AJC: Atlanta Hawks at Pacers: Trying to change their rep

[Hawksquawk]

L.D. acknowledges these last four games “have very little meaning” in the big picture. Smoove is out, the starters won’t play their normal minutes and Drew said he would try out some unusual lineups.

Despite those circumstances, Drew said he wants to see the Hawks respond if they get down. The Hawks were pretty good at hanging in recently against Boston, Orlando, Houston and San Antonio but Drew thinks their rep still is that of a team that gives in when things get hard.

“I think that is kind of the word on us around the league, to be perfectly honest,” L.D. said. “It’s an area where we have to grow as a team. Because this game is about runs and withstanding runs by teams. Everybody gets on runs. That’s how the game is. It’s how you respond to it. That is an area where we really need to get better at.

“Our game against Boston, the commentators were making reference to that on the telecast. We were down eight, nine, 10 points. You could clearly see a run by Boston deflated us. …

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