“I GOT MY SUIT AT SPENCER’S GIFTS! HO-HO-HO!”
Recent games against Milwaukee, Orlando, and Toronto serving as a representative sample, the Atlanta Hawks have struggled to string together a consistent series of quarters, starts, or games. Yet, nobody in the Eastern Conference has time to play the violin for them, least of all the visiting Charlotte Hornets (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast in CLT and ATL; 92.9 FM in ATL).
The Southeast Division leader by default, Charlotte (14-13) concludes its five-game road trip at the Strobelight Factory tonight. They’re trying to salvage this wreck of a trek after dropping all of the previous four games, including last night’s 96-88 loss in Boston.
If they wanted to (they won’t), Atlanta could empathize with a Hornets team that led 50-41 at halftime before running out of gas, losing 55-38 in the second half. With Kemba Walker absent for personal reasons (active for tonight), the Hornets had no answer for the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas.
Also awakening in that second half was our old amigo, Al Horford (18 points, 8 boards, 5 blocks), and his comfort in and out of the paint surely continued to peeve coach Steve Clifford. The Hornets coach might enjoy mincemeat over the holidays, but he rarely minces words. Not since Olivia Newton-John rocked neon leotards has anyone uttered “The P word” so ardently.
"The game came down to Physical play. If guys aren’t willing to be more Physical, we’ll be an up-and-down team, we’ll struggle to make the playoffs," Clifford told the Charlotte Observer. This, after the Hornets dropped their third-straight game in Washington on Wednesday, casually watching Marcin Gortat transform into Ivan Putski around the boards.
Coach Cliff wasn’t done. "If we want to play with the Physicality we choose to at times, we have a chance to be a good team…”, he conveyed to the Observer. Any other Observations, coach? “It’s our greatest weakness. “It’s evident (against) teams that aren’t even Physical off the ball. I’ve been telling them for three weeks now: (Other teams are saying) ‘Make it hard on them. Bump them off every cut, bump them off every screen.’ Sooner or later, we have to respond."
The return of Walker (career-bests of 46.6 FG%, 41.2 3FG%, 22.6 PPG) will be the wind beneath the Hornets’ wings tonight. But to keep Clifford from seeking out the number for the phone booth closest to Ivan Johnson, Charlotte’s players need the combination of girth and guile from Cody Zeller that successfully befuddled Atlanta’s Dwight Howard in the third quarter of the Hawks’ 100-96 loss in the Queen City on November 18.
Fans can literally mark the moment differentiating a Hawks team that was cruising toward a 10-2 record (5-1 on the road) and the team we have now, one that sits at 13-13 and is often left wondering if anyone caught the tag number on the truck that ran them over.
Having successfully fended off a fourth-quarter rally, the Hawks were up 89-86 in Charlotte when Zeller (9-for-10 FGs vs. ATL on Nov. 18) took the proximity of Dwight Howard’s pointy elbow and responded with a sell job that would have made Charlotte’s own Ric Flair proud. Dwight got ejected, Kemba got to the rim unimpeded, the Hornets turned the tables and won, and the Hawks haven’t been quite the same since.
We know better than to suggest that the Hawks’ surprising 125-121 win in Toronto was the indication that the team is finally turning a corner, on some uptick after bottoming out several times in recent weeks. But a juxtaposition of the last Hawks-Hornets matchup with last night’s Raptors game suggests there may be some comforting signs.
First and foremost, Dennis Schröder isn’t second-guessing himself and playing tentatively. Hardly a factor with 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting (0-for-5 3FGs) in Charlotte, Atlanta’s point guard went toe-to-toe with Kyle Lowry last night and came away with 24 points (8-for-12 FGs, 2-for-4 3FGs) plus a team-high six assists. He is taking more initiative to ensure that offensive plays are executed all the way through, not stifled by the team’s own lack of motion.
Also creating hardly any impact as a starter in Charlotte (5 points, 2-for-6 FGs in 29 minutes) one month ago, Kyle Korver seems to be growing more at-ease, as he returns to a familiar career-long role as an off-the-bench sniper.
Kyle confidently nailed six triples last night, and had close calls on several more attempts, as his 19 points helped create just the cushion the Hawks needed before, and during, Toronto’s inevitable second-half rallies. Charlotte’s defensive ace Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was slightly used yesterday in Boston, so expect extended minutes by MKG to alleviate Nicolas Batum (22 points, 6-for-19 FGs @ BOS on Friday) and try cooling off Korver tonight.
This time around, Howard won’t be duped by Zeller (1-for-7 FGs @ BOS) and the Hornets’ antics in their desperation to play Physical and somehow throw the Hawks’ center off his game. We were treated to a surlier, more assertive Dwight on offense last night (27 points, incl. 7-for-10 FTs; 17 rebounds, incl. 7 O-Rebs) and his activity kept the Raptors on their heels literally from the jump. He has seen a good sample of what referees will and won’t tolerate, and is adjusting his game accordingly.
Charlotte has averaged a league-low 31.0 paint points per 48 minutes since their losing streak began, and it will be incumbent upon Walker, Batum, and Ramon Sessions to not only find avenues to penetrate, but also to draw Paul Millsap and Howard’s attention and feed Charlotte’s big men (including Spencer Hawes) for assisted interior shots.
Marvin Williams, Frank Kaminsky, and Hawes all have inclinations to run to the perimeter, especially if they used tape of Orlando’s visit to Philips Arena for scouting purposes. But their direction under Clifford is to force more action around the rim, in hopes of getting Atlanta’s bigs in foul trouble and once again opening things up late in the game. Clifford wants to see their body talk.
Promptly after beating the Hawks in Charlotte, the Hornets’ fortunes took a dip with a four-game slide. They recovered enough to move up to 3rd in the East, but now they are anxious that their losing skid will extend to a season-long five games, relinquishing the gains they made on Atlanta just one month ago. Hawks fans, though, have heard a similar sob story from incoming visitors in recent weeks. And they’d really like to see a different ending.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
