Apologize to Larry Drew.

[Seano]

So will he still get props if we are one of five six teams in NBA history to give up a 3-1 series lead? Especially since we basically gave away game 2 of the series by sitting Horford the entire first half for no reason whatsoever.

The thing of it is, I could totally see us doing that. I would not be the least bit shocked to see us blow a 3-1 lead and make NBA 'history' like that. That's how low my confidence in this damned team is, and I am fricken hoping and praying for them to prove me wrong and come out and smash those arseholes in the mouth come Thurs. night.

[Supporter]

Props yet again to Mr. Drew, the man made his adjustments and the team won. In a game of chess I will always side with Phil, I mean Larry...

[bonethugz]

good news is we beat the magic but only again go past first round.....still... i think he coach better than woody

[sasuke]

Guys, the reason we won this series was because our shots were falling (specially Jamal's) & the Magic wasn't even half as good as they were the past 2 seasons. LD hasn't done s*** to deserve credit. How is it possible that Jameer makes to consecutive easy layups in crunch time? He got out-coached by Stan Van Dumby. If he doesn't give us at least a 7 game series with Chicago he should go coach somewhere else, if he can.

[lethalweapon3]

To: Drew, Larry <Atlanta Hawks>

From: Weapon3, Lethal <Hawksquawk>

Re: Apology Enclosed -- DO NOT OPEN UNTIL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS!

~lw3

[Diesel]

Guys, the reason we won this series was because our shots were falling (specially Jamal's) & the Magic wasn't even half as good as they were the past 2 seasons. LD hasn't done s*** to deserve credit. How is it possible that Jameer makes to consecutive easy layups in crunch time? He got out-coached by Stan Van Dumby. If he doesn't give us at least a 7 game series with Chicago he should go coach somewhere else, if he can.

As they say... :pleasantry: Haters going to hate!!

LD did a good job of coaching. Controlling match ups. And stopping a team that is a pretty good perimeter team.

SPLITG W-L FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST STL BLK PTS

In January 16 10-6 609-1,311 165-449 304-427 185 529 714 346 92 74 1,687

In February 11 7-4 407-904 94-287 181-266 126 368 494 239 79 41 1,089

In March 15 9-6 523-1,132 150-381 275-415 146 497 643 288 112 87 1,471

In April 7 5-2 236-523 65-181 125-172 80 215 295 128 59 36 662

I worked out the numbers...

Orlando shot over 33% from three on all those months.

On the season they shot 37% from three .

In loses, they shot 34% from three.

However, against us in this series... a lowly 26% from three.

This season 37.7% from three.

Last season 37.5% from three.

Last season ECF, Boston held them to 27% from three.

This season Hawks held them to 26% from three.

Last season, Doc Rivers get lots of credit for killing their main three (the three).

This season, you say LD deserves no credit for doing a better job that Doc did??

How do you reason that?? What's your basis?? We took their main weapon and made it useless to them.. and we won!!

Edited April 29, 2011 by Diesel

[NineOhTheRino]

Props for a round 1 victory? Man I bet Woody would have liked to be graded on the same scale.

[Diesel]

Props for a round 1 victory? Man I bet Woody would have liked to be graded on the same scale.

Woody didn't beat Orlando.

[NineOhTheRino]

Woody didn't beat Orlando.

Did he really? Let's not confuse this Magic team with last year's.

Hawks won a round one series versus a mediocre team. That's not the "hater" in me. I expect a team with multiple all star players to get out of the first round. I need to see what LD does against a quality team like the Bulls. I'll give the organization a pat for winning but I'm no where close to apologizing for not believing LD is the right HC.

[Diesel]

Did he really? Let's not confuse this Magic team with last year's.

Hawks won a round one series versus a mediocre team. That's not the "hater" in me. I expect a team with multiple all star players to get out of the first round. I need to see what LD does against a quality team like the Bulls. I'll give the organization a pat for winning but I'm no where close to apologizing for not believing LD is the right HC.

This years Orlando team was a better three point shooting team than last years.

This years Orlando team didn't win as many games (granted) but I would say that they were just as talented.

DH12 had a better series than Last years DH12.

Our gameplan was just a whole lot better.

[sasuke]

As they say... :pleasantry: Haters going to hate!!

LD did a good job of coaching. Controlling match ups. And stopping a team that is a pretty good perimeter team.

I worked out the numbers...

Orlando shot over 33% from three on all those months.

On the season they shot 37% from three .

In loses, they shot 34% from three.

However, against us in this series... a lowly 26% from three.

This season 37.7% from three.

Last season 37.5% from three.

Last season ECF, Boston held them to 27% from three.

This season Hawks held them to 26% from three.

Last season, Doc Rivers get lots of credit for killing their main three (the three).

This season, you say LD deserves no credit for doing a better job that Doc did??

How do you reason that?? What's your basis?? We took their main weapon and made it useless to them.. and we won!!

This wasn't the same Magic team, plain and simple. And the super duper tactic of single cover DH12 to watch the perimeter is not rocket science, it's a bit obvious if you ask me.

[pound4pound]

LD, like Woody, is coaching a flawed team. A point guard that can't penetrate and bigs that can't get points in the paint usually puts you in lottery territory. That is unless you are a relentless defensive team – of which the hawks are not. He tries to get them to run and penetrate but they just don’t, won’t, or can’t. Maybe that will change with Capt Kirk out and Teague getting more minutes.

Look at the adjustments Woody made against Orlando as example. Last year we were committed to putting Al on Dwight, doubling in the post, and switching Al on the point guard on every pick and roll. We don’t do that dumbness anymore. The byproduct is Josh at the three where he nearly killed us with his perimeter play. If LD learns the lesson that Josh can’t play 3, even with the Big Line-up, then he truly will impress me as a coach. Josh is a 4, with or without Al, that should be clear enough to everyone including LD.

[Diesel]

This wasn't the same Magic team, plain and simple. And the super duper tactic of single cover DH12 to watch the perimeter is not rocket science, it's a bit obvious if you ask me.

That doesn't make a difference. We played that magic team back when we had Bibby in our first game with them and we held them to 18.2% from three.

Moreover, it's funny that in the past 3 years, that only 2 playoff teams have employed that super duper tactic.

Us and last years Celtics.

Here's the other thing of note...

This Orlando team would have CRUSHED the KNICKS or the HEAT or the Pacers or the 76ers if that would have been their first round matchup.

Unfortunately, they matched up with us.

[sasuke]

That doesn't make a difference. We played that magic team back when we had Bibby in our first game with them and we held them to 18.2% from three.

Yeah, cuz they aren't as good as last year.

Moreover, it's funny that in the past 3 years, that only 2 playoff teams have employed that super duper tactic.

Us and last years Celtics.

Here's the other thing of note...

That says a lot of the coaching staff of those teams who didn't.

This Orlando team would have CRUSHED the KNICKS or the HEAT or the Pacers or the 76ers if that would have been their first round matchup.

Unfortunately, they matched up with us.

I'll give you the Knicks & Pacers but the 76ers & the Heat, no way.

Edited April 29, 2011 by sasuke

[Diesel]

"I'll give you the Knicks & Pacers but the 76ers & the Heat, no way."

Against Philly on the season they were 3-1...

Against Miami they were 2-2...

In their last matchup, they beat Philly 95-85..

They couldn't stop Howard, they couldn't stop the threes.

In their last matchup with the Heat,they beat the Heat.

The heat couldn't stop Howard, they couldn't stop the threes.

In the matchup before that... Miami won. But it required 51 points from James and they only won by 4...

[AHF]

Props for a round 1 victory? Man I bet Woody would have liked to be graded on the same scale.http://www.hawksquawk.net/community/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=reply_post&f=1&t=358667&qpid=508358

Woody got the most props he ever got for our series against Boston. One we lost. He got that because the team played hard and gave hope to the fan base.

This series against Orlando was very encouraging as well. Orlando was the better team to that point by any measure (wins, point differential etc.) and had homecourt. The Hawks played hard and inspired ball 5 of 6 games and beat Orlando. The single biggest factor in that series win was the fact that we didn't double Howard which let us stay at home on the rest of the team. Just like Boston did against them last year, that led to subpar 3pt shooting by Orlando. The fact that we corrected our major strategic flaw and were actually ready to come to play this series was a step in the right direction. The post-season isn't over yet and neither is the judgment on LD as a playoff coach.

In constrast, last season's 7 game series against Milwaukee was a debacle. The playoff version of that team was so untalented that they would never have sniffed the playoffs if that was their team over the course of the year. Woody deserved criticism for the Hawks not destroying that team. Their best perimeter player shot 40.8% from the floor and averaged 3.6 apg while their frontcourt was dramatically less talented (interesting note: their backcourt blocked more shots than their frontcourt).

Woody then followed that series with the worst series by any team in NBA history in his matchup of the #3 seed Hawks against the #2 seed Magic.

There are good reasons the two post-seasons are not viewed in the same light even grading them on the same scale.

In fact, Woody has never had a playoff series nearly this good. His best playoff series ever was against the Miami Heat in 2008-09. The Heat were a 43 win team compared to the 52 win Magic. The Hawks had homecourt over the Heat. In the 3 losses to the Heat, the Hawks were not competitive in any of them - losing by 15, 29 and 17 - meaning there were 3 times as many blowouts.

There is no question that this year's series against the Magic is the best post-season series that the Hawks have played since they took Boston to 7 games and the best winning series they have had since 1986-87 where we beat the Pacers 3-1, the same margin by which we would have won this series in a best of 5 format.

(Wow. Talk about damning this team's playoff performances by faint praise.)