Official Game Thread: Hawks - Raptors

[lethalweapon3]

“Looks Like We Made It!”

Welcome to The New Normal, Atlanta Hawks!

It’s that time of the season when every victory becomes an opportunity for nitpicking, and every defeat serves as an indictment. It comes with the territory of a 43-11 record that has taken the NBA world by storm, though, and this All-Star-laden team is happy to accept the accompanying criticism.

The Hawks had their first real double-digit second-half collapse of the season in Boston before hitting the All-Star Break, done in well before Evan Turner’s buzzer-beater by their own lackadaisical play on both ends of the court.

Still, the 6.5-game lead they hold over the Eastern Conference’s top spot -- ahead of tonight’s opponent, the Toronto Raptors (7:30, SportSouth in ATL, Sportsnet SN1 in Canada) -- is greater than the difference between Toronto’s 2-seed and the current 6-seed, the Milwaukee Bucks that the Hawks will visit on Sunday afternoon. Tonight’s game at Philips Arena, where the Hawks have won 13 straight, gives the home team a chance to add to their buffer for postseason homecourt advantage.

Both teams have boldly gone where none of their predecessors have gone before. While Toronto (36-17) will be eager to eventually catch the Hawks, by being atop the wretched Atlantic Division (14.5 games in front of Brooklyn), they are likely to clinch their division and a playoff berth faster than Atlanta (10 games ahead of Washington with 28 games left).

Facing a four-game road swing featuring two back-to-backs (including tomorrow’s game in Houston) followed by next Friday’s home game against Golden State, the Raptors hope to get the back end of this season started much like the first half began -- with a big victory over the Hawks. They’re the only team that has beaten Atlanta twice this season, although those victories came back in November before Atlanta made their sprint to the top. Toronto would love to secure a tiebreaker now, should it come down to that in April.

The East’s top two teams come into tonight’s game after essentially standing pat, sitting out the madness that ensued on Trade Deadline Day. The Hawks felt confident enough in their rotation that they dealt their 2014 first-rounder a week ago for a future pick. Neither Toronto’s 2014 pick (the D-Leagued Bruno Caboclo) nor the 2013 first-rounder that Atlanta shipped to Toronto last summer (Bebe Nogueira) have sniffed much of the maple hardwood this season.

Despite perceived flaws and imperfections, Atlanta and Toronto appear willing to ride-or-die with their current roster options, although each have some flexibility to pick up a veteran or a 10-day tryout with an open roster spot if they wish.

The rap on the Raps is their defense had been slip-sliding away all season. Defensive efficiency declined from 102.0 (10^th in NBA) through November, to 106.0 (20^th in NBA) in the month of December, to 105.9 (26^th in NBA) in January. Opponent effective field goal percentages in January rose to 51.1% (4^th worst in NBA) during the month of January.

Head Coach Dwane Casey did his best Anne Robinson impersonation, determining that swingman Terrence Ross was the weakest link, and banished him from the starting lineup, replacing him first with Greivis Vasquez, and then with James Johnson in the past two games. Toronto won seven of eight with Gravy at the other guard spot. Despite going 3-2 this month, the Raptors won their last three games before the break, and the defensive efficiency versus February foes (47.5 eFG%, 9^th best in NBA) seems to be back to normal (101.9, 13^th in NBA).

Going forward, the Chase for First Place will be a referendum on whether the 21-game absence of DeMar DeRozan (18.3 PPG, 7.3 FT attempts per game) made the difference between Toronto sitting comfortably atop the East and looking up at Atlanta. He tore an adductor midway through Toronto’s November 30 loss versus Dallas, and from that game until his return the Raptors went 12-10, while the Hawks went on a magical 23-2 carpet ride.

Normally inefficient (career-low 39.4 FG%; no 40+ FG% shooting in his past six games, 19.2 3FG% since his return), in the game before his injury, DeRozan put up 27 points on 25 shots (incl. 9-for-9 FTs) during his last trip to Atlanta, a 126-115 win where seven Raptors scored in double figures.
Newly recuperated, DeRozan shot 11-for-18 on the way to 25 points against the Hawks on January 16, but got little help from his teammates (37.5 team FG% w/o DeMar), as Atlanta routed the Raptors 110-89 in Toronto to win their eleventh-straight.

The Hawks’ gameplan seems to allow DeRozan to rely on his jumper (34.7 jumpshot FG%; lowest overall FG% among league Top 50 active scorers) to save the day, while scuttling his teammates defensively. Toronto will need to get Ross’ offense going, after he was all but shut out (1-for-10 combined FGs) of the last three games and shot just 1-for-8 in the last game versus Atlanta.

On the way to winning every quarter, the Hawks scored 24 points on 19 Raptor turnovers in the January win. DeRozan has committed at least four TOs in each of the three meetings with Atlanta, compared to just once in any of his other 27 games. Atlanta has had the luxury of hounding DeRozan with DeMarre Carroll and/or Thabo Sefolosha. But with the latter out due to injury, it’s incumbent on DeRozan to try and get touches in the paint and force Carroll into some foul trouble.

The Dinos are a scintillating 19-3 when DeRozan gets at least six free throw attempts in a game, and 4-5 otherwise. DMC was whistled for four personals in Atlanta’s two losses to the Raptors, and just two during the Hawks’ most recent victory in Toronto.

In this latest battle of All-Star point guards, Kyle Lowry must apply better defensive pressure on Jeff Teague. The Hawks’ steady-hand produced 20 assists but also 11 turnovers in the first two Toronto victories, but in the last head-to-head Teague nickel-and-dimed the Raptors with 9 assists and just a single turnover. The game was a bit of a flip for Lowry, who had just 5 assists after racking up 23 (with just one turnover) in the prior two matchups.

Teague also shot a very comfortable 55.2 FG% in those three games combined, compared to Lowry’s 30.5 FG% (2-for-15 on three-pointers). The introduction of James Johnson, who has also been an offensive spark lately (85.7 FG% in his last three games; 7-for-11 FGs vs. ATL on Jan. 16), into the starting lineup allows Lowry to commit to his man and not wander off to help with blown assignments by Ross, Vasquez, and super-sub Lou Williams.

The recent shout-out of Williams and south Gwinnett County, by Toronto’s rapping mascot Drake, may have been just the boost the former Hawks guard needed. On the final game of a five-game homestand before the break, LouWill shook himself out of a recent funk (16.2 FG% in his previous 4 games), boomin’ out with a game-high 27 points to help Toronto fend off the Wizards.

Still well in the running for Sixth Man of the Year, Lou will be looking to school former protégé Dennis Schröder, who struggled to produce second-unit offense or make stops against the Celtics’ surprisingly tenacious D last week. Properly defending the screens will be critical -- if either player is reading the back of the other’s jersey, as Drake might put it, it’s too late.

Al Horford (22 points, 11-for-15 FGs, 12 rebounds at Boston on Feb. 11) looks forward to some similar schooling against young big man Jonas Valanciunas, who looked like JV opposition during their last contest. Horford’s outside-in game had the Raptors’ bigs turned inside-out, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the field and even going 6-for-7 in a rarely high number of visits to the free throw line. He also added five dimes and zero turnovers.

Horford’s steak-and-egg offense and his point guards’ effective penetration were the body shots that effectively opened things up around the perimeter for Kyle Korver and Carroll (6-for-11 3FGs on Jan. 16), and helped un-tether Amir Johnson and Tyler Hansbrough from Paul Millsap (6-for-9 FGs).

Korver’s third-quarter bombs made up for five turnovers early in the first half. Toronto may have to turn to their forwards, Amir Johnson (44.8 3FG%) and Patrick Patterson (40.6 3FG%), to keep up if Atlanta gets hot from outside. Toronto’s top three scorers (Lowry, DeRozan, Williams) shoot a combined 32.5 percent from downtown.

Even without Sefolosha, Atlanta’s first-shot defense has been solid (46.6 opponent eFG% in February, 5^th best in NBA). So much so, that Atlanta’s devil-may-care attitude toward defensive rebounding is forcing many teams to scrap their game plans and simply get up the best shots they can conceive while crashing the offensive boards like madmen.

Toronto ranks 10^th in the league in offensive rebounding percentage, but they may need to avoid playing at their moderately low pace and chewing up so much clock trying to settle into the plays they want. As Boston, who already plays a frenetic pace, figured out, the Raptors may need time for extra possessions later on in the game.

The Hawks can subvert any big Toronto runs by sealing off Raptor bigs from the glass, avoiding desperate fouls, and winning the battles for loose balls whenever the Raptors find themselves running broken plays.

As shown by the continued salivation over Cleveland and Chicago, Pundit World remains alligator-armed over embracing tonight’s game between the current top-two seeds as an Eastern Conference Finals preview. Atlanta last reached a conference (then, the Western Division) finals in 1970, while Toronto has never been there. But a strong, victorious effort by either club tonight can go a long way toward making the case.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

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[bobrathbun4pres]

Gonna be an interesting game again tonight.  I'll most likely have to watch the replay at 11 but can't wait for it still.

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Back to it!

[atlhawks1]

let me see. pero Antić:

 

1. hoist brick that hits NOTHING.........check

 

2. bad pass that leads to a steal........check

[AtLaS]

let me see. pero Antić:

 

1. hoist brick that hits NOTHING.........check

 

2. bad pass that leads to a steal........check

 

There is no way Payne was worse than Pero.  None.

[atlhawks1]

 " he bricks it "  lmao

 

another pero brick.......

There is no way Payne was worse than Pero.  None.

 

exactly........lmao

[benhillboy]

Baze is a scrub beast. That block on Lou was half scouting, half ridiculous athleticism. Bud is gonna tear into them for giving up 26, it'll be 20 or less in the 2nd.

Edited February 21, 2015 by benhillboy

[Dnice]

This is gonna. be an ugly game another turnover..too much rest?

[Jody23]

Not a good first half.

[ATLHawks3]

We're playing good defense, the only thing is we aren't hitting shots. We gotta pick it up at that end in the second half, which means easier buckets for Horford, Teague, and Korver.

[Dnice]

Hawks ain't looking good.

[jrok23]

Good Lord the hawks can't hit a shot. And it's looking like 0-2 without payne.

[atlhawks1]

pero for the brick attempt at a layup that gets taken from him........ THIS is what i posted in the trade section. THIS is why i said the hawks are feeling themselves thinking they gonna jump shoot their way to a championship. THIS is why i said they need balance on offense by having a interior game and shouldve went after a big that can operate in the middle and rebound. i said it in the trade section and im quoting myself:

 

" exactly. his scrub play ALLOWED indiana to stay in that series. you can ignore it all day, but the hawks are a JUMP SHOOTING team. for the last two years, anytime they have gotten into trouble its because their jumpers werent falling. this means that if they cant hold the paint down and rebound and block shots, etc. they lose. so, if you GONNA GO WITH A CENTER THAT SPREADS THE FLOOR, he better have a higher shooting percentage than pero. i rather the hawks have some balance, somebody who can hit the boards and REALLY do that dirty work they need. teams have figured atlanta out, which is why they have lost what is it, 3 or 4 of their last six. to beat atlanta, you dont chase them around on defense, you let them shoot the jumpers and defend the paint and work the boards on offense. thats how memphis beat them. "

Edited February 21, 2015 by atlbenz

[capstone21]

Worst they have played all year ...

So sloppy ... I am blown away by all the bad passes ...

Crap, they can't even get past mid court ...

Already had to turn the game off and there is still 2 minutes left in the third

If I was at that game I would want my money back

[Jody23]

I'll get this out of the way early...on to the next one. By the way, Muscala needs to play because Pero simply can't.

[dalamchops]

reminds me of the Bucks game... here's to another 19 straight.

[PapaWillie]

reminds me of the Bucks game... here's to another 19 straight.

I hope you're right.  The last (well almost now) 5 quarters have sucked beyond reason (going back to the 4th against Boston).  The term "live by the 3, die by the 3" has never hit home harder.  I know it's one of those nights, but usually there are better adjustments.

[Carmine]

Good thing I decided not to watch when I got home and saw the score at halftime.

[PapaWillie]

Suck City tonight.  February ain't doing too well...

[LadyLawBird]

One to the chin tonight.......welp on to the next one.     GO HAWKS!!!!