“I hear you, Melo, but she’s a Honey of an O, tho!”
Happy 4/19! Sure, 4/20 is right around the corner, but you’re just going to have to forgive Atlanta Hawks fans for jumping the gun, what with our short attention spans and perpetual hunger pangs. Atlanta likes our Hawks, sure. But we crave what truly gets us our high: good, intense, entertaining, compelling pro basketball.
Especially whenever the NBA Playoffs roll around, we’re on the hunt for that good kush. If the Hawks put out more of that chronically synthetic crap in Game 2 (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, CSN Mid-Atlantic in DC, NBATV) like they did through much of Game 1 against the Washington Wizards, then don’t blame us hoop stoners if our eyes begin wandering off in search of Sour Diesel – not the Squawker variety, mind you, the NBA strain.
To be, well, blunt about it, just watching ex-Hawks awash on other teams right now makes for some pretty good munchies. The Son of Tito hemming and hawing his way through press conferences after an 0-2 start, struggling to avoid becoming the common denominator for the last two #1 seeds that got swept out of the playoffs? Coach Fizdale flipping that spot where his wig should be, over the refs’ oddly-swallowed whistles? Jeff holding serve versus Kyrie, while Kyle mostly spectates alongside Edy and Dahntay from the bench? This is some quality ganja right here.
DeMarre, with the hopes of a whole nation on his back, tilting at the beast named Giannis? Jamal once again shooting and dribbling madly to try and save his playoff team’s bacon, only this time for Coach Doc against Joe Clutch (and Shelvin, and Boris, and Coach Quin)? Zaza simply doing what he can to stay the heck out of his star teammates’ way? Don’t get greedy with that; puff, puff, pass!
Our present-day Hawks, down just 0-1, have plenty of time to become Atlanta’s focal point again. But tonight, it is going to take a lot more than the first-half ATLchemy stirred up by Coach Bud ((cough, cough… sorry!)) and his crew in the series opener.
During Game 1, Dennis Schröder found his second gear on offense, serving up 25 points (3-for-5 3FGs), 9 assists and just 2 turnovers. Alas, he and Paul Millsap (19 points, 5-for-7 2FGs, 9-for-11 FTs) seemed to forget there was another end of the floor, one on which John Wall (playoff career-high 32 points, 14 assists) can thrive. And aside from Kent Bazemore (4 assists, one turnover in 28 bench minutes), hardly any Hawks helped Schröder move the ball, making it easy on Washington defenders to hone in on Atlanta shooters (7-for-25 3FGs).
Schröder’s starting backcourt mate, Tim Hardaway, Jr. (2-for-11 FGs, 0-for-6 3FGs) had the Wizards feeling like they won the trade deal with Kelly Oubre (11 points, 2 steals in 19 bench minutes). Hardaway’s opponent, Bradley Beal, was 2-for-11 on three-pointers alone, and got just three shots at the free throw line. Yet Beal made a difference in Washington’s 114-107 victory by contributing with other competitive facets (7-for-10 2FGs, 3 assists, 3 steals) in ways Hardaway did not.
Sap (2 paltry rebounds, 1 assist, no steals) continues to seek out a decent Playoff Paul version of himself, when Regular Season Paul would do just fine. He and Dwight Howard (minus-25 plus/minus through the first three quarters) found themselves outclassed on the Verizon Center floor by Markieff Morris (21 points, 7-for-13 2FGs, 4 blocks in his playoff debut) and Marcin Gortat (7-for-11 FGs, 10 rebounds). The Wizard duo’s eight offensive rebounds effectively neutralized any chance the Hawks had to effect the outcome via the glass.
Atlanta shot just 33.3 percent from the field in a low-scoring opening half, including 3-for-11 on threes. Yet the Hawks clung to a three-point halftime lead, thanks to drawing (according to Millsap) MMA-quality fouls from the Wizards and eventually sinking their free throws. Atlanta finished with 32 makes on their final 36 attempts in Game 1, including 19 in a row in the first half, after missing their first three shots.
That Hawks lead could have been more impressive had Millsap not gifted Morris with three free throw gifts as the half came to a close, followed by an exchange that only worked to enliven Morris and the Wizards going into the locker room.
Washington was the only team that seemed to make strategic defensive adjustments in Game 1 during the break. The hacking from Coach Scott Brooks’ squad slowed, allowing the Wizards’ starters to remain on the floor. Experiencing little pressure on the ball from Hawks defenders, Wall (15 points and 4 assists in the third quarter) and Beal (12 fourth-quarter points) began to find their flow.
The Wizards over-rely on their starting five (inclusive of Otto Porter), whose 1347 floor minutes in the regular season exceeded the next-highest 5-man NBA lineup by 467 minutes. True to form, this unit’s 25.4 minutes in Game 1 is the most by any 5-man lineup so far. Yet their second-half mastery of the Hawks’ top line rendered Atlanta’s 35-15 edge in bench points (11 of those 15 by Oubre alone) meaningless. The Hawks were only able to turn the tide, down double-digits, in the first quarter when Bud and then Brooks (inexplicably) turned to their reserves.
If there is one person on the Hawks’ end of the floor who is capable of decoding Coach Scotty’s offensive game plans, it’s the guy who was his small forward for six seasons in OKC. Yet Thabo Sefolosha found himself classified as DNP-WTF, even as the Wizards offense (69 second-half points) began freely picking the Hawks apart. Atlanta could coax just 12 turnovers (five off steals) out of Washington, whose players committed at least 18 turnovers in each regular-season matchup with the Hawks.
Atlanta was 5-11 when they produced five or fewer steals in the regular season, 10-17 when their opponents committed 12 turnovers or less. In Atlanta’s sole victory over Washington this season, the season-opener, the Hawks gathered 13 steals, including five thefts from Sefolosha in 22 bench minutes.
Rookie Taurean Prince was spirited but perhaps overutilized in his debut as a playoff starter (4-for-7 2FGs, 2-for-4 3FGs, 6 rebounds in 32 minutes). Despite his struggles throughout the back half of this season, Thabo (team-high 1.5 SPG; just behind Millsap with 2.9 deflections per game) will be needed in this series for more than just sideline pep talks.
The Hawks must make their man defense and motion offense look edible to their feening fanbase in Game 2. True Believers are true believers, but if we have to wait until Game 3 in Atlanta to see sound efforts at both ends from these Hawks fresh from the locker room, we’ll be tempted to draw our NBA toke from somewhere else tonight. Our channel-changing fingers will quiver, and they know why.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
