Atlanta Hawks: Do They Still Believe?
ORLANDO–It says something about how badly the Hawks got thrashed in Game 1 that they already are taking questions about their state of mind.
Also telling: The Hawks, emboldened against their critics after rallying to beat Milwaukee, realize these already are relevant questions against Orlando.
It was just one game, but it was an embarrassment.
“Yeah, it is,” J.J. said at practice today. “But it happens. Put it behind us and move on.”
They’ll get that chance tomorrow in Game 2. Until then, there are those questions.
Do they believe they can beat the Magic in a playoff series when they hardly ever beat them anymore? Can they win at Amway Arena when they keep getting blasted there and aren’t a good road playoff team to begin with? Do they really trust that they have the people and the plan to pull this off?
“I think we can beat them,” J.J said. “We just have to be poised and take our time on both ends of the court.”
“You look at it as a fluke,” Jamal said.
But how can that be when they’ve lost by more than 30 points three of their last four times here? When the Magic has won 7 of their last 8 games against the Hawks? When the Hawks’ offense so often stalls and the defense couldn’t slow the Magic’s inside or outside game?
“If it was a 15-point win, we can kind of be like, ‘Wow, they just beat us,’” Jamal said. “But 40-something points? They are not 40-something points better than us.”
So a day after taking the largest L in the franchise’s Atlanta history, the Hawks went back to work. Before they could even begin to consider their considerable problems with tactics and planning, the Hawks tried to fend off any creeping thoughts about the Magic just being better, period.
The Hawks have to win at Amyway to win this series. Woody said he still thinks they can do both.
“Sure, I do,” Woody said. “Without a doubt I do. But they’ve got to believe, too.”
How does he convince them?
“If we can just be competitive here for four quarters and make it a game, win or lose,” he said. “Make it a game. And then you go home and handle your business at home, which we’ve done. Anything can happen but we can’t just be lopsided like [Game 1].
“And I’ve got to take responsibility for that as the coach. I don’t always put it on the players. As the coach, I’ve got to take full responsibility. I’ve got to get them over the hump for four quarters.”
The Hawks spent a lot of time looking at the first quarter from Game 1, trying to reinforce the idea that if they do follow the plan they can score on the Magic. In that period, the Hawks made 11 of 26 shots with five assists, two turnovers, 16 points in the paint and eight points in transition. They still took a lot of long jump shots [3 of 8] but moved the ball to get open looks and had eight points in transition and 16 in the paint.
And then the second quarter happened. Woody put it on the bench.
“[The Magic] didn’t do anything different,” Woody said. “They just substituted.”
The Hawks didn’t spend too much time looking at those three quarters after the first. Well, really, the 2 1/2 quarters when the Magic was still playing and the Hawks hadn’t yet officially surrendered.
Guess they figured it’s probably better for their collective psyche to look more at the good from the first period than all that bad that came later.
“It was good for us to look at the first quarter and see some of the positive things that we did do early,” Joe said. “And that the gameplan does work as long as you stick to it. In the second quarter, we got out of the game plan, started forcing a lot of things offensively. And defensively we just collapsed.”
Woody thought the Hawks did a pretty good job against Dwight Howard. The Hawks wanted to limit his dunks but he got four of his eight field goals that way.
Howard went baseline for two dunks, one past Zaza and another past Al. He caught a lob dunk when Bibby didn’t chase the ballhander on a pick-and-roll and forced Al to help off Dwight. Dwight got yet another dunk when Pietrus easily blew past Bibby and got in middle of the lane to bounce a pass to Dwight on the baseline.
Woody said Howard’s baseline and pick-and-roll dunks “should never happen.” The Hawks wanted to deny Howard the ball but Woody said all the foul calls held them back.
“They called it a little close,” he said. “There were a couple of times where I thought Jason didn’t get a chance to defend him before the whistle blew. That is going to happen. We’ve just got keep banging him.”
Woody said he probably will activate Randolph Morris, who was out sick for Game 1. But neither Morris nor any of the other centers can do anything about the Hawks’ problems guarding the Magic on the perimeter.
It might be a personnel issue. The Hawks’ weak perimeter defense is a major liability in this series and they don’t have the advantage inside like they did against Milwaukee. The Hawks have Bibby, J.J., Jamal, and Mo chasing VC, Jameer Nelson, Redick, J-Will, Pietrus and Ryan Anderson. For the Hawks there’s an imbalance of numbers and an abundance of bad matchups.
It didn’t help that the Hawks were back to those timid closeouts.
“A couple of times we were too lax for sure,” Jamal said. “We were giving their shooters good, clean, open looks. You have got to run them off the line a little bit. Make them think about putting it down. That can change a person’s [shooting] percentage for sure.”
The Hawks will try to be better at that and all the other things they didn’t do in Game 1. They press on in the face of serious doubts.
It’s true that the Hawks overcame dire straits against Milwaukee but nothing like this. There was always the feeling that if the Hawks played to their potential against Milwaukee they would win the series. Now there are questions about their ability to play to their potential against the Magic and, if they do, if that will be enough to win at Amway Arena.
Even after Game 1, the Hawks say they still believe it can be done.
“It’s a new day,” Jamal said.
MC
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189 comments Add your comment
Tim Tebow's Tears
May 6th, 2010
2:04 pm
Woodson is the worst coach in the NBA
sleepy
May 6th, 2010
2:06 pm
Crawford has played 7 playoff games he has had 4 ok to great games and 3 bad games which everyone should expect some adjustment time as we go from series to series.
What gets lost in all the scuffle is that we have a starting lineup thats been together for 3 years now thats over 300 games together . There is no reason that this team should ever lose the way its losing . When these types of losses occur you have to reevaluate your core . Sure we can focus on the fact that our 6th man has been inconsistent in his first playoff action but the bottomline is the starting 5 is what propels teams to advance if that starting unit is not playing at the top of the game you are going nowhere and if you look back over the season the I would say that the starters as a unit has not been at the top of there games as a unit since well before the all star break.
northcyde
May 6th, 2010
2:18 pm
Najeh Davenpoop
May 6th, 2010
1:08 pm
“There are only 5 players in the league that are asked to do what all JJ does for their team
- Kobe
- Lebron
- Wade
- Brandon Roy
- and Joe Johnson”
Huh? Nash, Paul, Deron Williams, Tim Duncan, and Melo don’t do as much for their teams as Joe?
Are Chris Paul or Deron asked to guard the other teams best offensive guard?
Are Melo and Tim Duncan asked to be the main playmaker for their squads?
Those six guys that I named are asked to do both things.
This is NOT about which guys are better than the other. This is about what their perspective teams are asking their star players to do. Tim Duncan can do it all, but even he isn’t expected to lead the team in scoring on most nights. Not anymore anyway. Melo isn’t asked to be a scorer and a playmaker and a defensive stopper.
Chris Paul was hurt this year, but if you want to add Paul to that list, you can . . because he can do just about everything too.
I’m just saying that guys like Kobe, Lebron, Wade, JJ, Roy, and Evans are asked to do it ALL.
northcyde
May 6th, 2010
2:23 pm
Mystikal
May 6th, 2010
1:12 pm
Northcyde, I agree that it would be great to keep Joe, but don’t know if he would stay here for what he’s actually worth. He is not a max player and maybe he will acknowledge that after these playoffs. But if someone else (Knicks) comes along and throws a bunch of money at him, I’d rather lose him then overpay and handicap the team for the next 5 yrs. Personally, I think we should go after Chris Bosh anyway.
****************
So who are you going to trade in order to get Chris Bosh? With the tax situation in Canada, I’d doubt that JJ would agree to a sign in trade to Toronto for Bosh. So who do you trade? Smoove? Horford? Will they take Crawford?
People need to understand that we just can’t go out and get a player, because we don’t have the cap room ( due to the Crawford trade ). Even if JJ leaves, we only have the MLE to sign somebody.
And congrats to JOE JOHNSON . . . for making 3rd Team All-NBA
Just seen on NBA.com
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
2:25 pm
MIKE WOODSON SAID TONIGHT IS WIN OR LOSE
THERE IS NO SENSE OF URGENCY ON THIS TEAM. THEY THINK THE GAME 2 NIGHTS AGO WAS A FLUKE.
MAGIC WILL BE UP 18 AT SOME POINT IN THE 2ND QTR JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER CAVS/MAGIC GAME WE’VE SEEN THE LAST 2 YEARS
northcyde
May 6th, 2010
2:27 pm
Congrats again JJ
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/05/06/all.nba/?ls=iref:nbahpt1
lewis
May 6th, 2010
2:29 pm
joe’s the 15th best player in the nba
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
2:34 pm
FIRE MIKE WOODSON
Padded Cell Urban
May 6th, 2010
2:38 pm
I will cry if Woody is fired. Has anyone see T-Boy? I take Thursdays off to stay with family except for the Thursdays that come after Wednesdays.
Nacho
May 6th, 2010
2:40 pm
Why did the NBA allow the Suns to become a political toy last night? Strange.
Fundamentals
May 6th, 2010
2:40 pm
northcyde
It’s obvious folks are already looking to the offseason. I don’t see any big trades or signings unless Joe leaves. If he stays we’ll most likely shed collins, Joe Smith, Mo Evans, Randolph Morris and Mario West. The real question is who can we sign? We don’t have the $$ to look for marquee guys. We need to find young talent that has been overlooked. We need to pull a San Antonio where we find rising gems. I know this has never been our strong suit, but it’s our only chance for continued success.
Problem with Woodson is he doesn’t take chances on young or new players. We need a coach focussed on developing our entire team for playoff strength.
It’s obvious Woody is holding up his 53 wins. Sadly he could’ve gotten close to 65 and COY if he really maximized his potential.
bigdave
May 6th, 2010
2:40 pm
CONGRATS JOE!!!!!!!!!
BusterBrown
May 6th, 2010
2:52 pm
I may be the only Hawks fan who believes the Hawks will beat the Magic easily in the series. The only way it happens though is that the Hawks win tonights game in Orlando. The Hawks cannot afford to go down 2-0 to the Orlando Magic. Orlando is too good a team to spot them a 2-0 lead in any series. The Hawks can win the series, but they MUST win tonight to WRESTLE AWAY THE HOME COURT ADVANTAGE FROM THE MAGIC. If the Hawks win the game tonight, its a sure bet they will advance to the next round and play the winner of the Cavs/Celtics series. A “W” tonight is an absolute MUST for there to be any more playoff success out of the Hawks.
Chuck Harrison
May 6th, 2010
2:52 pm
Fundamentals
It wasn’t very long ago that the Magic was a destination that players wanted to come to because of the weather and a big payday. Now, because we are doing something as far as winning.
Atlanta is a legit 50+ winner…you would give Cleveland or Boston a run for their money. You have a great city, good climate, a great core of YOUNG players. Today’s NBA head Coach is tomorrows TV Anylist. Players will want to come to Atlanta. Keep your head up high!
Yes, the Magic are not 43 points better than the Hawks. They did seem to self-implode. That’s just one game. It won’t happen again. You should note though that we did beat Boston & Cleveland last year on the way to the finals. (Where we didn’t do well.) This year I believe that we are a better TEAM than last year. If we take the series, it isn’t necessarily because Atlanta isn’t a great team.
If your management don’t freak out too much…you are only getting better next year!
BlueEdwards
May 6th, 2010
3:02 pm
If the Hawks dont advance you can blame the GM Rick Sund for them not advancing. Sund had a golden opportunity during last years offseason to strengthen our team by bringing in a couple of free agents in addition to Jamal Crawford. Jamal is great but has a tendency for his jump shot to suddenly go stale and he plays little or no defense at all. The offseason is when the GM can dramatically improve a ballclub by wheeling and dealing and bringing in the appropriate talent. We could have had the best team in the nba this year because there were players who were available that would have made us the best team in the NBA. Now we have to settle for the third best team in the conference instead. Thats not that far off from the orlandos and clevelands of the world, but we could have won 70 games this year. Oh well, the offseason is coming soon as soon as we get kicked out of the playoffs by the magic. Hopefully this time we wont make the same mistakes again and not get the dramatic changes we need to get. Mark Cuban spent $30 million dollars during the offseason to improve the Mavs just to watch them get stomped by San Antonio. Some owners waste money but some are cheap (like our owners) and refuse to spend the dollars it takes to be an elite team. Those lessons should be well learned so that history wont repeat itself during this offseason. Sund should get credit though for bringing in Jamal Crawford. Jamal cost us practically nothing and he makes us an elite team with a chance to win a title, something the Hawks have never had.
Sam from the Swats
May 6th, 2010
3:02 pm
All I hear is people griping about Joe and Josh and Teague getting playing time. The weakest link is Marvin..always has been, and always will be as long as he is on this team. If we had Joe and Salmons, we would be unstoppable, not Marvin and Salmons. Marvin is making $7.5 million, and Salmons is making $5.5 million. We could have had Salmons in our lineup with JJ, Josh, Horford, Bibby. Now, you’re not such a liability because you have somebody else who can create their own shot and plays decent defense. As long as that clown Marvin is on our team, we will always have these horrible performances. Every NBA team has a good SF except the Hawks. Now, nobody in the league wants that guy and we are stuck watching DUCKBUTT for 4 more years. UNBELIEVABLE!!
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
3:06 pm
“If we can just be competitive here for four quarters and make it a game, win or lose,” he said. “Make it a game. And then you go home and handle your business at home, which we’ve done. Anything can happen, but it can’t just be lopsided like it was [Tuesday] night.”
-Woody
WTF is this MORON talking about?. We LOST to the Bucks at HOME, you dumb@$$. So you don’t even WANT to win tonight, but it’d be nice? Can someone please send this quote to the dumb@$$ ASG or NBA and get the moron FIRED?
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
3:07 pm
HEY WOODSON,
TO WIN THE SERIES WE HAVE TO WIN ON THE ROAD U IDIOT
GOD DAMNIT
jeff
May 6th, 2010
3:07 pm
start Mo and set Marv
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
3:14 pm
THE STOCK MARKET SUCKS TODAY
FIRE WOODY
Reality
May 6th, 2010
3:26 pm
Are you people serious? The Hawks always had problems with the Magic. I know that the Magic don’t get the run like the Cavs and Lakers. The Magic is a very DEEP team. We have 4 guys that can come off the bench and run up 20 points. And if you guys want to run JJ out of town. I’ll take him in a trade with Vince Carter in a heart beat. He fit what the Magic does perfectly.
jeff
May 6th, 2010
3:28 pm
I haven’t seen the Magic run ISO. Are they planning on starting tonight?
Dawg Dominance
May 6th, 2010
3:30 pm
“FIRE BOBBY”
northcyde
May 6th, 2010
3:32 pm
Fundamentals . . . there is no way in hell this team could’ve won 65 games . . I don’t care if you brought back Red Aeurbach from the dead to coach this team. Why do you guys severely overrate our talent like that, in order to diss Woody? To believe that this was close to a 60 win team, is to believe that we have one of the top 10% teams in NBA history.
LOL . .come on now.
How is this team going to win close to 65 games, when we don’t have a superstar player, a great PG, or a good low post scorer . . or even a good bench outside of Crawford?
The ceiling on this team was 55 – 56 wins max. Because even with the games that we blew vs lesser teams, we pulled some games out of our butt to win at the end.
Grandad
May 6th, 2010
3:36 pm
Chuck Harrison: “Today’s NBA head Coach is tomorrows TV Anylist.”
* Wdsn TV analyst – now that’s funny!
Really, can you picture it? I can’t stop laughing!
Grandad
May 6th, 2010
3:38 pm
Chuck Harrison:
Sorry, I wasn’t makin’ fun of your remark, just the thought.
lewis
May 6th, 2010
3:43 pm
http://www.magicbasketball.net/2010/05/06/anatomy-of-efficiency/
MustangSalley
May 6th, 2010
3:45 pm
Fundamentals is right. This Hawks team could have easily been a 65 win team, but the folks who realize that are the ones who are watching the Hawks every chance they get. If you study the Hawks and if you watch the Hawks regularly you would know there were at least 13 games in which the Hawks had HUGE leads in where we blew the leads and LOST. If you add those 13 games right there to our win totals, you are sitting at 66 wins. Most fans dont have a clue that is what happened. There were also another 11 games where we had marginal leads going into the fourth quarter and lost those as well. The leads might not have been as substantial as the other 13, but those 11 games could have been won as well. All in all, there were 24 games where the hawks blew leads in, late in the games and lost, games that they should have won. If the Hawks had operated at 150% efficiency and won 100% of those games, all 24 of them, the Hawks record would have been 77-5, which would have made them the favorite to win the title. Forget about winning the title, this record would have been the best regular season record in NBA history. This reveals to me that Mike Woodsen is certainly on the right track, he still has some things his team has to clean up in order for them to be the dominant team that they are becoming. It wont be long now till the Hawks will the most feared and most complete team the association. It might happen next year.
jeff
May 6th, 2010
3:50 pm
I need what you are smoking.
Balltiyafall
May 6th, 2010
3:59 pm
If anything needs to happen, Mike Bibby needs to be traded. He is not that great of a shooter and takes alot of open looks without nailing the shot. I can think of benchers who would bring more soul to the three point line. ZaZa, has a piss poor attitude and should be traded as well. Josh Smith can not hold a team on his shoulders, you need to be surrounded by well rounded players to be a super team. Joe Johnson is good…when he is on fire, when he is “just a player” he lacks. Atlanta rushes the ball at almost 90% of the possessions, which leaves them with no good looks, a horrible shooting percentage as a team, and loads of turnovers. Crawford needs to have a starting position. They need to utilize him from the start of the game, rather then try to bring them back from slumps and non scoring runs. The bottom line here is Woodson is a good coach, he may not have that “Mike Brown” fire under him after loosing by 43 points, but he is a well rounded coach that has really done a lot for the hawks. So let’s not fire Woodson, just because the players are not listening to him. In all of his press talks, he says “We need to move the ball around more” “We need to stop rushing plays”, etc, etc. You can’t make players do anything, you can just coach them. This team needs to forget about the 43 point loss, and move on with a new vibe. They need to cover not only Dwight Howard, but the three point perimeter. Let’s face it, Orlando is probably one of the best if not the best, 3 point shooting team. You can’t leave a team like this open. You have to come with a different strategy then just double teaming Dwight, because he will find the open man, every time. If they continue to leave Orlando open they will get beat again and again.
O'Brien
May 6th, 2010
4:10 pm
I think this team had a chance to win 58 games, but I can’t see them winning 65.
Congrats to JJ. One of the top 15 players in the League. But yet some guys want to run him off, despite the fact that we wont have the salary cap space necessary to sign some comparable talent.
What we need is a PG to take away some of the offensive load and ball handling from JJ, while being able to guard the opposing PG (again, taking that responsibility from JJ). We also need a system that maximizes JJ’s talents.
To me, JJ is the smallest part of the problem. Regardless of who the coach is, we need JJ more than JJ needs us…
bigdave
May 6th, 2010
4:13 pm
“For the Magic, this is nothing new. The Hawks, on the other hand, dug themselves further into a hole by taking long two’s. ”
In the 2 runs (2nd and 3rd qrt.) that did us in:
“In the span of those two runs, Atlanta attempted six shots from 16-23 feet compared to one for Orlando. For the entire game, the Hawks attempted 26 shots from 16-23 feet compared to 11 for the Magic.”
cp
May 6th, 2010
4:19 pm
I said earlier this season that winning 50 games means absolutely nothing if you stink it up in the playoffs. Yet a lot of the Woody supporters harped on winning 50 games as if they give u trophies and awards for that…..Yea they won 53 games and look absolutely terrible in most of their games so far…
For some reason all Woodrow focuses on is the home games. Its as if this dude does not realize we play on the road too. The Hawks cant play all their games at home but Woodrow does not care. Its all about winning at home and if we win on the road thats cool. That’s terrible leadership from your head coach…
And I’m still baffled by him saying he will play Bibby on Nelson tonight. Nelson is playing great in the playoffs and Woodrows answer to stop him is to put the worst defender we have on him. It is what it is. I’m starting to check for what free agents we can get in here for the cheap next year and what guys in the draft might be available. I have no confidence in this head coach.
Reality
May 6th, 2010
4:24 pm
Like Cavs fans believe there season record can take them to the championship. But like I said, I would trade you Vince Carter for Joe Johnson in a heart beat.
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
4:34 pm
“For some reason all Woodrow focuses on is the home games. Its as if this dude does not realize we play on the road too. ”
LOL! I AGREE.
The guy said tonight is WIN or LOSE. he thinks we will win the series by winning our home games (which won’t happen).
Remember 2 years ago before game 5 (I think) in Boston, Woodson said “let’s go try win this one [on the road]”
LET’S TRY WIN IT?
THIS TEAM HAS NO SENSE OF URGENCY. THE PLAYERS ACT LIKE TUESDAY NIGHT WAS A FLUKE. “THE MAGIC AREN’T 43 POINTS BETTER THAN US.” THEN WHAT ARE THEY ? 25 POINTS BETTER?
JeJe
May 6th, 2010
4:42 pm
THE HAWKS WILL LOSE BY 35 TONIGHT IF WOODY IS COACHING
FIRE WOODY
MustangSalley
May 6th, 2010
5:22 pm
I disagree with ANYONE who says “you’ll never win in the later rounds with Al Horford as your center.” That is nonsense. The person who said that is stoned out on crack. Has that guy or gal seen Al Horford’s improvement this season. Al Horford is like a completely different player than he was last year. Al is so much more polished as a professional, he is confident, dominant and takes over game the same way LaBron and Kobe do late in ballgames. Al Horford is MUCH BETTER OFFENSIVELY than Dwight Howard ever will be. Al Horford is like a “mini” undeveloped WILT CHAMBERLAIN, but has enormous upside potential. By the end of next year Al will be as good as two guys: one who played NBA basketball and one who didnt: #1) Wilt Chamberlain and #2) the Incredible Hulk.
Najeh Davenpoop
May 6th, 2010
5:43 pm
“This is about what their perspective teams are asking their star players to do. ”
In that case I misunderstood. I thought you were discussing how valuable each player is to their respective team, not how many different roles a player is expected to fill. Two completely different things. I would still include CP3 and Deron Williams on your list, and although Durant doesn’t usually check the best opposing scorer, he does so many other things for his team that I would probably include him too.
Gee
May 7th, 2010
1:32 pm
Avery Johnson or Bill Lambier would be great choices to get this team on track. We need a 10/12rbd. center who is a knock down defender and will put whoever on their azz. Noone fears the Hawks, you had a rookie pt guard that look like an all world player who sliced and diced Bibby, Had their center played we would not have made the 2nd round. We were outcoached by Skiles. Dump Marvin, go get Caron Butler and Cris Bosh then we can strap um up. Oh yea, Loose Woodson