Atlanta Hawks Squawks Game 1: Magic 114, Hawks 71
This is how it looked from their perspective. (AP)
ORLANDO–The Hawks opened the East semis by suffering a historic beat down. it was their largest playoffs defeat since the team moved to Atlanta. The Atlanta Hawks lost 111-76 at Philly in ‘82 and the St. Louis Hawks lost 133-75 at Minneapolis in ‘58.
– The Magic’s 43-point victory margin was their second largest in postseason franchise history. Their largest lead of the game was 46; their largest lead during the regular season was 38 in that Jan. 9 game vs. the Hawks. They’ve won their last four home games against the Hawks by an average margin of nearly 32 points.
– Not surprisingly, the Hawks talked afterward about how this is just one game in the series. Yes, they said they can regroup. Yes, they can come up with a plan to beat Orlando.
– “Honestly, it would be harder if we lost by one point on a buzzer beater,” Jamal said. “A game like this, you shake it off and move on.”
– “It’s one loss,” Al said. “We can’t let it be a snowball effect. We have to figure something out and play hard.”
– “We’ll bounce back in Game 2,” J.J. said. “It’s a long series. Anything is possible. We just need to look at the tape and make adjustments.”
– There wasn’t much conviction behind their words. But what else can they say? That they don’t have the depth of personnel to deal with both Dwight and the Magic’s skilled perimeter players? That they can’t run an offense with nearly the same precision, speed and effectiveness as the Magic?
– How can the Hawks really believe they can beat the Magic, especially on this court? They can talk about the missed shots, but what about the way the Magic relentlessly shredded their defense, switches or no switches?
– The Magic privately have to be making plans for the East finals but they went along with the cliches for now. “We understand that it’s only one game and in order for us to win this series we have to dominate every night like we did tonight,” Dwight Howard said
– What’s to say they can’t do that? Certainly not the Hawks’ defense. Or their offense. Or much of anything about the Hawks in Game 1.
– “We don’t get discouraged,” Smoove said. “We are a team that perseveres and plays hard. We just have to play better on the defensive end and make it hard for them to score.”
– That’s true but do the Hawks hope to hold the Magic to 70 points? The 10-point second quarter was something that shouldn’t happen in the playoffs. The Hawks had seven turnovers and four field goals in the period. The Magic rebounded 11 of their 13 misses.
– The Hawks seemed to be clueless about how they wanted to attack the Magic. Shoot, there were times when Iso-Joe looked to be better than anything else the Hawks were trying. “We just have to stick with the plan,” J.J. said. “I thought in the first quarter the plan that we had worked pretty good. In the second quarter we just fell apart and never regrouped.”
– The Hawks were back to their “the shots just didn’t fall” explanations. “We haven’t had many games where Jamal, Joe, and Bibby just couldn’t make shots,” Woody said. “It puts too much pressure on you.”
– It happened just a few days ago, in Game 5 against Milwaukee. The Hawks controlled that game until the meltdown because they played respectable D. They didn’t come close to doing that against the Magic. Then again, the Magic ain’t the Bucks.
– “We have to come up with a different game plan because what we have been doing hasn’t been working,” Al said. “We have to figure something out and play harder.”
– They are back to the “play harder, come up with something” line of thinking, too. That’s never a good sign.
– When Al got his first foul, Woody replaced him with Jason Collins and later replaced Josh with Zaza. “That’s the coach’s plan,” Al said. “He felt Jason and Zaza in would be better. I have to deal with that.”
– “I didn’t think that hurt us,” Woody said. “That was towards the latter part of the first quarter. We came in with Jason and Jason picked up a few fouls, but I didn’t want Al going through the quarter with two fouls and now he’s got to be looking over his shoulder going into the second quarter. I thought we played it right. That had nothing to do with second quarter letdown.”
– The Hawks got frustrated with some of the calls, and there were some bad ones that went against them. But most of those came in the first quarter, when the Hawks actually were in the game. “The calls did not go our way but that’s not an excuse,” Josh said. “The refs are not going to help them beat us by 50 points.”
– Howard had a big game. The Hawks’ “no dunks” approach didn’t work. But the Magic might have won with Marcin Gortat playing Howard’s minutes considering how they punished the Hawks on the perimeter.
– At this point, I just don’t see a way for the Hawks to guard everything they have to guard while also coming up with a plan to score efficiently against the Magic to make this a series. “We’ve beaten them before,” Horford said. “We are the third seed so we knew we were going to have to play them. We put ourselves in this position. We earned this.”
– When you look at what Boston is doing in the Cleveland series, what happened to the Hawks tonight, and how they huffed and puffed against Milwaukee, doesn’t it start to look like they didn’t close that gap so much after all?
– “They embarrassed us but we have have another one on Thursday and we will get ready for that,” Bibby said.
– I’m out, Hawks fans.
MC
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196 comments Add your comment
jeff
May 5th, 2010
10:08 am
Gamer are you Woody in disguise? Shouldn’t you be at practice or watching tape?
Andy
May 5th, 2010
10:14 am
The way the players talk it sounds like they didn’t give up, but at the same time the Magic are not 40 points better–one of those explanations has to be wrong. I think (and hope) that they just gave up, since otherwise they have no chance in this series. Giving up in a playoff game, though, is inexcusable. Where is the fire? Where is the never-say-die attitude? Where is the leadership, the spark that ignites the rest of the team to soldier on, despite setbacks? Where is the heart they showed in games 6 and 7 of the last series? These Hawks are talented, but they give up way too easy, to really endear themselves to fans. Even when losing they should go down fighting. I thought J. Crawford had more sense than to say that it’s worse to lose by 1 point. What kind of competitive spirit is that? Here’s this team’s new slogan: “If you’re gonna lose, lose big.”
i_am_soulstar
May 5th, 2010
10:20 am
It’s just one game guys, they need your support still. Perhaps this butt whupping will be motivation. I’ve never know the Hawks at full strength to take too many of those without responding. Go Hawks.
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
10:23 am
Nobody is picking on Teague. I just get tired of everybody talking about how he may be a possible solution.
Take away his playing time in blowout wins and losses ( and in that final game ), and what has Teague done? Not a damn thing. People just want him to play by default. Not because he’s proven that he can impact a game when he steps on the floor.
The argument made on this board is that . . . “Well, Bibby sucks . . so we might as well play Teague.”
Honestly . . . that’s the same argument people use for justifying playing Mo Evans over Marvin.
“Marvin sucks . . so we need to play Mo Evans in place of him.”
Forget that MO SUCKS TOO . . just play Mo over Marvin.
That’s the mentality around here. That’s why I’ll challenge people everytime Teague’s name is brought up. What is going on with the Hawks has nothing to do with Teague. That’s on the coach and the core players. But Teague is not the solution to ANYTHING around here either.
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
10:26 am
“Only Game#1 folks.”
Bullsh!t. This series is over in 4, just like I predicted.
magic were rusty for one quarter.
The Magic rusty = same score as us or a little better
The Magic’s bench could beat our starters
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
10:34 am
“Take away his playing time in blowout wins and losses ( and in that final game ), and what has Teague done? Not a damn thing. ”
THAT’S BECAUSE HE DOESN’T !@#$ING PLAY IN NON-BLOWOUT SITUATIONS. HOW HARD IS THIS TO SEE? PUTTING HIM IN FOR 3 MINUTES WILL ACCOMPLISH NOTHING.
AND PLAYING HIM THESE 3 MINUTES ONLY MAKES HIS CONFIDENCE GO DOWN. IT’S OBVIOUS HE IS ATHLETIC AND CAN DEFEND PLAYERS
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
10:35 am
MIKE WOODSON HATES ROOKIE POINT GUARDS. IT’S THAT SIMPLE. HE TRIES TO BE LIKE LARRY BROWN, BUT ISN’T.
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
10:39 am
northcyde – Comparing Bibby to Fisher is apples to oranges in that
fisher is running the “Triangle” which does not have traditional
pt. guard responsibilities.
Also ‘Salim’ was an undersized [2] not a pt. guard, so, once again comparing apples to oranges [Teaguer/Salim].
Thirdly – when Teague gets in [with 1st unit guys] he just passes to Jamal or Bibby & cuts thru the lane then stand in the corner opposite the ball with no real part of what is going on.
Najeh – I like Joe, & agree in a proper system he would be a different player, its just that maybe it’s time to let the younger kids be our core…grow & build around Al, Josh, Jeff et al.
I do agree with all you said with the exception of Bibby:
He must go the way of Wdsn. Clean break.
Jeff Teague starting pt. guard – day 1.
We must see if he is our future @ the pos.
*Mike Budenholzer/S A Spurs/’Pops’lead asst./[14 yrs. wi. S.A.total]
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
10:58 am
Yesterday . . . I just think Woody got “too cute” with the “plan”.
A guy like Jason Collins should not step foot on the floor, because he is a garbage basketball player, and has always been a garbage basketball player. Whatever defensive prowess he brought as a player 5 – 6 years ago, is LONG GONE. He should not step foot on the floor, unless its an emergency situation.
The same goes for Joe Smith. I said as soon as we signed that dude, that we’d be much better playing Marvin as the 3rd PF ( behind Horford . . when he comes back into a game and plays alongside Zaza ). Rotation minutes should not be wasted on Joe Smith either, because he’s neither a scoring threat or a better defensive option.
I don’t agree with Mark Bradley much, but during his in-game blog, he pointed out how everything started to become unraveled when Woody played extra people, instead of going with his regular rotation. Woody had a lineup out there in which he and Marvin were really the only legit offensive threats on the floor.
All I’m saying is that you have to go with WHAT and WHO got you here.
You do what you are comfortable and accustomed to doing. If you’re a passing football team, but weak running the ball . . you don’t try to run it down a team’s throat, just because your opponent is weak against the run. No . . you have do what YOU DO. Not change your style according to what your opponent does.
The same goes for a basketball team. If you’re a run and gun team, you can’t change your style to play a slow paced game, because that is NOT what you do. If you’re a team whose strength is having your 2 guards control the game, especially in the halfcourt, you cannot deviate from that. The 2 guards just have to understand that they need to play MUCH BETTER, in order for the team to succeed.
**************************
And I’ll say this too.
A lot of you complain about JJ shooting the ball and not passing, but on the flip side want him to play worthy of getting a MAX contract. JJ definitely stunk it up last night, especially with all of those turnovers. But you guys can’t have this both ways on the JJ issue.
JJ CANNOT be a decoy in this series, and the Hawks pull this out. He has to SHOOT and SCORE the basketball, which means that he has to get up shots, whether they’re contested or open. If other people are open, then of course get them the ball to see if they can knock down shots. But if you have a guy who has proven that he can take and make tough shots, then you have to let him do what he do. He has to get up his shots.
My major problem with JJ last night is the same problem that I had with him in that 4th quarter of Game 5 vs Milwaukee. The fact that he wasn’t getting up shots, combined with the turnovers, was the major problem. If anything, he needs to stop all of the dribbling, and just take a few jab steps and take the shot.
JJ has to establish himself SCORING THE BASKETBALL, as well as get everyone else involved. He is the focal point of the offense. He’s the one that the Magic was throwing a soft double team at ( when JJ tried to post up ). So if guarded one on one, JJ needs to look to score. If the double comes, get the ball to the open shooter.
But he has to get shots up. Having 6 shot attempts in the first half, during a time in which the Hawks are in the process of getting blown out, is what can’t happen anymore. He got up ONE SHOT in that 2nd quarter, but had 4 turnovers ( trying to do too damn much ). Sometimes, he simply needs to trust his jumpshot.
This series is NOT going to be won by trying to get Dwight Howard into foul trouble. We’re not equipped as a team to do that. The Hawks simply have to make every effort to get out on the break and get transition baskets. And when we get in the halfcourt offense, the Hawks must make open jumpshots, as well as a few contested ones.
The Truth
May 5th, 2010
11:10 am
If Stan Van Gundy is going to continue to play the “Beat-Down” strategy even after an Orlando win is imminent, Woody should make him pay by committing very hard fouls to his key starters by our bench warmers. This would send a clear message that he is provoking injury risks to his players with his “art of war humiliation” strategy. If he’s not careful, the adolescent egocentric behavior Van Gundy is showing as a coach could backfire on him. If they were to lose Dwight to an unfortunate injury, Gundy would be the blame and their season would be prematurely over. All of this just to humiliate the Hawks.
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
11:19 am
Grandad . . what you say is all true. But even in Fisher’s situation, it’s not like Fisher is moving all around, cutting to the basket, etc. In essence, he and Bibby are doing the same thing . . . playing off of the main scoring option, whether it be Kobe or Gasol. All Fisher does, is float out on the perimeter, waiting on someone to toss the ball out to him. He’s doing nothing different than what Bibby is doing.
And this is what I’ll say about Teague. When he is in the game with the 1st unit, couldn’t he take it upon himself to try to do something outside of the set offense, to try to make an impact? Couldn’t he get the ball, and push it up the floor, even if the coach instructs him to get the ball to JJ or Jamal?
Sometimes in basketball, you just have to go out and get yours. That’s exactly the mentality that Smoove has, when he grabs a rebound and starts a one-man fast break on his own. Sometimes it results in a turnover, other times it results in him taking it all the way to the rim for a score.
Najeh said that Teague had better leadership qualities than Bibby. Well, part of being a leader is assessing a situation, and doing what you think is the best thing to do. I don’t blame Teague for following the “plan”. But sometimes when you see something on the court, and you know you can make a positive play, you deviate from the “plan” and do what you need to do to make the positive play. That’s true leadership right there. Hopefully Teague will develop that quality throughout his NBA career.
But this discussion isn’t about Teague. It’s about what the Hawks need to do in order to be competitive in this series.
And the more I think about it, the more I believe that INITIALLY, the Hawks should double the hell out of Dwight Howard in the 1st quarter of the game to get the ball out of his hands. That’ll protect our big people from getting in foul trouble, and it will force the Magic to make jumpshots right out of the gate.
If they miss, then PUSH THE BALL DOWN THEIR THROATS and try to score in transition. If it’s not there on the break, then you’ll still have an opportunity to get an open shot, while the Magic are still in a little bit of scramble mode. That’s been a big part of the Hawks success this year.
This is who they are.
Hawks, don’t deviate from who you are.
jeff
May 5th, 2010
11:20 am
Isn’t it funny though when the Magic was up 40 plus, they didn’t ISO to pad their individual stats they still laid on the throttle and played good basketball! We can’t do that more than one or two possessions in a quarter, heck maybe for the game. We have too many players with the “I” factor and not real team players. JJ is looking for a big contract and is being distracted regardless of what he claims. He is trying to prove to the NBA and himself that he is worth a big fat contract again, and it is going to back-fire on him. If he shares the ball we will win two games! If he continues to ISO, we will get swept.
AG
May 5th, 2010
11:23 am
Looking at how the NBA is evolving, PG’s who are quick and get to the rack are starting to dominate. Look at Rondo, Jennings, guys with terrible J’s, but can do other things. The guys lack pride. The guys lack fight! When they were up 30 and still shooting three’s, the Hawks should have start fouling – making every shot tough. Turning all those smiles to concern if that player shot the ball. I mean, pick up six fouls and sit down. Atlanta could blow Milwaukee out of the building, but each time they came back and made the game look closer than it was. Anyway, the only good thing is it was just one game.
AG
May 5th, 2010
11:26 am
The Hawks should look at the tapes of the Pistons who won the championship. They had no superstars, but a group of good players. The Hawks are successful when we have 4-6 guys in double figures. People keep wanting a superstar, D. Wade and C. Anthony lead the league in playoff scoring, and it earned them an early vacation.
FromUpNorth
May 5th, 2010
11:30 am
@JeJe: “The Magic’s bench could beat our starters”
Let me correct that….the kids who mop up the sweat from the Orlando Magic’s court could have beaten our starters last night.
Sad excuse for a game. At least remain competitive for MORE THAN ONE QUARTER, guys. It seems like everyone – coach & players – gave up once the Magic shooters got hot in the 2nd qtr. You can’t have that lack of competitive spirit and expect to compete at an NBA-level, you just can’t.
AG
May 5th, 2010
11:32 am
I disagree with NorthClyde to double Howard. It opens up the jumpshooters and exposes us to long rebounds. It can work only if the other players cut off the passing angles (Howard made passes to players who were guarded but the defender did not cut off those long passes- maybe a type of zone when he catches the ball
The Truth
May 5th, 2010
11:32 am
AG
“People keep wanting a superstar, D. Wade and C. Anthony lead the league in playoff scoring, and it earned them an early vacation.”
Good point
FromUpNorth
May 5th, 2010
11:37 am
Co-sign with AG, a superstar player on the Hawks (a la D. Wade) will only continue to camoflauge the underlying issues on the rest of the team. We’ve had a couple seasons like that already – the team winning games in spite of their flaws. The Hawks are frustratingly talented at certain spots, but they are IMO the most flawed team that was in the playoffs. I’d rather overhaul the coaching staff/team and get a more solid core of players than blow $$$ on one guy. Just one girl’s opinion.
iishmafia
May 5th, 2010
11:42 am
So “woody” erstwhile NBA Hall of Fame Coach -NOT- says the Hawks “didn’t play Atlanta Hawks basketball” last night. I beg to differ, that’s exactly Hawks basketball -unprepared -uninspired-unknowing-and uncoached-
Dwayne
May 5th, 2010
11:48 am
Hawks have to win the 3 they get at home, they sure won’t beat the Magic in Orlando. Even tho they lose the series 4-3, the owners, known affectionatly as the Atlanta Spirit Clowns, the Octocluster, or the Atlanta A$$ Clowns can use the extra cash to spend in free agency on the Thrashers. Oh yeah, Joe Johnson will not be back next year. So there is some more money to spend on YOUR Atlanta Thrashers!!!!
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
11:52 am
northcyde – being a complete basketball player (which Joe is)
does not mean becoming a decoy. However, being an elite/*Great
baketball player, can be defined by:
“raising the level of your teammates play”.
Even though, as stated, Joe being a [complete player]
he does not fulfill the definition of *greatness.
Can we blame the loss on him, last eveing? No.
Did he revert to [1 on 5] play *ignoring open teammates? Yes
*see Bradley column
Did Joe quit? Yes.
Did Bibby quit? *I think he quit before the game started.
*Comments after game 7 (Bucks):
tired, didn’t want to think about next series, just wanted to rest.
*Barkley – “As the play-offs advance you get more & more energized,
you are not tired, you are excited & happy, adrenalin pumpin’,
you’re not tired” [paraphrase].
Wdsn & Iso-Joe/Jamal:
Orlando used the same def. that good teams always use to counter
‘Iso’. They doule & release. [not a hedge]
They stay with the double as Joe or Jamal pound the ball
& give ground then release when J or J has been pushed back
near half ct. Neither of the two J’s give the ball up to an
open teammate when doubled, therefore no fear of being exposed
in the back of the defense. They know that Joe & or Jamal
will attemt to dribble out of the double,
giving ground & burning shot clock.
*Good strategery against us!
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
11:54 am
@ Michael Cunningham
This is kind of what I was talking about yesterday, when people probably should’ve been talking about our offense, instead of focusing on what we needed to do on defense. Because on defense, it truly is “pick your poison”.
But it’s these major runs that Orlando goes on, that are killing us. Runs in which the Hawks are missing open shots, missing contested lay-ups, not getting to the foul line, and turning the ball over.
You have to be able to score on this Magic team, as well as limit what they do offensively. People can’t get it twisted on what the main problem is offensively . . . making shots. Back in the game in March, we survived that initial run that they went on because we started making jumpshots in that 2nd quarter . . . long jumpshots. Bibby, Mo Evans, and Crawford combined to make 5 threes in that quarter.
And while eveyone HATES ISO-JJ, the element to ISO-JJ that is never talked about, are the open jumpshots that he creates when the double team comes to him and he passes the ball out to shooters. In that same game in the 3rd quarter, JJ had 6 assists . . . all which came via midrange jumpshots to Horford or Bibby.
That’s the “sharing of the ball” that people talk about. But it only can happen if people are making shots. If you don’t make shots, then passing the ball to open shooters is a moot point.
And in actuality, JJ didn’t have a good shooting game at all in that game. He only shot 5 – 17 FG. But when you’re the main scoring option on the team, you have to keep shooting the ball, in order to make the defense play you. Then when they focus on you, you’ll be able to get the ball out to other people in order to get them good looks at the basket. And that’s what JJ did.
If this series is going to change in our favor, it’s going to change the minute we start making shots. And JJ and Crawford are going to have to be the ones who changes this series. If they start making shots ( open or contested ), that’s going to make life a whole lot easier for the other guys, because it will enable them to get open shots as well.
The guys just can’t go into panic mode when the run happens. Just get the shots up and go from there. That’s why when Woody makes an obvious generic comment like “we need to work on our shooting”, he knows what the problem is.
Knocking down shots is the ONLY WAY we’re going to beat this Magic team.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
May 5th, 2010
11:59 am
smh…..all this debating…..when COY Woody said all we have to do is “work on some shooting” and “bring the juice” for game 2….It’s that simple. No strategy/game plan needed. Just shoot around before the game. In Woodson we trust.
FAIL.
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
12:02 pm
AG – Well said, those 80’s Pistons, Coached by Chuck Daly, were a real
trasure. Their toughness was unmatched. Those Pistons would never have been embarrassed as we were last evening. they would not have quit!
Orlando would not have made an uncontested lay-up/dunk w/o feeling
and or fearing the consequences.
FromUpNorth
May 5th, 2010
12:03 pm
@Grandad: Those “tired” comments from Bibby irked me, too. All I could think was –
“Dude, you’re an NBA athlete! You get paid millions of dollars to play basketball, which means keeping yourself in shape! If you don’t want to think about “the next game” because you’re tired (especially in the midst of the playoffs), then you’re in the wrong line of work. Heck, I go to my job every day, even though I’m tired, pregnant, and older than you….and I don’t get paid nearly as much!”
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
12:07 pm
AG
May 5th, 2010
11:32 am
I disagree with NorthClyde to double Howard. It opens up the jumpshooters and exposes us to long rebounds. It can work only if the other players cut off the passing angles (Howard made passes to players who were guarded but the defender did not cut off those long passes- maybe a type of zone when he catches the ball
***********************
AG . . . the games that the Hawks have beaten the Magic in in the past 2 or 3 seasons, has directly correlated to them missing a ton of 3 pointers. That team is going to jack up threes regardless of what Dwight is doing. That’s the only thing that can doom them as a team. It’s that very element that doomed those mid 2000s Phoenix Suns teams. Regardless of how well or how bad they were playing, they were going to continue to jack up threes.
I’m not saying to double Dwight the entire game. I’m just saying to force those Magic shooters to make jumpshots right away. So to do that, you double Dwight at the beginning of the game, to keep him from getting a rhythm himself.
The long rebounds are exactly what the Hawks need, in order to fuel their transition offense. Grab that long rebound and push the ball down their throats. The Hawks let Dwight get a little too comfortable last night. I personally don’t like the Hack-A-Howard strategy, because it slows down the game and takes away transition offense opportunities.
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
12:08 pm
Iso-Joe…knocking down jump shots…blah blah blah!
You win basketball games *INSIDE out.
*see ORLANDO…D.HOWARD…INSIDE out.
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
12:13 pm
FromUpNorth – Bless your heart! My sentiments exactly.
[except the pregnant part]
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
12:26 pm
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
12:08 pm
Iso-Joe…knocking down jump shots…blah blah blah!
You win basketball games *INSIDE out.
*see ORLANDO…D.HOWARD…INSIDE out.
****************
This is what I’m talking about Grandad. We CAN’T win this series playing inside-out. Our inside guys can’t score on Dwight. Horford Neither Smoove nor Horford have the back to the basket offensive skills to get that done.
We don’t have Dwight Howard . . . THEY DO. So we can’t play like “they do”.
What you’re saying is correct about inside-out basketball, but it just doesn’t correlate with this team because of the personnel mismatch they have against us on the inside. If we try to force the issue with the inside-out philosophy, we’ll get blown out again. Smoove has a better matchup offensively than Horford does. But even Smoove needs to be facing his man, and taking him off the dribble-drive.
We need to score points in the paint. But against the Magic, the easiest way to score points in the paint, is to get to the rim via transition offense. That means that you have to play defense on the other end.
That’s why I say . . . the Hawks have to simply “be who they are”.
We can’t be like other teams. We don’t have the personnel that other teams have. And if you want to blame the coach, we don’t have the coach that other teams have. So we have to play how WE play.
- scramble on defense and secure defensive rebounds
- create transition offensive opportunities from that defense
- run the offense through JJ ( and occasionally Smoove ) in the halfcourt, and hope people can make shots
- and when Crawford comes in, get him early shots to see if he’s hot or cord. If hot, let him score. If cold, take him out.
bigdave
May 5th, 2010
12:30 pm
“People can’t get it twisted on what the main problem is offensively . . . making shots.”
you’re about as clueless as Woodson.. making shots isnt the problem. relying on making (jump) shots is. especially if you only have 2 reliable shooters. so basically, if a or b is having a bad shooting night there is no need to play the game.. sad. when you have no offensive identity this is what you get. Joe Johnson taking 25 shots a game isnt our offensive identity because if it was he would get 25 up a game. the Hawks are best when Joe has a low 20 and their are 2 other Hawks approaching his scoring total. we have no plan of attack and we spend countless possessions trying to figure out what we are going to do. while the other coaching staff executes a game plan that lead to 17-0 runs, while we go 1 and done and contributing to our on demise. its not like we’re getting good looks. all of these “shots” that have to be made are highly contested out of 1 on 1 garbage. since when did we have this roster full of sharp shooters? if our only chance of winning calls for Joe and Jamal to shoot lights out on tired legs thats a coaching issue. the greatest shooters of all-time played in systems to get them open looks. our team isnt coached to there strengths. the talent level has exceeded the coaching prowess. you’ll see a lot more activity and energy from our guys if they knew exactly was expected of them. if they were actively contributing to the flow of the offense and not just standing around then expected to go down on defense and fly around the entire court, guarding everyone for no reason. we move more on defense than we do on offense..
“It was an ugly game for us” … “I wish I knew what happened.”
-Mike Woodson
Atlanta Hawks Head Coach
bigdave
May 5th, 2010
12:32 pm
*there
bigdave
May 5th, 2010
12:33 pm
*their
bigdave
May 5th, 2010
12:35 pm
* “what was”
oooooh f-it u get my points.. sprint touch pro 2 lazy effort right there..
bigdave
May 5th, 2010
12:50 pm
defense was the focus on this blog b/c we need defense to ignite this “running game” that i dont see. how can you run when your PG is the slowest man on the floor..? not to mention this team is sending Dwight to the offensive glass and everybody else is running back. Skiles told his team he didnt want anyone on the offensive glass. gonna be hard to run on those plans of action aint it. teams are going to force us to get most of our scoring out of the chaos we call half court sets. we are an easy game plan for any team if we just settle. i am the biggest critic of our bigs block game, but that doesnt mean you dont feed them to keep the defense honest. Rashard can’t guard Josh.. he just cant. nor can Barnes guard Joe.. but guess what, they 1 man zoning with Dwight, picking up any threat to the lane.. where are the cutters? who is opening up to the ball ready to score… ? are we all just standing around poorly spaced/aligned wherever we want to be on the floor b/c our coach hasnt given assignment?
hate to say it, but for whatever its worth i wanted Amare..
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
1:17 pm
northcyde:
With all due respect, the problem is still “Iso”.
When we go inside it is Iso-Al or Iso-Josh, in the post.
Our other alt. is Marv (unnaturally) slashing.
You are correct we do not have a dominant low-post scorer.
*HENCE* the problem – no system other than throw it to _______?
and let whomever make a one on 3,4,5 play.
Thats ‘Iso”.
Which by *definition [mine] is not even a system [offense].
Wdsn does not or cannot craft a system to take advantage
of the talent [immense] with which we do have.
AND:
I don’t mean knocking down jump shots.
Something has to come 1st.
fb – You run to set up the pass.
sandwich – you gotta have the bread before you put on the butter.
I’m gonna quit on that one!
d.carter
May 5th, 2010
1:26 pm
HOWARD KILLED US ON PICK AND ROLL LOBS.. YOU CANT ALLOW THE DRIBBLER TO TURN THE CORNER AND THE ROLLER TO ROLL… EASY ADJUSTMENT IS TO HARD TRAP THE DRIBBLER AND FORCE HIM TO PASS TO THE CORNERS AND LET THE WEAKSIDE DEFENDER TO SET UP THE DEFENSIVE WALL UNDERNEATH HOWARD… YOU OBVIOUSLY CANT ALLOW BOTH… OFFENSIVELY WE MUST RUN MISDIRECTION PICK AND ROLLS UP TOP, WITH THE 4 AND 5 MAN STARTING AT THE ELBOWS WITH BIB AND MARVIN IN THE CORNERS, LET THE 4 AND 5 CROSS SCREEN AT THE TOP OF THE ARC MAKING IT HARD FOR ORLANDO’S BIG MEN TO HELP, THE CORNERS MUST NOT SETTLE FOR THE JUMPSHOT IF THEY ARENT MAKING ANY EARLY AND MUST DRIVE THE MIDDLE AND BASELINE HARD CREATING CONTACT AND BALL MOVEMENT
Grandad
May 5th, 2010
1:33 pm
Our own Michael Cunningham/before last night’s debacle:
“It was crazy to see how many different ways the Magic got open 3-pointers . They used ball screens, pin-down screens, hand-offs, drive-and-kicks, pick-and-pops, and simple (but fast) ball reversals. There’s no hesitation. The Magic are always looking for 3. They are ready to fire when they get space and it doesn’t seem to matter if they are cold or hot for the game.”
“they are so good at moving the ball.”
They have a “System/Philosophy/Offense/Scheme/Plan”…you think!
I would add one thing watching Redick last evening:
Their hands & feet are ready to catch & shoot.
superb fundamental coaching!
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
1:34 pm
“But this discussion isn’t about Teague. It’s about what the Hawks need to do in order to be competitive in this series.”
Funny, but you’re the one who mentioned JT0’s name.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:41 pm
Is there any way we can get Scott Skiles to leave Milwaukee for Atlanta. We need somebody to light a fire under their asses. EVERY NIGHT. I’m tired of the “we just didnt have it”, or “we were outhustled” nonsense. Skiles outcoached Woody with Jennings and a bunch of role players. lol! We need a coach who’ll get the BEST out of our players.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:41 pm
And I’m black, so dont call me a racist for wanted Skiles over the old stubborn one.
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
1:42 pm
Dave . . . you say all of that, but it still comes down to making shots and scoring the basketball.
If we have an offense that flows through JJ, then the onus is on him to make shots and get other people involved. But he has to shoot the ball himself also. His problem last night was not the shots he was taking. It was the fact that he was turning the ball over left and right and not even getting shots up.
Crawford has been taking the same shots he’s taken all year, but he went 1 – 11 FG
Horford went 1 – 7 FG, and only hit one jumper, while getting nothing on the inside
Bibby went 1 – 5 FG, made his first jumper of the game and missed the rest
So between JJ, Crawford, Horford, and Bibby . . you see them shoot a combined 7 – 34 ( 21% ). And the Hawks shot 2 – 13 3FG as well ( with Teague, of all people, making the 2 threes )
Can’t win games shooting like that.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:44 pm
Btw, we might as well try the Hack a Howard, if Woody is just going to keepn “Doin what we do”. “Doin what we do hasn’t worked in quite a while vs the Magic Woodrow.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
1:44 pm
And what exactly makes you so sure that JT0 isn’t the answer?
Sure, he may not be the answer to win this series. I agree. But, you seem to be blaming the kid for it?
Maybe not, I don’t want to put words in your mouth. But, truthfully, your anti-JT0 rhetoric the entire season basically points to which side of the fence your on with this kid. Some of us grew tired of Bibby being tired all the time during the regular season. You could tell he was a step slow, but that still didn’t warrant JT0 any PT. Maybe, if you took the time to develop the kid – like Adelman’s done with Lowry and Brooks, like Boston’s done with Rondo, like Milwaukee’s doing with Jennings – maybe he’d be the solution.
You said yourself that “we have to make jumpshots to win this series.”
Your telling me that a penetrating PG wouldn’t help our shooters get open looks on the floor?
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:46 pm
“It still comes down to making shots and scoring the basketball”. Northcyde, you sound just like Woody. lol!
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
1:47 pm
And Dave . . . our running game during the Woody era, has always been ignited by our forwards ( mainly Smoove ). He’s usually the one that gets that rebound and makes the initial push up the floor. Sometimes he takes it himself. Other times, he getting the outlet pass to JJ, who then makes the play to get it back to Smoove or some other player. Horford does that well too.
The running game sees our frontcourt players beat their man down the floor, making it easy for our guards to either get an open shot, or get the ball back to the streaking frontcourt player.
That’s who we are. We can’t change who we are as a team, just because other teams have played a style that has been successful against the Magic.
You’ll see what I’m talking about in Game 2.
cp
May 5th, 2010
1:48 pm
6th year as head coach and this team still has no offensive system other than iso iso iso iso Joe..
Bibby is done. I cant believe people well certain people are still defending him. Seriously what is he doing out there that is so great. He cant hit open shots and he cant defend a newborn… At this point I would start Teague and tell him to push the ball at any chance he gets and attack the rim I don’t care if he gets his shot blocked as long as he is not settling for jumpers. The reason the Bobcats got Dwight in foul trouble is because they relentlessly attacked the rim. Bring Bibby off the bench since he is so tired…….The reason people say start Mo over Marvin is because Mo usually makes a bigger impact when he starts than Marvin. Yea Mo sucks at times but hell Marvin sucks most of the time. At least with Mo he gives all out effort. Marvin is out there looking lost. At this point it cant hurt because I have a hard time seeing Woodrow coming up with a different game-plan other than the one he has been using.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:52 pm
Northcyde said, “And Teague off all people making a couple of 3’s.” And I bet Woody doesn’t even let Teague shoot 3’s at practice. And if he does, he probably yanks him for missing one.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:53 pm
“Cant defend a newborn”. LMAO
terrell
May 5th, 2010
1:55 pm
Get used to Bibby people. He’s here for 2 more freakin years. That’s almost laughable. Sund’s must’ve been on the good stuff when he resigned Bibby and Duck. Lawd have mercy!
northcyde
May 5th, 2010
1:59 pm
LOL Terrell. . . it’s the truth though man.
Ask Kentucky basketball fans what the problem was in the West Virginia Elite 8 game. Yeah, West Virginia played a good defensive game by making every opportunity Kentucky had in the paint very difficult.
But Kentucky went 4 – 32 from 3 point range. And most were wide open looks.
And on top of that, they shoot 55% FG and turned the ball over 16 times.
I don’t care how good of a team you are. When you do things like that, you’re not going to win games.
People can talk about going at Dwight Howard to get him in foul trouble. But who do we do it with?
- JJ doesn’t go hard enough to the hole and avoids contact altogether
- Smoove goes a little too soft to the hole, and the refs don’t give him foul calls when he gets hacked
- Marvin goes out of control to the hole, which sometimes draws a foul because he looks so awkward
- Crawford can get to the rim, but he’s a drive and pull-up kind of guy.
So if our personnel isn’t comfortable playing that style of ball, then what do we do? Just do it anyway, even if it doesn’t work, and see Orlando go the other way for transition lay-ups and threes?