Pacers at Atlanta Hawks: Attitude and Effort
So today we should find out if what happened at Philly on Friday was just a slip-up or a sign that the Hawks’ attitude and focus are indeed slipping. The Pacers probably don’t have the same athletic talent as the Sixers but they are playing better lately. They’ve got a hard-nosed attitude and a coach with a disdain for tanking. They are coming to play.
Will the Hawks match their intensity or will they figure their talent and homecourt will carry them? Lately I can tell Woody is weary of being the voice asking those kind of questions and looking for the answers.
“I am getting tired,” he said. “After a while, you have got to start figuring things out yourselves, man. We’ve got enough games under our belt. If we win 50-plus games we’ve made a step in the right direction but there is another level.”
Woody is ultimately responsible for the performance of the team. His plans and strategies are fair game for criticism. But he can only do so much when it comes to motivating and preparing his players. The rest is up to them.
It’s a topic I should have touched on more back when I blogged about how what you see on the court Woody isn’t always what Woody wants. Some might take that to mean Woody isn’t getting through to the players but, come on, these guys are pros. They make the big money. You’ve been watching too many cliched sports movies if you think it’s up to Woody to give a rousing speech that inspires his guys to do their jobs.
The NBA is a players’ league. When the Hawks sleepwalked their way through that loss at Philly and then admitted it, that’s on them. To hear Al say it was “unacceptable” is good. It’s cool when J.J. calls out the team for lacking focus. The Hawks are saying the right things and now they’ve got to put action behind those words no matter their opponent.
“That’s where we’ve got to learn,” Woody said. “The other night is a prime example of a team playing for nothing and we thought we were going to show up and win. You’ve got to go out and earn your win.”
MC
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234 comments Add your comment
Najeh Davenpoop
March 28th, 2010
5:37 pm
5 minutes left… 16 point lead… time to empty the bench.
Sleepy
March 28th, 2010
5:37 pm
Keep this up and this game will be a nice boost to our opp. fg% and opp ppg stats LOL
Hawk n the Ham
March 28th, 2010
5:39 pm
How deadly is our game when we have an aggresive point guard on the floor (Jamal)??
O'Brien
March 28th, 2010
5:40 pm
northcyde,
If JJ is hot, I want him to keep shooting. if Mario West is hot, I say give him the ball.
But I agree that some people on this blog are overly critical of JJ (although hw did just take 2 bad shots…airballed both 3s lol).
Hawk n the Ham
March 28th, 2010
5:41 pm
I hope the Nuggets take care of Orlando tonight.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
5:42 pm
And of course, the better the Hawks play this half, the less comments you see.
LOL . . . it’s funny to me. And so predictable.
Blast
March 28th, 2010
5:45 pm
Can we get win #48 on Wednesday? LA vulnerable on the road.
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
5:45 pm
WTF is Teague doing? Either get in the lane and shoot, or get in thet lane and dish out. Don’t wast 2 0 seconds hovering around the 3 pt line
Najeh Davenpoop
March 28th, 2010
5:48 pm
Did I just see Solo take a 3?
Sleepy
March 28th, 2010
5:49 pm
Cmon Woody with the gimmick lineups
Zaza
Joe smith
Moe evans
Crawford
Jt0
and then you have them run there offensive sets just as you normally would . Does the playoffs not start in 2 weeks ?
Najeh Davenpoop
March 28th, 2010
5:50 pm
Good to see the Hawks win comfortably despite playing well below their best. Defense and rebounding carried them to victory today. Nice win, and now they get three days’ rest before the game against LA on Wednesday.
As for tonight, go Spurs.
MObMO
March 28th, 2010
5:52 pm
Smoove -10 +/- for the game. lol.
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
5:52 pm
Why do people want the Spurs to win?
Do you people want to play Orlando in the 2nd round? I certainly don’t
Sleepy
March 28th, 2010
5:59 pm
You are assuming Orlando gets to the second rd JeJe
You want to get the highest seed you can period and be playing your best ball period its not like we are facing MJ and the 72 win bulls team or something.
Also considering Orlando is in our division they are who we need to be measuring our teams improvement against . I would like to win the division not just avoid Orlando and give it to them every year either so we need to go through them not around if we plan on ever becoming the best team in our division. .
Najeh Davenpoop
March 28th, 2010
6:00 pm
“Do you people want to play Orlando in the 2nd round? I certainly don’t”
Would you rather play against the best team in the league with the best player in the league and the most size in the league? I certainly wouldn’t.
Orlando and Cleveland are both probably too talented for the Hawks to beat in a 7-game series, but they are a lot more likely to take Orlando to 7 games than Cleveland.
VenomSpitter
March 28th, 2010
6:01 pm
I just went to eat somethin. Anything interestin happen.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
6:04 pm
We have a much better shot at beating Orlando in a playoff series, than we do Cleveland. No way I want to play the best player in the league in the 2nd round, with the refs and the league office behind him. I’d much rather take my chances with a less marquee of a team like Orlando.
Also, with the way Orlando lives and dies by the 3, they’ll be more likely to shoot themselves out of a game. With Lebron, when he starts to take over, the refs will make sure he has every opportunity to do so.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
6:05 pm
LOL @ Venom .. . of course you did man. LMAO . . you guys are hilarious. Cant stand to give the team props to save your lives.
Patrick
March 28th, 2010
6:16 pm
I think Jamal might have the best “Casual fan perception of ability and productivity” to “Actual ability and productivity” ratio of any player in the league. You would think, based on the comments on this thread, he was some sort of unstoppable scoring machine. 6-15 from the floor, 17 points on 16 attempts (including the 2 free throws as an attempt). This is pretty standard operation procedure. If he’s your first dude off the bench, that’s fine, but acting like he’s anywhere near Joe is absurd.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
6:24 pm
Patrick . . . glad you pointed that out, because I wasn’t going to say anything about that. No one is going to mention at all that Crawford went 2 – 11 FG in the 2nd half, but will be quick to mention the 2 air balls by JJ.
But I’ll even give Crawford props, because he dropped 6 assists in that 2nd half ( 5 to Horford and Smoove ). That was a big reason why we pulled away.
But all of the Crawford praise, even when he plays bad in stretches, is simply a symptom of the JJ hate that goes on amongst this fan base. It’s just funny that when Crawford is shooting bad and taking obvious bad shots, that nothing is said.
But let JJ or Marvin or Bibby miss just one shot, you’ll see 5 comments about each shot.
LOL . . . it is what it is.
kwooden1
March 28th, 2010
6:31 pm
Didn’t see the game, but the stats against Granger looked good. Looks like the HAWKS played great defense in the 3rd quarter to take care of business. The next two games against the Lakers and Cleveland should be a good test, but really I think it will be a good test for the bench. I want to see more minutes for Joe Smith and Collins. It sounds like Teague is really cementing his first half minutes, which is great, but this is the time that the other guys on the bench need to get ready for the Playoffs. With Collins and Morris we have enough big bodies to deal with Cleveland or Orlando, but those guys have to be ready. If they’re not ready to play then the starters are going to have to play more minutes, which will make them less effective.
Great Win!
GO HAWKS!!
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
6:38 pm
Kwooden . . thats nice to say in theory. But isn’t it better that Zaza is ready for the playoffs, than Morris or Collins? Zaza is the guy that we need playing better, not our two end of the bench centers. No way they’ll play more than spot minutes at best in the playoffs, if they even play at all.
cp
March 28th, 2010
6:41 pm
Nice win but the first unit really has to start coming out with better intensity at the start of games. The second unit played well but I would have liked to see Teague and Joe Smith play a little more in the second half. I don’t know what it is with Woody but when Teague actually plays well in the fist half he barely plays in the second half unless you count when the game is decided and the bench is emptied.Good win but its still some things they need to iron out before the start of the playoffs.
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
6:46 pm
“We have a much better shot at beating Orlando in a playoff series, than we do Cleveland. No way I want to play the best player in the league in the 2nd round, with the refs and the league office behind him. I’d much rather take my chances with a less marquee of a team like Orlando.”
Yes — the Cavs’ loss to the Magic in 6 games last year’s playoffs sure seems to indicate this
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
6:47 pm
FIRE WOODY
Big Ray
March 28th, 2010
7:12 pm
Good win by the Hawks, highlighted by nice performances from the frontcourt tandem of Horford and Smith. Great work by the second unit in terms of energy and defense.
Good ball movement by the guards, as Bibby, Jamal, and JJ combine for 18 assists.
Nice to see us get win # 47 with 9 games remaining in the regular season. How many more will we win?
Nice to see Marvin and Joe “D” Granger up this time around. I’m still disappointed in Josh Smith (and whoever else happened to be guarding Murphy) letting Troy Murphy have his way.
I hope JJ gets his groove back before the playoffs. Wait, was that an overly critical comment?
I wonder if ever occurred to some people that when the Hawks win, people post LESS because maybe they’re enjoying actually watching the game MORE right then?
The only thing more predictable and ironic than people posting the same old stuff is people who come on the blog and post the same old stuff ……… about those same old people.
Life is fun…blogging is too…
Big Ray
March 28th, 2010
7:28 pm
“I think Jamal might have the best “Casual fan perception of ability and productivity” to “Actual ability and productivity” ratio of any player in the league. You would think, based on the comments on this thread, he was some sort of unstoppable scoring machine. 6-15 from the floor, 17 points on 16 attempts (including the 2 free throws as an attempt). This is pretty standard operation procedure. If he’s your first dude off the bench, that’s fine, but acting like he’s anywhere near Joe is absurd.”
I wonder why it is that we can’t enjoy the fact that we have a sixth man who is a lot better than Flip Murray? I find it very interesting how much other players are suddenly getting “diminished” (and so are the fans who are appreciating them) now that they’re stepping up.
I hope Joe doesn’t feel that way. Some of his fans sure do.
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
7:28 pm
HOW DO TEAGUE AND JOE SMITH PLAY SOLID IN 1ST HALF BUT ARE NO WHERE TO BE SEEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 4TH? WOODSON HAS NO TRUST IN HIS BENCH IN THE 2ND HALF. HE CRAMS ALL THE STARTERS’ MINUTES IN THE 2ND HALF BECAUSE ALL HE CARES ABOUT IS REGULAR SEASON RECORD AND BURNING OUT THE STARTERS TO GET HIS G0DD@MN 50 WINS
runTelldat
March 28th, 2010
7:32 pm
joe – 5/13 0-4 3 pointers
jamal – 6/15 3-7 3 pointers and no airballs
GET OFF JOE PELVIS
JeJe
March 28th, 2010
7:33 pm
Marvin and Bibby with 12 combined points. Good job, starters! You guys are such great assets to this team!
I guess that’s what you get from Marvin, who hates watching basketball
topdog34
March 28th, 2010
7:39 pm
Al, Joe & Josh prove that Billy Knight was right
Saint Richt
March 28th, 2010
7:50 pm
Fire Mike Woodson…..it’s a manager’s job to MOTIVATE his team and PREPARE them to play.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
8:57 pm
I wonder why it is that we can’t enjoy the fact that we have a sixth man who is a lot better than Flip Murray? I find it very interesting how much other players are suddenly getting “diminished” (and so are the fans who are appreciating them) now that they’re stepping up.
I hope Joe doesn’t feel that way. Some of his fans sure do.
Who is getting diminished other than the captain of the team . . . who is, by the way, having his best season in 3 years?
Everybody else who is getting love on the Hawks, deserve it. Horford deserves it. Smoove deserves it. Crawford deserves it. None of the “so-called” JJ supporters go out of their way on a nightly basis to diss those other guys for every single mistake that they make.
JJ has definitely struggled with his shot since sitting out those 2 games to rest his Achilles, but the “JJ hate” has been continuous from the moment he didn’t sign the 4yr – 60 million dollar extension. Just keep it real on this subject.
northcyde
March 28th, 2010
8:57 pm
I mean damn . .. even the AJC sportswriters have went at that dude this year. LOL