“AND THREE POINTERS DON’T STOP ‘TIL 8 IN THE MO’NIN!!!”
No Excuses Week begins today! Our Atlanta Hawks have certainly had a rough go of things this month. But now comes a slate of N.E.W. games, beginning with an afternoon affair at home versus the Brooklyn Nets (1:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, YES Network in NYC) and concluding in Brooklyn next week, that will help the team sew up their invite to the NBA Playoffs.
Whoops! Did I say “will”? I should have said, “could”.
The Grizzlies, the Pistons, the Hornets, the Thunder, the Celtics, the Warriors, the Jazz. Each of these teams have caught at least one L this month from one of the four teams (Brooklyn, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Chicago) Atlanta faces over the course of this upcoming week. Many of these opponents thought they could slide by with second-rate and half-hearted execution, and found themselves sorely mistaken as the final buzzers sounded.
Aside from a pretend-road win in London, the Nets have not won at the so-called Highlight Factory since March 2013, and the Nets have no plans on making Atlanta their San Antonio. Unable to benefit from a lottery pick by deliberately tanking, Kenny Atkinson’s charges are plucking at any opportunities for wins they can find… but not at the expense of enhanced development for young players.
Brooklyn (15-57) hasn’t had a break-even or better calendar month since Lionel Hollins’ club went 5-4 in April 2015 to help crush Atlanta’s lottery dreams. Yet after starting out 2017 winning just one of 26 games, they’re 6-8 this month, one of those losses a 110-105 close-shave defeat at Philips back on March 8, and have the Sixers and Pistons to close out the March schedule after today.
Just weeks ago, the Hawks needed all of Paul Millsap’s 24 points to fend off the Nets, who were led by Sean Kilpatrick’s 27 points in 30 minutes off the bench. Brooklyn controlled much of the proceedings until the middle of the third quarter and got the deficit down to a single point with just 13 seconds left to play. As was the case during Atlanta’s ill-fated road trip this past week, Millsap and fellow starter Kent Bazemore won’t be available this afternoon due to knee rehabs.
The good news for the Hawks (37-35) is that Kilpatrick is unavailable as well, due to a sore hammy. While the Nets look to the Brook-Lin duo of Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin to start and finish close contests, Atkinson is turning to starters Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (9-for-13 FGs @ WAS on Friday) and Caris LeVert, and backups Justin Hamilton (team-high 20 points, 2-for-3 3FGs @ WAS) and K.J. McDaniels, to try and keep his team competitive in the middle of games.
Turning the tables on a hot Suns offense on Thursday, McDaniels and Brooklyn’s bench brigade helped “hold” Phoenix’s Devin Booker to 28 points, while outscoring the Suns’ reserves 81-22, in a resounding 126-98 home victory.
Coach Kenny hopes to overwhelm Atlanta’s thinned bench by subbing in a host of contributors. Thus, it’s essential for the Mike Budenholzer’s starters to dominate, and not simply hold serve, versus Lopez, Lin and the Nets’ defensively-challenged starters.
Those Hawks starters include Tim Hardaway, Jr. and Ersan Ilyasova, who moved to the top line in place of Bazemore and Millsap. They comprised 26 of Atlanta’s 28 bench points when these two teams last met. The other two points came from Taurean Prince, who also starts today while Thabo Sefolosha deals with his pesky groin strain. Today, the rookie needs to provide major contributions in the form of defensive rebounding, perimeter closeouts, ball movement, and finishes around the rim.
Dennis Schröder led the way with 31 points (incl. 10-for-10 FTs), but the playmaker must refrain from forcing plays that aren’t there to make. Still, his assertiveness remains perhaps the growing point guard’s best asset.
Atlanta, surprisingly, is just 5-13 on the season when Schröder’s in-game turnover percentage is BELOW ten percent, including 0-4 this month. The Hawks are also a more representative 7-5 when Dennis exceeds 25.0 TO%. Including this week’s road losses in Milwaukee and Washington, though, the Hawks are 1-5 when his usage rate exceeds 33.3 percent. Part of the uphill challenge is expecting more ball movement from bigs like Dwight Howard and Ilyasova. But if Dennis goes through stretches of trying to do too much on his own offensively, Coach Bud should not hesitate to deploy vet backup Jose Calderon today.
Being more cognizant of the shot clock and his alternative options will benefit the Hawks whenever Schröder penetrates the paint. Sounder decision-making from his backcourt mate Hardaway in the fourth quarter will help the Hawks as well. It should be noted that Timmy has not had a single game with true shooting percentage below 50.0 percent since February 24, and that Atlanta is a respectable 11-6 (although 0-3 this month) when his assist percentage exceeds 20.0% in a game.
Beginning right before New Year’s, the Hawks took advantage of the opportunity to put recent failures behind them versus mostly subpar competition. The result was a seven-game winning streak, a stretch of 9-1 basketball, and an All-Star nod for Millsap. More importantly, an understandably underappreciated run from December 7 through the All-Star Break without consecutive losses created a nice cushion in the playoff standings which lasted for two months.
Demonstrating that they can learn from the critical mistakes in their recent past, without dwelling too much on them, will -- okay! could -- help the Hawks cruise triumphantly through No Excuses Week. As will emphasizing the things they can do well, not getting distracted by the records or accolades of their opponents. Chins up, gentlemen… it’s a N.E.W. day!
~lw3
