off their hands.
Upfront, Sullinger has been among the best defensive rebounders (29.9 D-Reb%, 4th in NBA) in the game. While Johnson has held his own at power forward, the Celtics would like to go more with Tyler Zeller (season-high 12 points @ DET on Wednesday) than the inertial free-agent arrival Lee (career-low 48.9 FG% and 19.6 D-Reb%). But both Zeller and Kelly Olynyk have to make impacts defensively in order to stay on the floor. Olynyk has the inside track in that regard, which may or may not be a good thing.
To get better defensively, both the Celtics and the Hawks have to thwart dribble penetration by opposing ball handlers. On Wednesday, the issue helped Isaiah Canaan (6-for-8 3FGs) and the Sixers (52.0 team FG%) to slide back into the game from way behind at least twice against Atlanta, and allowed Reggie Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (54 combined points) to have field days at the Palace versus Boston. When the Hawks’ defensive positioning (particularly, Teague’s and Dennis Schröder’s) held firm and the Sixers settled for mid-range jumpers, Atlanta was able to widen their mid-game leads.
“I didn’t know that. Thanks for that uplifting stat,” Stevens dead-panned a reporter who informed the Celtics coach his team ranked last in the league in offensive eFG% on “wide-open” shots. Please, no one remind him that it’s the Hawks who free up their players for the most such shots (no defender within six or more feet of the shooter, 21.4 FG attempts per game) in the NBA. But despite Atlanta’s league-high 15.1 “wide-open” threes per game, they’ve shot just 34.9 3FG% on them, ninth-lowest among the ten most prolific teams in the wide-open threes department.
Kyle Korver’s seven points (two triples and a technical free throw) against Philly came in the space of just over one third-quarter minute of play, but they were pivotal in stemming the Sixers’ last good second-half run. He’ll again be hounded by Jae Crowder for much of the game, but the Hawks will again go to a team approach to perimeter shooting, swinging the ball around to keep Boston guessing. In the blowout win over the Celtics on November 24, it was Lamar Patterson (3-for-5 3FGs) and Mike Scott (2-for-3 3FGs) coming off the bench to help Korver (3-for-3 3FGs) and the Hawks keep the C’s spread out, beneficial for Paul Millsap (10-for-13 2FGs, 25 points, 4 O-Rebs) inside.
Stevens might be emboldened to know that Hawks’ opponents have hit 36.7 FG% on threes, 2.9% above their normal averages, the third-highest differential in the league. Thomas is looking forward to getting up shots early and often against Teague (7-for-9 FTs vs. BOS on Nov. 24), who frustrated the losing Isaiah to no end in their last meeting. While Thomas jacks away heroically on behalf of his team, Al Horford and the Hawks’ big men will have quite some time keeping Sullinger away from the offensive boards and limiting Boston’s second-chances.
In Atlanta’s last visit to Beantown on November 13, the Kenny Atkinson-coached Hawks allowed a season-high 103 field goal attempts, which tied February’s win over Golden State for the most opponent shots in a regulation-ending Hawks game since 1998. Only 17 of the Celts’ 50 first-half shots connected in the opening half, but their combination of dominant rebounding (season-high 86.8 D-Reb%; 17 O-Rebs for Boston, six by Crowder) and keeping their own turnovers low allowed Thomas to eventually come alive and the Celts to pull away.
Unless your surname is Govan, who wants to be left sleeping with the Fishers? You don’t want to be on the team stuck with Derek Fisher’s Knicks nipping at your nose by the time Christmas Break rolls around. Both the Hawks and Celtics can use a win tonight as a building block for a run back up the conference standings. If Atlanta fails to capitalize this weekend, you can expect the Hawks will endure even more “tough” practices and “intense” video sessions in the very near future.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
