Atlanta Hawks vs. Warriors: Marvin still not feeling bench role

L.D. is using his normal lineup tonight so Marvin is back among the starters. He looked pretty good in his two most recent games coming off the bench. He played fewer minutes than his average but he got up 17 shots in 50 minutes. I think the Hawks benefited from him playing on the second unit.

None of that changes Marvin’s preference to start.

“I’ve played what, two games off the bench?” he said. “I’ve played how many starting? Now start me for 300 games and see how I play.”

Truth is Marvin has played well the last couple weeks as both a starter and reserve. But L.D. notes that he can get Marvin more involved when he’s on the floor with the reserves.

“When he comes of the bench, it allows him to be more of a guy I can go to a little bit more as far as play sets that are called,” L.D. said. “When he’s in the starting lineup with Joe, Mike Smoove and Al he can be a first option at times, he can be a fourth option at times. When he is in there with the reserves, he is going to be either one or two.

“To me, he’s adapted well in coming off the bench when I’ve gone with my big lineup. He actually looks more comfortable. I think he knows in that second unit he will get more touches, I am able to run more plays directly for him. And most of the time he will be playing against their reserves.”

All of those things may be true but, again, Marvin has always been a starter and wants to keep it that way. Not that he takes it personally when he’s not.

“I love L.D. He’s been nothing but good to me,” Marvin said. “I’m not upset at him about anything and I don’t think he’s upset at me. It’s just the choice he made and I’ve got to live with it. It doesn’t make me mad at him or mad at my team or anything like that.”

Pick up the pace?

The Warriors are among the fastest-paced teams in the league. The Hawks still are among the slowest.

L.D. doesn’t like it when the Hawks play too fast on the road but he doesn’t mind picking up the pace at Philips.

“We definitely want to control the pace but we don’t want to get away from what we do, especially at home,” he said. “We want to get up and down, we want to run. We don’t want to get into a quick shoot contest with them. That’s kind of what they want.”

Atlanta’s pace at home is 92 possessions per game, still slow.

It’s pretty obvious why Drew is using the regular lineup against the Warriors, who are small to begin with and now are without Andris Biedrins (ankle) and Dan Gadzuric (groin).

“They don’t have the big forces inside,” Drew said. “They’ve got some very good centers, guys that can play the position very well but not a situation where we have to look to come and double team.”

What the Warriors have are swift backcourt partners Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. The Hawks have J.J.. Something’s got to give.

“We do have Joe against the smaller guards. We are definitely going to try and exploit that,” L.D. said. “On the other end they have the advantage of smaller guards having the speed and the quickness. Maybe Joe doesn’t have the speed and the quickness to stay with them. We try to combat that on the other end.”

Curry is working his way back from an ankle injury and played 29 minutes against Portland on Saturday and 28 against Philly on Monday. Ellis is third in the league in scoring and 10th in usage rate.

“Very, very explosive,” L.D. said. “I’ve always liked him. He’s a guy that has a knack for scoring. He’s really explosive so have to do a good job on him collectively. He’s too good, too explosive and he gets too many touches. It has to be a team effort. We have to make sure we load up on him in transition. We have to contest all of his shots but more importantly we have got to keep him out of the paint. It’s going to take all five guys to do that.”

Michael Cunningham