Hawks work to put lopsided loss behind them - AJC

[RandomFan]

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/hawks-work-to-put-lopsided-loss-behind-them/nkGRj/

 

4:27 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015

 

The Hawks held a video session Saturday as a final postmortem of their lopsided home loss to the Raptors the previous evening.

 

There were enough ugly details to go around from the 105-80 defeat that snapped a 12-game home win streak.

 

Coach Mike Budenholzer was asked what the video session showed in particular.

 

“That we weren’t good,” he said.

 

There were plenty of issues. The Hawks:

• Shot a season-worst 33 percent (29-of-88) from the field.
• Shot a miserable 21.1 percent (8-of-38) from 3-point range.
• Committed a season-high-tying 23 turnovers and allowed a season-high 15 steals.
• Trailed by as many as 35 points.

“We just weren’t good,” Budenholzer said. “You can make up all kinds of excuses, come up with reasons, but at the end of the day we weren’t good defensively. We weren’t good in a lot of ways.”

 

The Hawks returned with the lackluster effort after not having played for eight days because of the NBA All-Star break. Fourth-fifths of the starting lineup, and the coaching staff, were part of a whirlwind weekend in New York that meant little rest. Other members of the team vacationed in tropical locales.

 

However, it’s worth noting that the Hawks have lost four of their past seven games after winning 33 of 35 games that included a 19-game win streak. They blew an 18-point lead to the Celtics and lost in the final second of the last game before the All-Star break. The Hawks have lost two consecutive games, something they’ve done only twice this season.

 

Paul Millsap said there are issues — especially on defense — that have become a problem of late.

“It’s been for a while,” Millsap said. “Things have lingered around, things we’ve got to tighten up on. It’s really just tightening up a lot of things that made us successful and we’ve gotten away from.

 

“The last seven have not been up to our standards. Not up to what we are capable of doing. It’s about us getting back to playing close attention to detail and the basics.”

 

Millsap said the film session was beneficial in showing those details that need to be fixed.

 

The Eastern Conference-leading Hawks (43-12) need to move on, as they play at the Bucks on Sunday afternoon. The teams have split the two games played this season, with each winning on the other’s home court. The Bucks won by 30 points Dec. 26. The next night, the Hawks won by five points despite shooting 36 percent, the season-worst before Friday’s game against the Raptors. The Bucks (31-23) are sixth in the East and have won four consecutive.

 

The Bucks were active at the trade deadline. They dealt Brandon Knight and Kendall Marshall to the Suns and acquired Michael Carter-Williams from the 76ers and Tyler Ennis and Miles Plumlee from the Suns. Carter-Williams is listed as doubtful with a right foot strain. The Bucks will also play without Larry Sanders (personal).

 

Budenholzer said the Bucks present problems because of the number of lineups they can use during the course of a game.

 

“They’ve given us problems,” Budenholzer said. “I think (coach) Jason Kidd has done a great job throwing unique lineups. You have to be on your toes and prepare for different things. … We are going to have to play well and be mentally sharp for whatever it is they are doing. Stay within our normal things, but you have to be prepared and aware of what they are doing.”

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Seems like similar talk that happened right after the Bucks and Lakers losses that led to us going on a 33-2 stretch. They've lost focus and started listening to everyone tell them how good they are, and forgot the attention to detail and hard work during the games it took to make them that way. These next 2 weeks will go a long way towards determining if they simply overachieved or if they can find that groove again. My money is on them being able to find that groove again.

[OldTimeHawk]

only disheartening thing I see is that the Hawks stood pat instead of trying to add another element ( rebounding perhaps ???) to the team.  That basically means Bud has to figure out a way to get the team to contnue to scrap and do the dirty work night in and night out.  Its a very long season and all teams have ups and downs, but this team has to simply play hard every night or else we get a result like the Toronto  game.

 

 Maybe what we need is a few games where we are playing lesser teams and shake the lineup  and get  the bench a few starts and try to preserve our starters  a little more here and there. But I really feel like when its time to turnit on we will.

[Plainview1981]

Paul Millsap said there are issues — especially on defense — that have become a problem of late.

“It’s been for a while,” Millsap said. “Things have lingered around, things we’ve got to tighten up on. It’s really just tightening up a lot of things that made us successful and we’ve gotten away from.

 

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That's what I've been saying for 3 weeks.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Hotlanta1981

[JETSET]

Paul Millsap said there are issues — especially on defense — that have become a problem of late.

“It’s been for a while,” Millsap said. “Things have lingered around, things we’ve got to tighten up on. It’s really just tightening up a lot of things that made us successful and we’ve gotten away from.

[s

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That's what I've been saying for 3 weeks.

I think it can be attributed to dmc and thabo missing time. Dmc missed a couple games and then thabo went down. Having both available makes a huge difference.

[Plainview1981]

I think it can be attributed to dmc and thabo missing time. Dmc missed a couple games and then thabo went down. Having both available makes a huge difference.

 

I think the defense was slipping before Thabo went out. Obviously, he helps on the defensive end, but he isn't be start and the finish of it.

 

I think it's a combo of things:

 

-The team got overconfident.

-The team was due for a slump.

-Takes have adjusted to the Hawks play/taking them more seriously as a threat.

-The team coming back down to earth a bit.

-Thabo being out.

-The all star break approaching.

-The team believing the hype. Especially after the all star selections.

-The team got satisfied. 

 

I think they hit bottom against Toronto.... Not that I expect a 19 (or even another 10 game) game winning streak, but that Toronto game was about as bad as they can play.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Hotlanta1981

[RandomFan]

Or it could be as simple as what Millsap said after the Bucks win today:

 

Paul Millsap

On better defense: “Man, a complete turnaround. A lot better than the past few games. The aggression was there. The discipline was there.”

On defensive effort: “It’s a little bit more than effort. The effort is there most of the time. The discipline is not always there. Doing what we do. The rotations. We stayed disciplined in that.”

 

It's all about them remaining disciplined and doing what they are supposed to keep doing. And they got away from that, for various reasons.

[benhillboy]

Winning fixes all problems. It's very possible for 3 teams chasing us to suffer another loss before we play again Wednesday, then GS is gonna dust off Cleveland and Toronto for us.

[RandomFan]

I'm looking forward to that CLE-GSW game. We all know CLE is playing better, but that game will give us a better idea just how much better they have gotten. Pretty sure that is a game both teams will be up for.

[JETSET]

I think the defense was slipping before Thabo went out. Obviously, he helps on the defensive end, but he isn't be start and the finish of it.

 

I think it's a combo of things:

 

-The team got overconfident.

-The team was due for a slump.

-Takes have adjusted to the Hawks play/taking them more seriously as a threat.

-The team coming back down to earth a bit.

-Thabo being out.

-The all star break approaching.

-The team believing the hype. Especially after the all star selections.

-The team got satisfied. 

 

I think they hit bottom against Toronto.... Not that I expect a 19 (or even another 10 game) game winning streak, but that Toronto game was about as bad as they can play.

While I agree with most of this, I'm confident that these two reasons are the main cause.

 

-DMC and Thabo missing time. 

 

-Coasting against bad teams

 

The first signs of a 'worse than before' defense showed on 1/25 vs Minny.  The Hawks gave up 100 to Minny and then 102 to Brooklyn in the next game.  They won both games by double digits and they seemed to just go through the motions and do enough to get the win.  Demarre suffers an injury in the Brooklyn game and misses the next 2 vs Portland and Philly.  Thabo gets hurt 2 minutes in to the Portland game and has been out since.

 

 

Now that I look at it more, our defense has only cost us 1 game in this stretch.  New Orleans abused us and scored 115.  In the other losses, Memphis scored 94, Boston scored 89 and Toronto scored 105 to our 80.  I say the offense gets the blame for Toronto since we had 22 turnovers.