Here we go...

[Diesel]

ORLANDO, Fla. -- First, a disclaimer: This, by no means, is meant to shortchange or disrespect the Atlanta Hawks.

Credit them for taking the best punch Dwight Howard has ever delivered in the playoffs and still having enough to deck the Orlando Magic 103-93 on Saturday in Game 1 of their best-of-7 playoff series to steal homecourt advantage.

Let me repeat: Good for the Hawks.

So when this first-round series shifts to Atlanta in a few days, I don't want any of the thousands of fans disguised as empty seats at Philips Arena to be offended or upset with what I'm about to convey.

But if you're the Magic, a team with a bonafide MVP candidate and ambitions to shake up the Eastern Conference playoff picture, you have to be asking yourself one question after Saturday's painful and pitiful loss: How could this happen?

How could you get a postseason career-high 46 points and 19 rebounds from Howard, yet never really pose a real threat to the Hawks for the better part of three quarters?

How does your other catalyst, point guard Jameer Nelson, set a franchise-record with a 20-point third quarter to spark a rally, yet find it's still impossible to chip away at Atlanta's comfortable lead?

And how do you claim to be playoff ready, puffed up with pride and quietly offended by the fact that Chicago, Boston and Miami are receiving all the national hype in your bracket, yet refuse to get defensive enough to stop the recently slumping Hawks from shooting a combined 72.3 percent in the decisive second and third quarters?

Yes, the Magic emerged from Saturday's loss with all of the requisite anguish. Just not many answers. So one game into their playoff run, Orlando is already in reset mode.

"We have to go back and look at some things, reevaluate some things," said Nelson, whose team will have nearly 72 hours to figure something out before Game 2 on Tuesday. "I don't know. I can't put a finger on it right now."

I can.

Howard did his best Chamberlain impersonation. The rest of his teammates, aside from Nelson, did their best wilt job -- as in wilting away on both ends of the court. With a combined 79 points from Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith and Jamal Crawford, the Hawks were the picture of balance.

Meanwhile, with everyone on the roster not named Dwight or Jameer combining to shoot 8 of 34 (23.5 percent), the Magic were the snapshot of bewilderment.

But as much as Orlando's offensive ineptness around Howard jump off the stat sheet, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy chose to focus on his team's lack of resistance on defense as the biggest problem.

Not having enough players step up to help Howard shoulder the load on offense is one thing. Not being able to find anyone to slow down Johnson, keep up with Crawford or hang with Horford was a much larger indictment of the Magic.

[+] EnlargeDwight Howard

J. Meric/Getty ImagesDwight Howard found himself the center of attention here for Hawks defenders Jason Collins, Al Horford and Josh Smith.

When was the last time you saw the Hawks play and can't remember Josh Smith taking one bad shot? That's the kind of night it was for Atlanta, which limped into the regular season having lost six straight games but had no problem finding its footing Saturday.

And that's the kind of nightmare it was for the Magic, who executed the most lopsided playoff sweep in NBA history of these very same Hawks in the conference semifinals last season but are already against the ropes this time around.

"I'm not coming in here angry at players who had bad games," Van Gundy said. "My focus right now is on me and my game plan. I've got to do a better job. I've got to find a way that we can guard them more effectively, and we've got to find some answers on the offensive end of the floor to get some of these other guys going, too. I want to get to the film as soon as I can and get back to work."

Van Gundy tried to do the noble thing and place most of the blame on himself amid his search for answers. On the other hand, Hawks coach Larry Drew deflected most of the credit for his team's transition from down-and-out at the end of the regular season to dominant in their playoff debut.

Drew was certain that he wasn't going to double-team Howard and allow other Magic players to feast on open perimeter looks. But he wasn't quite so sure of which version of his Hawks would execute the game plan. He could have gotten the Hawks who remembered being blown out by the Magic by an average of 25 points in the four playoff losses last season. Instead, he got the Hawks who were still gliding high from winning three of the four regular-season matchups with Orlando this season.

"I realized it this morning in shootaround," Drew said. "My bunch is a different bunch. With some teams, you know they're ready and focused when they're a little quiet. When we're ready, we're a little rowdy. They go through stretches when they don't play well, stretches when they seem disinterested. All I wanted us to do was come in here, play hard, maintain our composure and play the type of basketball I know we are capable of playing."

Most coaches cringe when there's talk about flipping the proverbial switch in the playoffs. Drew has come to embrace it. He knows what he has in his group. He also knows their limitations.

"We just had to be excited about where we were," Crawford said of the festive and feisty mood at Saturday morning's shootaround. "We understood that we've played this team four times and we've won three of them. So we're a confident group. The last six games of the season, I think people got a little down on us because we lost the last six. But we had a plan, and now it's coming into fruition."

This very same playoff matchup cost a coach his job last season, when Mike Woodson was jettisoned by the Hawks after Orlando swept Atlanta. Justified or not, there's certain to be questions about job security after this series again if the Magic aren't able to rally and advance.

There's already fuel for fodder among those critical of the major trades Orlando made midway through the season. Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter certainly gave the Magic more against these Hawks in last season's series than Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas offered Saturday.

Hedo Turkoglu and Brandon Bass are just bad matchups against Horford and Smith. And that doesn't even take into account the size advantage the Hawks have on the perimeter with Johnson and Crawford towering over any tandem of Magic guards.

Saturday might not have been a fluke for the Hawks.

It very well may have been the unveiling of a successful formula.

It certainly was a strong enough potion to leave Howard dejected after the most productive playoff game of his career resulted in a double-figure loss.

Howard was unstoppable on the court, yet nearly inaudible afterward.

"It's frustrating that we lost, but it's the first game," Howard said, searching for a bright spot. "We'll come back in the second game with a better effort."

Truth is, the Hawks can essentially forfeit Tuesday's game and fly back to Atlanta knowing they've already accomplished what they set out to do. They're guaranteed of a split in the first two games.

The irony is that Van Gundy joked about how much peace and quiet he enjoyed while preparing for the playoff opener. On Friday night, Van Gundy had the house to himself -- aside from his two dogs and four cats -- while his wife and children attended a concert at Amway Center.

"It was as quiet as it's ever been," he said. "I got a great night's sleep."

Van Gundy had no interest in seeing the Lady Gaga concert Friday.

But Saturday, he had to sit through his team's Game 1 no-show on the same arena floor.

[Marvin24Williams]

Whatever man, Hawks ain't even scared of Dwightlando.

Smith got hedo in check

Jrich can't guard Joe

Horf is to skilled for Bass

D12 is there only advantage.

I really think this series will come down to Hinrich vs Nelson. If Hinrich plays superb defense on Nelson like he did this game, i can see us winning in 5-6 games.

[sasuke]

1 - No double on DH12

2 - Hinrich on Nelson

3 - Our shots were falling.

I hope 3 turns in to a constant or it's over for us.

[99PROBL3MS]

They do realize that Dwight scoring so much was by design don't they? LD could have doubled down and took the ball out off his hands. Do they realize that D12 only scored 9pts on 4-9 shooting when Collins was in the game. I am watching the ESPN coverage and it is a joke how they tried to spin it. Props to the NBA TV guys for calling it like it was.

Edited April 17, 2011 by 99PROBL3MS

[Buzzard]

This article called it with calling us bigger than Orlando minus Howard. They had no answers for our balance or matchups and our shots were falling. We did to them what they did to us for the previous six seasons. It use to be them shooting 50 to 70% from the field, last night it was us.

Kudos to Smoove for not taking a lot of bad shots just like he played last season. And it looked like any bad blood there might have been between Hinrich, Crawford, and Smoove has been cured by playoff basketball.

This was a team win and LD made sure with our perimeter D, that if Howard did not score 100 by himself, the Magic would not get 100. Solid game plan whether you like him or not.

Had to add this, I think they have missed the boat on us mailing it in and going home with a split. SVG will shake things up but I think our team wants to beat the hell out of the Magic and make those previous thumping's a thing of the past. Look out for this, game two could be similar to the physical play that we saw in our 1st round 7 game series against the Celtics.

Magic and Howard will not lie down, and nor will we. Go Hawks!

Edited April 17, 2011 by Buzzard

[ag82]

i agree about game 2. these guys don't look like they are ready to lie down. i saw that fire in joe that i havent seen in a long time.

[Diesel]

I think there were a few things to mention from the hawks perspective that makes me feel that if we take game 2, Orlando will lay down.

1. Nobody has scored this much on Orlando (post season) since the Lakers lost to them them in the finals while scoring 104 points.

2. We took Dwight and Nelson's best shot and it didn't stop us.

[thecampster]

This article called it with calling us bigger than Orlando minus Howard. They had no answers for our balance or matchups and our shots were falling. We did to them what they did to us for the previous six seasons. It use to be them shooting 50 to 70% from the field, last night it was us.

Kudos to Smoove for not taking a lot of bad shots just like he played last season. And it looked like any bad blood there might have been between Hinrich, Crawford, and Smoove has been cured by playoff basketball.

This was a team win and LD made sure with our perimeter D, that if Howard did not score 100 by himself, the Magic would not get 100. Solid game plan whether you like him or not.

Had to add this, I think they have missed the boat on us mailing it in and going home with a split. SVG will shake things up but I think our team wants to beat the hell out of the Magic and make those previous thumping's a thing of the past. Look out for this, game two could be similar to the physical play that we saw in our 1st round 7 game series against the Celtics.

Magic and Howard will not lie down, and nor will we. Go Hawks!

If you watched the game on TV....there were multiple shots of Hinrich and Josh sitting on the bench together talking about the game and pointing at things going on on the floor. The disagreements between them were overblown. There were 2 turnovers by Josh in the game...both times they were Josh throwing cross court to Kirk and Kirk breaking left when Josh threw right. Given both are here next season that will no longer happen.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Game 2 we should treat like Game 7

We win that game and I think they quit

[capstone21]

There is no mention of how we contained Orlando's 3 point shooting and the only reason Nelson did anything was when Crawford was playing against him.