Hawks turn to video - again - to fix defensive woes

[Bonkers]

The bolded. That's what i was thinking. The Hawks stuck to just one coverage since the all star break

The Hawks held another extended video session Monday.

Unlike the fiery early-season session, that led to the team winning 35 of its next 38 games after a 5-5 start, this one wasn’t all heated words from coach Mike Budenholzer. Instead, it was a give-and-take discussion as the Hawks look to return to the defensive form that has been the hallmark of their record-breaking season.

“I think we have (lost a bit of edge),” Paul Millsap said. “We were on such a hot streak that a lot of things were overshadowed, things that we weren’t good at but we were still finding ways to win games. Now, it’s coming back to haunt us. We’ve got to get back to what we do. Numbers-wise, we played good through that stretch. Numbers-wise since the All-Star break we haven’t been that great.”

Curtis Compton

Hawks’ Kyle Korver (from left), Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Dennis Schröder and Pero Antić sit on the bench in the final minutes of a 114-95 loss to the Spurs Sunday in Atlanta. Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com

Indeed.

The Hawks are 10-6 since the All-Star break, including a six-game win streak. They are on a season-long three-game losing skid, which included blowout losses to the Warriors and Spurs and a blown second-half lead to the Thunder. Since the All-Star break the Hawks are allowing the opposition 99.3 points per game with seven 100-plus point games. Over the past three losses, the average points allowed has skyrocketed to 117 and teams are shooting over 53 percent from the field.

“I think coaches wish there was more feedback in a perfect world,” Budenholzer said. “Players, even though they have thoughts, they may tend to keep them to themselves. In a general sense, a lot of film sessions are the coach speaking a lot more. Today … it was a better, deeper understanding of some things that we need to do better and all of us being on the same page. All of us asking a question and saying ‘What the heck?’ But ‘What the heck?’ in a good way.

Photos: Hawks lose to Spurs

“Ultimately the better they understand it, it becomes theirs. You are always going to have more success like that.”

The concern is that there a just 12 games remaining in the regular season. This is not the time of year for a slump. Not with at No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference still on the line and the postseason rapidly approaching.

“Coach was allowing us as players to give him feedback of what we like to do, what we think works,” DeMarre Carroll said. “He was giving us feedback. The film don’t lie. There were a lot of things that we were doing early in the season that we aren’t doing right now.”

Much of the discussion involved the defensive coverages between the guards and the post players. If the guards get switching help from the big men, they might get caught have to defend the opposition’s big men. For example, Jeff Teague got caught several times having to guard the Spurs’ Tiago Splitter after a switch in Sunday’s 114-95 loss. If the post players aren’t going to switch as much, the guards need to be better at the point of attack. These are a few of the nuances to the Hawks defensive coverages that need to be ironed out.

“It was collectively a good talk,” Carroll said. “We are going to need different defensive coverages going into the playoffs. You can’t stick with one. We’ve been sticking to one ever since the All-Star break has been over. Now, we want to throw out a couple of different schemes. It will be good for us.”

Budenholzer and players readily admitted Monday that there has been slippage in the defense since the All-Star break. They insisted fatigue has not an issue and that some adversity now will help come the postseason.

The Hawks (53-17) remain with a magic number of three to clinch the best record in the Eastern Conference and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They Hawks are returning to health. Kyle Korver is back after missing three games with a broken nose. Thabo Sefolosha is nearly recovered from a calf strain that has cost him the past 23 games. Mike Scott is 12 days into a revised timetable to miss two to four weeks with a strained toe.

“We went through a tough stretch playing in some tough games, I think it builds our character,” Elton Brand said. “You win 19 in a row and you are riding a high horse and you can never lose again. To be humbled a little bit makes you pay more attention to detail and get back to our habits that had us winning.”

 

 

[Plainview1981]

You could see the slippage in play right before the winning streak started to end. The defense started slipping before the offense did. You could also tell by the body language and such... As angry as I get at the level of play, it's to be expected that the team would grow overconfident. 

 

It remains to be seen if this is all talk or they will actually do something about it.

[Guest]

The defensive slippage occured when Thabo got injured.

Thabo could guard PGs, SGs and SFs effectively.

[Spursfanpeacemaker]

Passive teague needs to go back to Agressive teague. Inconsistent Bawse needs to go back to consistent Bawse!

Edited March 24, 2015 by Spursfanpeacemaker

[RedDawg#8]

Again its all about the point of attack on the ball defense. Ive seen far more times of Dennis or Korver getting switched on to bigs when they really didnt have to. Our guys trust each other but they have to step it up individually right now. San Antonio wasnt killing us inside because their bigs were over powering Paul and Al, no they were switched and guys tried to over compensate to help out the mismatch. That or our wings tried to double too aggresively and Duncan was finding wide open shooters and cutters. If everyone takes it upon themselves to defend their guy and we help /switch a lot less we will get right back to where we were. Its funny but it appears that we are rebounding and blocking shots a lot more as of late but we are terrible defensively when earlier in the year it was the opposite. Id rather have an elite defense than good rebounding. Half court offense and defense is why we were better than every other team. Lets get that back

[DS17Fanboy]

Huh? Ive seen Al and Sap get scored on in all these paint situations. Dennis was busy keeping Mills, Parker, McCollum out of the game.

 

And no, it wasnt "overpowering", just nifty play by bigs who can, against bigs who have deficiencies on individual defense.

[RedDawg#8]

Well agree or disagree it still boils down to defending your man.

[DS17Fanboy]

Hawks interior defense is all about collapsing. Its a hard thing to do right, but we have been good at that for the most part. Teams like SA and in the playoffs that might not be sufficient though as they are good at milking a collapsing defense. Man to man interior defense is a destinct weakness with this personel, as much as perimeter team defense our destinct strength. We either keep a SA out of the paint without collapsing to much, or we get someone which makes a SA less eager to get in there.

[RedDawg#8]

To me Paul has always been an excellent post defender and when we went on our run Al stepped it up tremendously inside. Couple that with Teague becoming almost an elite defender after struggling his whole career and the proof is in the pudding. We have the talent to get it done again its been a focus thing lately.

[capstone21]

We have been going through some lapses lately.

 

Its good to stop take a look and things and try to fix it.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

The Hawks turned down for what? Fatigue?

[benhillboy]

Again its all about the point of attack on the ball defense. Ive seen far more times of Dennis or Korver getting switched on to bigs when they really didnt have to. Our guys trust each other but they have to step it up individually right now. San Antonio wasnt killing us inside because their bigs were over powering Paul and Al, no they were switched and guys tried to over compensate to help out the mismatch. That or our wings tried to double too aggresively and Duncan was finding wide open shooters and cutters. If everyone takes it upon themselves to defend their guy and we help /switch a lot less we will get right back to where we were. Its funny but it appears that we are rebounding and blocking shots a lot more as of late but we are terrible defensively when earlier in the year it was the opposite. Id rather have an elite defense than good rebounding. Half court offense and defense is why we were better than every other team. Lets get that back

Yeah, a lot of he times when Bud gets on their defense in a timeout, the result is just more active hands and lessening the space of their man.

We simply haven't been "getting up in our guys" as much as we're used to seeing. Just as the defense took a precipitous dip when Thabo went down, a slow but sure climb back to where we were defensively will ensue when he's back.

This team often is as strong as its weakest link. I saw an SB article calling out Jeff as our clear weakest link in this slide.

Edited March 24, 2015 by benhillboy

[HawkItus]

It also hurts(helps) that we have played 4 of the hottest teams during the last six games.

[Gray Mule]

Sleepwalking defense.

 

I've said it before.  This team can't win without solid defense.  Our players

have been out of time.  You guys ever try to drive a vehicle when it was out

of time?  It doesn't rev up properly and has no power.

 

Thing is, if you know what the problem is, your mechanic can easily reset

the timing on your engine and it will purr again.

 

If the Hawks, after watching film, knows what the problem is, chances are

good that the players, along with Bud and his coaching staff, can correct

the problems and get this team back on track.

 

It's great, really, that this has happened right now as the team has the time

to work on the problem and get it corrected before playoff time gets here.

 

Ye, we've been bad.  Yes, we now know where the problem is and what must

be done to correct it. 

 

[DrReality]

There is still time to address the issues that are a problem. It may be good timing to get us back on track.  I trust Bud.

[hawkman]

I think it's fatigue. Defense is the first thing to go when you're tired and this team has to be PERFECT on the defensive end to win against good teams.