Atlanta Hawks at Bulls: Drew says low post is priority
Chicago–Plan A hasn’t been working for the Hawks’ offense.
What does L.D. want to see tonight instead of jumpers?
“First, establish ourselves in the low post,” he said. “If the ball does come on the kick out, everything doesn’t have to be a three. We are sitting outside, sitting at that 3-point line, [and] we can move in closer. Instead of turning it into a 3, turn it into an 18- to 20-footer. Our drive-and-kick game has to be up to par, force them to not just defend a shot on the closeout but teams have to have a fear about closing out and putting the ball on the floor.”
Even considering their poor 3-point shooting as of late, this season the 3-pointer has been (not surprisingly) much better for the Hawks than long 2-pointers. Then again, Bibby is gone and J.J. is in a slide, leaving Smoove as the team’s best 3-point shooter (not counting Al’s 2 for 4 and Twin’s 1 for 1).
L.D. dismissed Al’s back injury as a factor in his game moving outside.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think sometimes players they stay with what’s comfortable to them. Obviously he is making jump shots but both he and Josh have to establish themselves down in the low post still. We run plays to get them involved in the post and they have got to establish themselves in there.
“Just keep mixing it up. I don’t want them to be predictable in what they do. I want their overall offensive game to be hard to predict because they both have the ability to play inside and out.”
Game notes . . .
- “Normal” lineup for Hawks: Hinrich, J.J., Marvin, Josh, Al. Etan and Pape are inactive.
- Boozer is out for the Bulls and Kurt Thomas will take his place. Luol Deng is a game-time decision.
- Even with Boozer out, the Bulls still have Thomas, Noah, Omar Asik and Taj Gibson on the front line. No wonder they managed to keep winning despite Boozer missing 15 games and Noah sitting out 30 (of course it also helps to have D-Rose and that Noah’s absence from Dec. 18 to Feb. 17 coincided with a soft spot in Chicago’s schedule).
- Said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “We’ve had injuries before with with Boozer and Joakim out. We feel like we have quality bigs up front and all of them have started.”
- After Al went off for 31 and 16 in the first meeting, Thibodeau said Gibson would be part of a gang effort against him: “At different times he will guard him. All of the bigs will. All four guys give us different looks. He’s a tough matchup.”
- Hinrich was asked how the Hawks held down D-Rose last time: “He missed shots.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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401 comments Add your comment
Tremaine
March 11th, 2011
10:16 pm
“Free Jeff Teague” I know right.
“Mark Jackson, Bill Laimbeer or Dwayne Casey”
Nancy Lieberman
JSS
March 11th, 2011
10:16 pm
@ Najeh…
Nick Bockwinkle was beloved in Chi-Town… So……
Sautee
March 11th, 2011
10:16 pm
A 26 point second half. How many post ups did y’all see in the second half?
Horford needs to take enough steroids to make him mad, or something. WAY too passive, even with 4 blocked shots, which had to be the quietest 4 block game I’ve ever seen.
Booo!
March 11th, 2011
10:17 pm
“Why would LD play Teague when Rose is lighting them up? He didn’t play the bigs when Bynum was killing us last game. Great job coach, keep up the good work.”
Hahahaha!
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:17 pm
lol@ Tom.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:17 pm
Trade LD and five first-round picks for Tom Thibodeau.
Wabe
March 11th, 2011
10:18 pm
i think i’m bouta go to the next game vs. the bulls just to boooooooooooo the ish out of this team.
that’s how sad the hawks are. i have free tickets and still don’t want to waste my time going to games.
Booo!
March 11th, 2011
10:18 pm
“Rose slicing into lane at will now. No sign of Teague. #Hawks”
Gotta love MC’s unbiased/subliminal Tweets
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:19 pm
Will he keep the guys in the locker room longer than normal again? Whatever.
Tremaine
March 11th, 2011
10:19 pm
-22 with Josh on the floor.
Elliot
March 11th, 2011
10:19 pm
It’s not a coincidence that the Hawks beat the Bulls without Josh and lost with him. No one on the Hawks team had a bigger impact on this game than Josh Smith, and that impact was mostly negative.
The Hawks are a smarter and more efficient team without Josh Smith. The shot distribution is better, Al is more involved and more aggressive, and even our rebounding is better, since our bigs box out. Outside of Josh, almost every big man on the roster does a good job of boxing out.
We are a better team without Josh, plain and simple. I don’t care how much some of you bloggers argue with me, I’m not changing my mind on this. I am convinced that Josh is a serious problem for our team. We have other problems, but he’s one of the biggest ones. He makes his teammates worse and just has a negative impact on the team when things aren’t going well in a game.
RomeDawg
March 11th, 2011
10:20 pm
WoW! In the 3rd from 10:30 down to 9:00, J Smoove (what a dumb name) had two turnovers and took two horrible shots. This guys is horrible folks. It ain’t gettin’ any better. He is so athletic but he is a HUGE part of our problem. Why did he reinvent his game to jump shooting? Drew has lost this team, if he ever had ‘em. Trade J Smoove, he is an enigma!
Booo!
March 11th, 2011
10:21 pm
“Nancy Lieberman”
Nancy for Marvin Straight up!
She was in the Celebrity All-Star Game last year. She still got game!
mykhalc
March 11th, 2011
10:23 pm
to borrow from another blogger…at least there ain’t no more fools gold be found!!! BOOM!!!
W.R.Terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:23 pm
LD says that playing in the low post is a priority and ISO Joe says the “SOFT’S” are a jump shooting team. The game is still going on and what I am seeing is a jump shooting team that can’t hit the side of a barn from 5 feet in front of them. Whose message is the team following because it is not LD’s. I saw this loss coming from the first quarter because I knew that the “smoove” fella was gonna launch it and try and make unbelievable passes all night. It was over in the 3rd. Our 20 mill ISO Joe was his usual outstanding self(sarcasm). Marvin the 11 mill man did his thing too, which is “NOTHING THAT RESEMBLES BASKETBALL”. They are not listening to LD or they just don’t give a crap or they are the dumbest group of ball players in NBA history. I feel for Heinrich, he’s been a class act all of his career and Al will be ruined if he has to go thru another season with these guys, so will Teague and Armstrong and I know, we must keep ISO and that friggin “smoove” fella but this time we need a no nonsense coach. Mr. D. Wilkins the true Human Highlight reel is the MAN!. Once we have no way to get into the playoffs the younguns need to play more, they would be more entertaining. So much for jump shooting and the IDIOTS that follow.
mykhalc
March 11th, 2011
10:23 pm
to be found
2 FOR JOHN DREW
March 11th, 2011
10:24 pm
Welikebaseball2- That ugly ass walk and a good attitude…. is all he(Marvin)brings to the table ! (lol)
welikebaseball2
March 11th, 2011
10:24 pm
@Tom: I’m sure there’s a blog somewhere just aching for your brand of ignorance. Go find it. Oh yeah, hate & fear are bad for your health. I’m just saying…
JSS
March 11th, 2011
10:24 pm
Lieberman, Cheryl Miller, Teresa Edwards, Swoopes, and Ann Donovan would all school Marvin…
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:26 pm
Sund wanted Casey to begin with. But the owners just had to have Uncle Larry.
Sautee
March 11th, 2011
10:26 pm
Seven shot attempts in the paint in the second half. Five makes (though two were from Collins and Powell in garbage time). 5-7 when we went inside.
The game plan was SUPPOSED to be “low post is a priority”. And yet we take only 7 attempts in the paint in the second half. And make 5.
Is this team stupid or stubborn?
And that’s NOT a rhetorical question.
L
March 11th, 2011
10:26 pm
the game was close the start of the second half then Josh had 3 or 4 straight turnovers why won’t he bench Marvin and why were we so good last year at scoring on the inside but this year we can’t can somebody please explain this to me
Not Sund
March 11th, 2011
10:26 pm
Terrell i’m with you on that.
Poop, get with us on this, cheap or no, L.D. can’t take a 53 win team and win 45 games tops with them and expect to be back next year.
There will be less than 10k per game at Philips next season if he’s back.
Booo!
March 11th, 2011
10:27 pm
Wow, I can’t belive i’m about to actually Give Mike Woodson a comliment; But Smoove Had WAY MORE POST UPS UNDER WOODY WAY MORE! Mike may have sucked as a coach, but he know wharer smoove neede to be! And Be Talked his ear off until Smoove listened!
F-LD!
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:27 pm
“I’m sure there’s a blog somewhere just aching for your brand of ignorance. ”
It’s called the Falcons Blog.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:28 pm
“Poop, get with us on this, cheap or no, L.D. can’t take a 53 win team and win 45 games tops with them and expect to be back next year.”
I’m not saying he shouldn’t be fired. I’m just saying the DASG is not going to fire him.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:28 pm
Monty Williams for Coach of the Year. Eat a dick hair sandwich, Tom.
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:28 pm
Tom, who do you reccommend, Terry Stotts? How bout Lon Krueger, or Bob Weiss? Give me a break. ASG hred LD cause he was cheap. Nothing more, nothing less. Had nothing to do with skin color. Clown.
cp
March 11th, 2011
10:28 pm
The blog monster is killing me…No offense, no defense, cant rebound, careless turnovers, no accountability, continuing to start Marvin although he does nothing, putting your worst defender on the opposing teams best player.. Just ugly basketball….LD has to go. These cats have already tuned him out. They look like the same bunch who quit on Woodson last year. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise because its basically the same team. Its beyond frustrating being a Hawks fan. The basketball Gods tried to hook us up a few years ago and we messed that up by taking Marvin. I guess they’re still pissed at us.
N.D.T.K.A.
March 11th, 2011
10:29 pm
Mike Brown (analyst) or Lawrence Franks (assistant in Boston) will do.
L.D. has to be shown the door. I would have never thought a coach could be worse than Woodson. Jamal at the point with Hinrich at the SG is horrendous decision making.
Play Teague please. We will suffer through Teagues mistakes. You cannot teach Jamal to play defense.
The Hawks may be on the verge of complete playoff collapse if that is possible.
JSS
March 11th, 2011
10:29 pm
My apologies to Bulls fan favorite Tom Boerwinkle, I had a AWA brain freeze…
drmaryb (*_-)
March 11th, 2011
10:29 pm
What Happened?
I went to go take a dump and when I got back, the game was over.
We lost? wth … happened?
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:29 pm
“recommend” “hired”
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:30 pm
“The basketball Gods tried to hook us up a few years ago and we messed that up by taking Marvin.”
Where were the basketball gods in 2004 when the Hawks needed Dwight?
Tremaine
March 11th, 2011
10:31 pm
The locker room closed again. LD “let’s close the locker room to make it seem like we care. Joe pass me a beer.”
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:31 pm
Damn Mary B. You mustve been in there for a while. This game was over at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Booo!
March 11th, 2011
10:32 pm
YOU KNOW IT’S BAD WHEN I’M GIVING MIKE WOODSON COMLIMENTS!
SMH!!
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:32 pm
Locker room closed. lol!
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:32 pm
They gettin blunted up in there.
Tremaine
March 11th, 2011
10:33 pm
IGNORE IGNORANCE!
mykhalc
March 11th, 2011
10:34 pm
KA BOOM!!!!
James
March 11th, 2011
10:34 pm
Sometimes, I just don’t get it. Is Larry Drew TRYING to get fired? When things were going downhill fast in the third quarter, Larry Drew made zero adjustments. Are you kidding me? Is this a joke?
Also, the game plan was supposed to establish ourselves in the low post first, yet the team does almost the exact opposite. If the players on the floor aren’t doing what you want, why do you keep them in the game? Come on, L.D.? Are you really that much of an amateur?
I, honestly, do not even know why Marvin played at all tonight. He really gave us nothing on either end. Tonight was just a terrible game, both by the players and the coach. Bad execution and terrible coaching. I guess that’s basically the Hawks in a nutshell.
Sautee
March 11th, 2011
10:34 pm
drmarb,
TMI, girl.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 11th, 2011
10:35 pm
I have a free ticket to tomorrow’s game. I wonder how much the Brandon Roy jerseys are going to cost.
JSS
March 11th, 2011
10:35 pm
@ DrMaryb…
Oh my!!! Count yourself lucky and relieved!
welikebaseball2
March 11th, 2011
10:37 pm
@Tom: The fact that you call those “facts” speaks volumes about your mentality…and is actually pretty hilarious. Now, speaking of PC, take your politics elsewhere. I know it fills some void in your life to spew such ignorant/inflammatory words, but it’s not welcomed here. Go find your manhood/womanhood elsewhere. Consider yourself ignored.
Section 303
March 11th, 2011
10:38 pm
This team is just awful. I can’t believe I found someone to buy my tickets for the game tomorrow ($24 for the pair). I didn’t think I would be able to give them away.
I leave for New York tomorrow morning. Going to the Knicks/Pacers game on Sunday night. Will be good to watch real basketball for a change.
welikebaseball2
March 11th, 2011
10:38 pm
@Najeh: LOL about the Falcons blog! That’s exactly what I was thinking.
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:39 pm
Woody was bad, but LD is looking like a clown. How you gonna play Jamal at pg when you just brought in Kirk to be your pg? How you gonna play Jamal at pg PERIOD? And Jamal guarding Rose is downright asinine. As I type this, Josh just heaves another 20 ftr.
terrell
March 11th, 2011
10:42 pm
Horford prolly said fuc it. Everbody else shootin jumpers, I’m gonna shoot some jumpers. 3’s too. lol!