Atlanta Hawks: Magic 101, Hawks 76
Orlando–During a radio interview yesterday, the host tried to get me to predict how this series would turn out.
- “I’m done trying to predict the Hawks,” I said. “They can make you look stupid. When I’ve praised them, they go and get blown out. When I criticize them, they do something like go up 3-1 on the Magic. But one thing I think I can say for sure after these four games is you know they are going to give a good effort tomorrow.”
- Man, I’m about as smart as Charlie Brown when he’s always trying to kick that damn football when he knows Lucy’s going to pull it away again.
- “They came out and hit us early; it just seemed like we didn’t have a response for it,” Hinrich said. “We are going to regroup. We still have the series lead going home. We’re confident we will play better in Game 6.”
- It’s hard to trust the Hawks. They said all of the right things after this, just like they said the right things before. Obviously they are back in the “show me” category after this one.
- Game 6 is Thursday at 7:30 on NBA TV, Home of the Hawks.
- “We are good,” Jamal said. “We are still in the driver’s seat. This is just one game. We have to come out and act like we are in desperation.”
- No act should be necessary. The Hawks shouldn’t want any part of a Game 7 back in this building.
- “There are going to be nights like this,” Smoove said. “We just have to wash it out of our heads. We did want to get the win tonight but we have another shot at it Thursday. We have to play with a little bit more desperation and know that we can’t play Game 7.”
- When Dwight went to the bench with two fouls in the first quarter, it almost seemed like the Hawks relaxed. Maybe L.D. did, too, because he took out Kirk and Al as Orlando’s lead grew to 10. He got Al back in but the Magic’s lead was up to 42-21 by the time Hinrich returned.
- Not that it would have mattered much in this game since his players weren’t ready, anyway, but for a guy who talks about subbing depending on feel and flow L.D. sure does have some weird patterns sometimes.
- With Dwight on the bench the Hawks still didn’t go to the rim. The Magic, meanwhile, played faster and crisper. The Dwight Defense was nullified and the Hawks were a step behind.
- “Jameer and Gilbert were coming off screens aggressivelty all night long,” Josh said. “We had to help a little bit and [still] get out on the shooters. They were shooting with rhythm tonight. I think that pick-and-roll kind of hurst us tonight.”
- “When [Dwight] went out of the game, they went to a little bit more movement sets,” Jamal said. “That is when everyone got involved.”
- And they made shots. Man, did they ever make shots.
- “It seemed like once they made one, they started making them all over the place,” Marvin said.
- “Guys were contesting J.J. Redick and he was making fade-away jump shots,” Josh said.
- “We’re a good-shooting team,” Stan Van Gundy said “This is more us than the first four games. This is not some aberration, ‘Oh, the Magic made threes.’ We’ve been doing this for four years. The aberration was the first four games.”
- The Magic eventually cooled off from the floor. They took care of the ball, though, so there were few extra possessions for the Hawks.
- Not that it would have mattered. Once the Hawks got down, they never showed any sign of putting together a coherent plan to get back in it. They just kept taking and missing jump shots, allowing dribble penetration and generally sucking all around.
- “Obviously we laid an egg tonight,” Hinrich said. “It’s disappointing but at the same time we are looking forward to Game 6. Right now our attention is on that.”
- The Magic turned up the pressure on J.J. and Jamal. They didn’t handle it well.
- “They gave me different looks,” Jamal said. “But I will watch a lot of film and adjust to it.”
- Josh and Al weren’t much better. Smoove strayed outside even before things got out of hand, though at least he did play with more energy than anyone else. Al doesn’t have much else to go to if he’s not popping free for Js.
- At least the Hawks got to the free-throw line. Too bad for them they only made 22 of 32.
- Dwight had eight points and the Magic won by 25. He had eight rebounds and the Magic had an 48-43 edge on the boards. He shot just 10 free throws and the Magic had 29.
- The Hawks lead 3-2 but the Magic have to feel good about a) finding a way to attack the Hawks that works b) discovering that they can in fact take Atlanta’s guards out of it and c) seeing that they in fact can still shoot the ball.
- “The biggest thing was we played with tremendous focus and intensity from start to finish,” Van Gundy said. “And that’s what it’s going to take [in Game 6]. It will be much, much harder on Thursday and we’ll need to play better than we did tonight to get a win there.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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313 comments Add your comment
Ra'mon
April 27th, 2011
12:52 am
Grandad, that’s where you are wrong. When Josh was fouled on the layup by Richardson, on the weak side. The play occurred because he cut to the basket BEFORE the pass was delivered. He does set back door screens for JC1, and Marvin when they’re motioning to opposite corners. Also he was moving without the ball when he converted the floater over Dwight.
You said if Al beats Bass or Anderson he still has D12 to deal with. Well, that’s the same thing for anyone playing Orlando, but they are still aggressive in attacking the lane. With what you’re saying, it’s impossible to think anyone else on the team should drive the lane against Orlando because of the one man zone. So then the Hawks should just shoot jumpers out of the motion, and not drive.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
12:52 am
Everyone on this team plays “dumb ball”. Give me a break. As if Joe and Jamal’s shot selection is fantastic, or Marvin knows when to pick his spots when it comes to driving the ball, or even Al knows when to take shots and when to defer.
If I come across as someone who defends Smoove, this is the reason why. It’s not that Smoove is necessarily that good, but he is by no means the only cause of this team’s problems, even though he gets singled out as such.
mykhalc
April 27th, 2011
12:53 am
but i want owenership KA BOOM’d and the GM gone…
Aaron
April 27th, 2011
12:57 am
“But 22 points on 18 shots is not “inefficient” no matter how you slice it.”
I can’t believe that you would even post that. You know that what I’m talking about is the fact that Josh scored 22 points by taking 18 shots from the field and 12 shots from the free throw line. 38.8% shooting from the field (7-18) and 58.3% shooting from the charity stripe (7-12) is very inefficient. You’re out of your mind if you think that it’s efficient to shoot those percentages from the field and free throw line with regularity. No matter how much you love Josh, you just need to accept how inefficient his scoring in game 5 was. Slice that…
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
12:57 am
For the record, I thought he crashed the boards nicely in the first and third quarters and played generally well on offense in the 2nd and 3rd. But that’s the thing — like everyone else on the team, his positive contributions were interspersed with periods of inconsistency, and he once again struggled to get around the high screen and stop his man’s path to the hoop.
So no pat on the back for him, but I’m not about to single him out either, especially when Joe played like Dion Glover and Al once again proved unable to score on Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson when matched up on them one-on-one.
Slimjr
April 27th, 2011
12:59 am
Al kept getting rid of the ball when was setting up on the post 1 on 1???? He looked like his buddy Marvin tonight….
mykhalc
April 27th, 2011
1:02 am
the entire front court needs immediate and severe coachin’ on ball handlin’ in the post…PERIOD!!! it’s a weakness that really haunts this team…
Ra'mon
April 27th, 2011
1:03 am
Najeh, I totally agree. Josh, Al, and JJ each have about the same amount of positives and negatives as each other. I see JJ and JC1 make more dumb mistakes than Josh, yet Josh get criticized for it more. Every single time Joe gets the ball and take more than 3 seconds to make a positive move, that’s a dumb mistake. Every time JC1 sits at the top of the perimeter and dribbles for 6 seconds like this is Ruckers, that is a dumb decision.
Mykhalc I agree with playing in their abilities. But that’s because no one on this team is playing in an offense that bring the best of their abilities out. For the last 3 years, Barkley and Kenny Smith has been saying this isn’t a system that wins in the playoffs. I do believe that Josh is coachable in a winning system. But when has Josh played in a winning offensive system? I think Josh main thing is he wants to win. And if it seems what the coach is calling isn’t winning or working, he tries to make an extra play to overcompensate for the simplicity of the plays being called. But as I said, I don’t see how that’s any different than what Joe or JC1 has been doing. Crawford’s 4 good games doesn’t substitute for the way he’s played the last two seasons.
Bronn
April 27th, 2011
1:04 am
“Al kept getting rid of the ball when was setting up on the post 1 on 1???? He looked like his buddy Marvin tonight….”
There’s a chance that maybe he was looking to get better position and repost, but whoever he passed the ball to never passed it back. I’d have to go back and look at the game tape to determine if that was the case, but it’s the only logical reason I can think of for him doing that. Honestly, why would someone not want to post up if they are being defended by Ryan Anderson? Al was defended by Anderson quite a bit in this game, too.
MistaGamer
April 27th, 2011
1:06 am
If scoring 22 pts on 18 shots, with 11 rebs and 1 TO is being WILDLY inefficient somehow 9 pts on 9 shots with 14 boards was a bigger positive impact???
Wow…. now there’s a revelation.
Ra'mon
April 27th, 2011
1:09 am
EVERYONE should be uncoachable when they’re not winning. Kobe was. Lebron was. Bosh was. Ewing was. Shaq was. MJ was. JKidd was. Kidd has gotten over 3 coaches fired. Iverson was. All of these great players were uncoachable when they realized they were playing a style of basketball that wouldn’t win.
mykhalc
April 27th, 2011
1:09 am
@Ramon…agree with the coachin’ scenario. think about it, Woodson then LD…Josh’s mentor was Al Harrington…who was mentored by who??? at no point has there EVER been a PROVEN winner or leader in place…
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
1:10 am
“No matter how much you love Josh, you just need to accept how inefficient his scoring in game 5 was. Slice that…”
Here we go again with the increasingly lazy implication that anyone who disagrees with you must “love” Josh. No, you need to accept that your method of calculating efficiency is outdated and not used by the people who crunch basketball numbers for a living. Points per shot attempt is a pretty widely accepted and easy to calculate measure of efficiency. Seeing as how your implication that 22 points on 18 shot attempts is inefficient runs contrary to an established standard of measuring efficiency, maybe I should just call you a “hater”. See how idiotic that argument looks from the other side?
James
April 27th, 2011
1:12 am
“But that’s because no one on this team is playing in an offense that bring the best of their abilities out. ”
This is very true, and I’ve said this throughout the regular season. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t approve of Drew as our head coach. One of your responsibilities as a coach is to put your players in situations where they can best utilize their abilities. This system really doesn’t do that, unless you are a great jump shooter. This system poorly utilizes our athleticism, our speed, and most of our abilities, meanwhile encouraging guys like Josh to play to their weaknesses (jump shooting) rather than to their strengths. I just don’t like Drew’s system. Sure, it works at times, but I never felt like this rip-off of the princeton motion offense was a good fit for our personnel. That system is made for teams filled with personnel that lack athleticism, but excel in shooting prowess. In some ways, we are the opposite, although many of our players, such as Josh and Al have tried to adapt their games to fit into a system like this, while guys who simply don’t have reliable shooting ability (e.g. Teague) fail to crack the rotation, as a result.
I hope that at some point, we will have a coach come here that uses a system which takes advantage our our players’ strengths, before they pass their primes and lose many of the physical advantages that they have right now.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
1:14 am
With all that said, he has to get a lot better from the line, no doubt.
Ra'mon
April 27th, 2011
1:16 am
Mykhalc, exactly. and I believe Al and Josh would do great with a proven winner, not a potential winner. When Steve Smith, Calvin Murphy, and Olajuwon agree to continue to work with Josh, that lets you know they see a desire in him to win and get better. But truthfully, Drew and Woody are overachievers by every definition of the word. These guys win because the starters are normally better than the other 5 starters teams bring out. The Hawks won 53 games, and we easily knew ways they could’ve improved that would have brought 6 more wins, last season. They’re winning 3-2 in a playoff series now, when we easily see ways to improve this very roster. The only one on this team with rings, is Powell. And he’s seen joking in the timeout huddle in 4th quarter with .53 seconds left on the clock, on a playoff game.
Nate ArchiBALL
April 27th, 2011
1:17 am
“Honestly, why would someone not want to post up if they are being defended by Ryan Anderson? Al was defended by Anderson quite a bit in this game, too.”
Answer: When your playoff field goal percentage is 38% (19 of 49)…..down from 55% during the regular season.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
1:24 am
Yesterday Russell Westbrook scored 30 points on 40% shooting and 85% from the line and Kevin Durant scored 31 points on 44% shooting and 90% from the line. Sure, Durant’s numbers are marginally better, but not by that much. So why did everyone get on Westbrook’s case for being inefficient and not on Durant’s case? Many reasons, but in large part because Durant took 18 shots to get his 31 points, while Westbrook took 30 shots to get his 30 points.
Now, you can disagree with this method if you want, but know that most of the people who do this sh-t look at this as a pretty reliable way of looking at things.
Aaron
April 27th, 2011
1:24 am
Najeh,
You can manipulate the argument all you want, but the bottom line is that 38% shooting from the field is inefficient, and so is 58% shooting from the free throw line. By the way, as far as the argument about you loving Josh is concerned, I think it’s a pretty fair assumption. Just about anyone on this blog would agree that you defend Josh as much as, if not more than anyone else who posts here, and I’ve seen you called out for it on multiple occasions. Maybe I should say “like” instead of “love” Josh, but it’s very clear that you like him as a player, I don’t see why you would deny that anyway. What’s the point? Anyone who defends any single player to the extent that you do obviously likes the player, otherwise you wouldn’t go to the extent that you do to defend the player. There’s no shame in that when you just admit that you’re a big fan of that player. If you didn’t care for Josh, you wouldn’t waste your time with all of the typing up of defenses when people criticize him.
If you felt the same way about Josh as you feel about anyone else on the Hawks roster, you would be defending the other players that get wrongly criticized when they are criticized. But, in all the time that I’ve ever read this blog, I’ve never noticed you defending anyone else to the extent that you defend Josh. it’s that simple. I’m just pointing out what I see. I just don’t understand why you would call that idiotic. It’s a fair assumption. Just like northcyde defends Joe more than anyone on the blog, that’s the way you seemingly are with Josh. We all know that northcyde is a big fan of Joe and he admits it. People who read the blog regularly assume that you are a big fan of Josh. It’s not some sort of shock.
You can call me a “hater” if you like, but if you look at my track record on the blog, I don’t routinely insult or attack Josh as a player, so I don’t think that’s a very fair assumption, but feel free to think that. It doesn’t bother me. To answer your question, that argument looks significantly more idiotic from the side that that involves calling me a “hater”, but at any rate, I don’t think it’s all that unexpected.
MistaGamer
April 27th, 2011
1:28 am
Like Najeh,
I don’t think Josh is a world beater. But for people to single him out as much as they do as maybe the biggest problem on our team, even on nights when he is the most productive player on the court is asinine.
Let’s list the problem with this team’s starting “6″:
Josh: bad shot selection, pouts too much for me, I really wish he would ignore the coaches scheme (and play more towards his strengths) more than he plays within it.
Joe: indecisive most of the time, inconsistent, lack of anything to substantiate his pay grade
Al: A mismatch, but undersized at center. Not really special at his “natural position”
Marvin: can’t seem to put 1 foot in front of the other most nights.
Jamal: ball-hog, diminishing returns the more time he sees the court, will unapologetic-ally disrupt your whole offense. The reason he can never be starter.
Hinrich: Just really shouldn’t be the starting PG, IMO. but that’s really not his fault
Coach LD: will grossly misuse his personnel.
But somehow, Josh made out to be the biggest ill more times that not??
Nate ArchiBALL
April 27th, 2011
1:31 am
from the previous blog
Nate ArchiBALL
April 26th, 2011
5:14 pm
….
@JeJe – It would help if the following trio shoot better than they did in Sunday’s victory.
Al (6 – 15), Joe (6 – 15 ) and Josh (4 -10)……..40% might not work on the road.
=============
It didn’t.
Al (3 – 9) Joe (2 of 12) and Josh (7 – 18)….30%
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
1:34 am
“Yesterday Russell Westbrook scored 30 points on 40% shooting and 85% from the line and Kevin Durant scored 31 points on 44% shooting and 90% from the line.”
Those initial stats are very deceiving, Najeh. There’s a huge difference between scoring 30 points on 30 shots and 7 free throws, and scoring 31 points on 18 shots and 11 free throws. It helps the team a lot more when you can make the most of your possessions, and when you can score the same number of points by taking 12 less shots from the field, it means that if the number of possessions is a constant, you have 12 additional attempts to potentially score 24-48 more points. It make a huge impact on the game. The simple stats don’t tell the whole story sometimes. Sometimes, you need to really crunch the advanced stats in order to fully understand the impact that a player had on a game.
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
1:46 am
“April 26th, 2011
5:14 pm
….
@JeJe – It would help if the following trio shoot better than they did in Sunday’s victory.
Al (6 – 15), Joe (6 – 15 ) and Josh (4 -10)……..40% might not work on the road.
=============
It didn’t.
Al (3 – 9) Joe (2 of 12) and Josh (7 – 18)….30%”
Here’s the problem with those 3. Joe is taking way too much time to make his moves/decisions, and as a result he is often passing up open looks or good shots for tough, contested shots. This is, naturally, going to make his shooting percentage very poor, since he’s taking tons of poor shots. As for Josh, he’s settling too much for outside shots, and when he takes the ball inside, I get the feeling that he is more focusing on drawing the foul than he is on finishing and making the shot. Hence he’s missing most of his good shots at the time, and, naturally, he’s just not all that efficient from outside, who when you combine those two things together, his shooting percentage is not going to be very impressive.
Now, for Al, the case is a bit difference. First off, Al is not taking a lot of open jumpers from mid-range, where he excels, due to a couple of factors. For one thing, he is often passing up the open looks in order to run the offensive play and move the ball, and when he is taking miidrange shots, it’s either heaves at the end of the clock that he has to take, or shots that he is taking off-the-dribble after trying to elude a defender on a close-out. Al has hit his open looks with high efficient, but those other midrange shots that I described are obviously going to bring down his percentage. On top of that, when Al has posted up, he has had a few good looks rim out, and when he hasn’t gotten good position in the post, he has forced some shots in the post and missed them. I also think that Al is hesitant to drive the ball with Dwight Howard in the paint, so he is settling outside a lot more. Obviously, his percentage is going to go down due to these factors.
The question is, will the Hawks solve these problems, which are highly self-induced, or will they continue to play to their weaknesses and settle for low-percentage shots?
Mike W
April 27th, 2011
1:48 am
#1 hawks fan
My my my. It’s funny how people change based on one game. When you are winning everyone is in your corner and rooting you own but the minute you lose people jump off the boat. I hate the hawks have to deal with such fairweather fans. Where is the support! What we should be saying is, we will get them in game 6. The magic is a good team and they was due for a good game but the series will end on thursday. Will the real hawks fan stand up and show your true support for the home team at Phillips on Thursday.
Co-sign
Go hawks im with through yu through the bad and good.show support
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
1:56 am
Barkley is saying that Magic are going to win this series, and there is no doubt in his mind. He says that the Hawks screwed up with this game and he is, seemingly, suggesting that it cost them this series.
On the other hand, Greg Anthony is saying that the Hawks will win game 6.
Personally, I think that Greg Anthony is much smarter, when it comes to basketball, than Charles Barkley. I think Greg Anthony is the most knowledgeable basketball analyst on TNT/NBATV, so I tend to side with him, but at any rate, it’s obvious that people have a lot of mixed feelings about who will win the series at this point.
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
1:59 am
Mike W,
I hear you, man. Fairweather fans can be annoying, but I also understand why people would be so disappointed after tonight’s loss. It’s not necessarily just that the Hawks lost, but the fact that the Hawks looked like they had no chance in this series seemed to shake the confidence of a lot of Hawks fans. I think that’s the main reason why there’s so much negative emotion and a lack of support right now. Most of the time, people on this blog are just venting frustration when they post ruthless, negative remarks about how bad the Hawks team is.
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
2:00 am
I meant to say “no chance in this game”, not “no chance in this series” in my last post.
MistaGamer
April 27th, 2011
2:01 am
Just to be clear, we don’t have a bad starting 5/6. We are as talented as any other starting 5 in the league. We have yet have a coach that will collectively put our personnel in the best situation consistently on offense and defense.
And that is the biggest problem with our starting 5. I just hope that we get it right for game 6 because it’s one thing to lose this game. It’s another to lose it like this. This puts tremendous pressure on us to get it done in game 6.
And, to be honest, I just don’t know what coach and what team will show up, because our identity from top to bottom is that we are consistently inconsistent.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
2:04 am
“Maybe I should say “like” instead of “love” Josh, but it’s very clear that you like him as a player, I don’t see why you would deny that anyway. What’s the point?”
Come on now. You’re not stupid and neither am I. The only reason you and others even bother to mention this is to imply that only ardent fans of Smoove the player would bother to defend him. Outside of that, mentioning this does nothing to further your argument.
“You can call me a “hater” if you like, but if you look at my track record on the blog, I don’t routinely insult or attack Josh as a player, so I don’t think that’s a very fair assumption, but feel free to think that. ”
I wasn’t calling you a hater. I was trying to show via example how calling someone a (insert player here)-lover or (insert player here)-hater adds nothing to the conversation other than to insert an unfounded ad hominem accusation into the discussion in an attempt to weaken someone else’s credibility.
For that matter, since you brought up northcyde, I make it a point to try to respond to the points he makes without resorting to calling him a Joe-lover or whatever when I disagree with something he says. Whatever his personal biases for or against any particular player may be, he puts enough thought into the points he makes to where he deserves that.
“If you felt the same way about Josh as you feel about anyone else on the Hawks roster, you would be defending the other players that get wrongly criticized when they are criticized. ”
If anyone else on the Hawks’ roster got criticized to 1/10th the extent that Smoove does, I would be defending them accordingly. My problem is not that Smoove gets criticized; it is that he gets criticized to a level disproportionate to his overall contributions to the team.
Let’s just be real. If Al and Smoove switched their stat lines for this game, this blog would be full of comments about how Al is the only guy on the team with heart and Smoove is useless and needs to be traded. And I say this as someone who likes Al every bit as much as Smoove.
For the record, Teague is my favorite player on this team and has been for at least half the season.
mykhalc
April 27th, 2011
2:07 am
FWIW…i personally don’t think anybody discussin’ Hawks ball at this time of the nite, mornin’ for u cats in ATL, are haters. i call the Hawks way of playin’ AAU ball and i hate the offense but i’ve been a fan for a long time and was a season ticket holder when i lived there. people should not confusin’ hatin’ on aspects of the team as hatin’ the team. we are fans…PERIOD!!! but i do hate the way they are on most nites despite the 3-2 series lead…just sayin’
mykhalc
April 27th, 2011
2:08 am
hate the way they play on most nites…
Najeh Davenpoop
April 27th, 2011
2:09 am
Just from my observation, Chuck and Kenny tend to be more accurate when they are basing their arguments on intangible qualities like a team’s emotional state than when they base their arguments on matchups or anything tangible. Greg Anthony generally strikes me as being the opposite of that.
With that said, those of us on this blog have seen damn near every Hawks game this season and I think it’s fair to say none of us have the slightest clue whether the “good Hawks” or the “bad Hawks” will show up on Thursday. MC has not only done that but he has also been in the practices and talked to the players and coaches on a regular basis, and even he’s “done trying to predict” this team. Predictions regarding this team mean nothing at this point. If they decide to show up, they will probably win. If they don’t, they will certainly lose.
Worldwide Clyde
April 27th, 2011
2:10 am
Joe plays when he wants to. He signed his contract and now he comes to work when he wants to.
Hawks In 6
Buddy Grizzard
April 27th, 2011
2:48 am
“You guys have to realize, that if Josh goes off on in the media, and says his coach made stupid decisions, and no one else came to play tonight. Josh will be painted as a cancer.” – Ra’mon
QFT… quoted for truth. Everything you say in that post is so true. But what Josh has to realize is that he only sets himself back by letting his attitude get the best of him. You remember his drive to the basket toward the end of the first quarter where he threw a pass to nobody? I really believe that was his attitude getting the best of him because he KNEW JC1 had ruined the opportunity he created by sending Dwight to the bench.
But will JC1 get called out by the coach? No, Las Vegas Larry is riding JC1’s and JJ’s nuts just like Woody used to. “Get in there and get me a second year on the bench in Atlanta Jamal… you’ve shot well all series of course nothing changes in basketball…”
Only thing Josh can do is stop playing lazy, standing around for spot up jumpers and keep doing what he did in the first part of the first quarter of this game. And keep coaching in time outs Josh… somebody got to… Las Vegas Larry too busy on the bluetooth with the GODFATHER discussing the over/under.
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
3:02 am
“Let’s just be real. If Al and Smoove switched their stat lines for this game, this blog would be full of comments about how Al is the only guy on the team with heart and Smoove is useless and needs to be traded. And I say this as someone who likes Al every bit as much as Smoove.”
I know this comment was not directed at me, but I have to point out that I’m a bit confused here. Al actually had the better, overall, stat-line in this game than Josh. 9 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 block seems like a better overall contribution than 22 points and 11 rebounds Al had 3 extra rebounds, which means 3 extra possessions for his team and potentially 6-9 more points (12 more points if you want to be extreme and imagine 4-point plays). Also, Al’s 6 assists mean that he also aided in the accumulation of, at minimum 12 extra points for the team. Personally, if I were just looking at the stat lines alone, I would think that Al had a more positive impact on the game. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Al necessarily had a very good game or that he had a better game than Smoove, since I felt that Al was too passive offensively and a bit shaky on the defensive end when guarding the pick-and-roll. I’m just talking about this as if I looked at stats alone without watching the game.
I don’t understand why we’d have to switch the stat lines of Al and Josh to change the perspective. Personally, I’d be more inclined to commend Al or Josh for 9 points on 9 shots, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists, than I would be to commend them for 22 points on 18 shots and 11 rebounds, especially when you consider their positions and the needs of the team.
Maybe I’m being too analytical here, but that’s just my perspective on the matter.
Kurt
April 27th, 2011
3:07 am
“our identity from top to bottom is that we are consistently inconsistent.”
This is an excellent way to describe the Hawks. That’s basically the crux of this team.
jase
April 27th, 2011
3:36 am
who cares. pacers played bulls hard and they got blown out worst tonight. mephis blew out #1 spurs by 19 and they 8th seed. stop putting so much into this game. sure i wish we wouldn’t have gotten blown out but we beat them by 9 at they house 1st game. fact is, this is over thursday. the magic id fonna just feel worst. they gonna look like fools when we win thursday after they blew us out. they cant win anyway you look at this. IT IS OVER.
jase
April 27th, 2011
3:38 am
and Kurt.. charles barkley talks crap. no one takes that no ring clown serious. his own team mates didnt even like him. so always take what he says with a grain of salt.
James on Pharr Rd
April 27th, 2011
4:25 am
Just watched the game again and I have a few thoughts on what went wrong. The Magic just had some big 3’s drop in bundles-that doesn’t carry on to the next game.
But, as far as the way the Hawks responded, that is the major issue. We always seemingly give up when we go down by 15+.
When teams lock up on us on D, we should try posting Josh at the free throw line when Joe is being double teamed in the corner “dribbling away.” Josh is a quick one step to the hoop guy, and can also pass to either Marvin on the weak-side or Jamal for a shot.
The major adjustment is the story of my life-Jamal has to play less minutes at the point guard position period. And he should really play less than 30 minutes in my opinion. I hate to rely on stats much, but it is clear that when JC is in the game, we play less as a team offensively.
Buddy Grizzard
April 27th, 2011
5:37 am
“We have yet have a coach that will collectively put our personnel in the best situation consistently on offense and defense.” – MistaGamer
Lon Kruger
Terry Stotts
Mike Woodson
Larry Drew
Those are Atlanta’s coaches since Lenny Wilkens. Please come to tha A Rick Adelman!
Buddy Grizzard
April 27th, 2011
5:55 am
“If anyone else on the Hawks’ roster got criticized to 1/10th the extent that Smoove does, I would be defending them accordingly.”
Biggest reason why Smoove has not made an All Star appearance the last two seasons: He plays on a team with two inefficient volume shooters, JJ and JC1, who have carte blanche with their coach to fire away without repercussion.
If you take away JC1 from this lineup and distributed his shots among Al, Marv and Smoove, this would give Smoove the slight stat boost he needs to go from All Star snub to All Star regular. You know this, I know this, Smoove knows this.
So on a night when he balled his ass off to send Dwight Howard to the bench with early foul trouble, how is his good effort rewarded? Las Vegas Larry does not respond by saying “pound it inside to Smoove” to continue to draw fouls against Orlando’s Dwight-less front line. Las Vegas Larry says “let’s get our worst perimeter defender out there to shoot from way outside.”
Did you think JC1 was going to average 25 points for the postseason? Did you think Orlando, the most productive 3-point shooting team in the NBA, was going to shoot 20% for the series? Las Vegas Larry thought so. When Dwight went to the bench, it wasn’t time to pound the ball inside and keep drawing fouls. It was time to get JC1 in there to get his.
terrell
April 27th, 2011
6:10 am
Guess we wanted to lose by the most points in the Playoffs again this year? lol. And btw, if the Hawks were up 5 games to none in a 10 game series, I’d still have a hard time calling it a wrap. Much less being up 3-2 in a best of 7. Thats just what type of team we’re dealing with around here.
Youalreadyknow
April 27th, 2011
6:55 am
Surely everyone born and/or raised in Atlanta expected them to get blowed out last night! Even more, you should expect them to lose a close game Thursday and get blowed out again in Game 7, that’s just how it has been for over 40 years in this town. It’s Like That and That’s The Way It Is.”
areukiddingme
April 27th, 2011
7:04 am
Trade em all. Bunch of soft ass sapp suckers.
truth
April 27th, 2011
7:25 am
I cant believe we pay Joe Johnson 20 million to get 5 pts
Mike is back
April 27th, 2011
7:32 am
What’s up MC, I didn’t bother to read the commentary…I just came back to eat my crow like a man.
Have at it my fellow blogger…THE HAWKS…got me like…Keith Sweat…I’m twisted. lol
Dang, we always pick the worst times to lay TF down…listlessness knows no bounds with this team.
THE 64 millions question is…will they wilt…or defend home court…hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!
O'Brien
April 27th, 2011
7:46 am
Horrible game tonight. With such a bad performance, everybody shares the blame. The HC didn’t have them ready to play, and the players quit just like they did last year. Maybe they felt good about themselves and didn’t care because they knew they had game 6 at home.
In game 6, which team will play tighter? I think the Hawks will. So I hope the fans come out loud and rowdy to support the home team. They will need the support and energy now more than ever.
O'Brien
April 27th, 2011
7:47 am
From MC’s writeup;
…for a guy who talks about subbing depending on feel and flow L.D. sure does have some weird patterns sometimes..
He has been doing it all season, so I am not surprised.
They just kept taking and missing jump shots, allowing dribble penetration and generally sucking all around..
Hawks have been doing it all season, so I’m not surprised. three 30+ point home losses come to mind.
Al doesn’t have much else to go to if he’s not popping free for Js..
Al really needs to work on some post moves…along with his aggressiveness.
Section 303
April 27th, 2011
8:11 am
O’Brien, they may need the support, but they do not deserve it. Just another of many no-show performances this season. Part of me hopes they lose on Thursday, just so the ASG will have to make major changes.
I can’t stand Josh Smith, but I’m not going to sit here and blame him for all the problems last night. Joe Johnson was back to being worthless. Al Horford was weak. Hinrich was different levels of awful. Larry Drew is totally over his head. Team is a mess.
Tomorrow night’s game is going to be a disaster. They may get blown out. They may go down by a little. But, whatever, they’re going to lose. If you go (and I will be there), be prepared for the lose. It might not be so bad.
But, this team calling for support after another lay down and roll over effort is just absurd. They have to prove themselves. They need to get the fans into the game. It’s on them.
terrell
April 27th, 2011
8:14 am
“Surely everyone born and/or raised in Atlanta, expected” guys like Youalreadyknow and areukiddingme to come on the blog and bash the team after a loss, but tend to never show up after a win.