Boxscore

Gameflow

An ugly win. A precious win. I doubt anyone expected a great basketball game to break out between two teams missing 40% of the starting lineups which were expected to lead their teams to the giddy heights of a seven seed in the East were things to break right. I don't think that necessitated such a slow-paced, bad shooting game but it's a pretty good morning when aesthetics are all I have to complain about.

There were plenty of positives for Hawks fans to take away:

• Zaza Pachulia's pain threshold. He was clearly playing with, at best, 1+ arms. Just giving the Hawks 34 minutes would have been impressive. Spending those 34 minutes grabbing 8 offensive and 10 defensive rebounds was special.
• Marvin Williams made an effort to fill the void created by Josh Smith and Al Horford's rogue ankles. That effort paid off on the glass (6 offensive and 8 defensive rebounds) even as it (especially early) seemed to wreak havoc with his offensive game. When Marvin's amped up he tends to float on his jumper or try to create things off the dribble. I don't know if he calmed down as the game went on or just got tired from playing the final 34:25 of the game but, in the fourth quarter, we got the best of both worlds from Mr. Williams.
• Without Mike Bibby's third quarter shooting (7-8 FGA, 1-2 3PTA) the Hawks don't win the game. Joe Johnson spent the 2nd and 3rd quarters missing all 6 of his field goal attempts and committing 4 turnovers. Bibby, himself coming off a 1-5 shooting performance in the 2nd quarter, gave the Hawks the burst of offense that made the three late three-point buckets important.
• An improved defensive performance, especially in the second half, made the late heroic possible. The Hawks had no one who could check Caron Butler (21 points, 8-13 FGA in the second half) and got some help from the Wizards' inexplicable disinterest in getting Antawn Jamison more than 4 shots in the second half but it was a solid defensive performance overall.
• Mike Woodson recognized it was a night when Flip Murray was not (despite the blind faith evidence by Bob Rathbun and 'Nique) going to "flip the switch" and limited his minutes. Of course, even held below 20 minutes of playing time, Flip managed to miss 9 shots and commit a turnover but at least he hit that heave at the end of the 1st half and his two free throws to ice the game.

Mike Woodson credited Marvin Williams' role in the victory:

"He was huge tonight. o have to defend Jamison and still to be able to score 21 points and get 14 rebounds, that's a man's night.''

Marvin Williams is impossible to dislike:

"When Al is out there, he's always grabbing rebounds. Somebody has to do it. I guess it was me and Zaza's time.''

Antawn Jamison is understandably frustrated:

"It's the same situation. We're just not closing games out. We're making the same mistakes. We've played it over and over again.''

I think Nick Young and Juan Dixon might be encouraged, the next time the Wizards are in a close game, to give some of those shots they took in the fourth quarter last night to Jamison.

Right, Mr. Jamison?

"I'm not going to sit here and lie. It was frustrating. You've got to find a way to get guys the ball. That's not the reason why we lost, but I would've rather had the opportunity to score the ball."

John Hollinger's also on board this particular train:

Even with Gilbert Arenas opening the season on the shelf (more on that in minute), Washington expected to be in the playoff hunt -- just as it was a year ago. Instead, the Wizards find themselves mired at 1-8 thanks to numerous breakdowns down the stretch.

The most glaring was their inability to get the ball to Antawn Jamison on their last meaningful possession, trailing 89-87. Jamison had the 6-3 Murray on him, giving him a six-inch edge, but Murray fronted and Juan Dixon couldn't or wouldn't loop a pass over the top, instead settling for a contested mid-range J that missed the mark...It was one of several times Jamison had a smaller man on him in the second half and didn't get the rock.

Marvin Williams gave Zaza a longer compliment when talking to Carroll Rogers:

"Game ball has to go to Zaza. The way he steps in and gets 18 rebounds is unbelievable. I’ve been here four years, and I’ve never seen him do that so. He really came out and made it a point, with Al out and Josh out, to rebound the ball tonight.”

An update on Al Horford's ankle sprain:

"If I can’t go to the level that I try to play every night, I’m not going to go because I don’t feel like I’ll be helping the team or myself, either. I want to be out there, being productive, not limping around.”

I applaud you, sir.

Woodson on Josh Smith's return from his ankle sprain:

"He’ll still be another four or five games probably."

Smith's take:

"I want it to be two, three games [before a return], but I’m not going to risk injuring it again and being out longer, because it’s definitely boring. It’s hard to see my teammates out there playing and I’m not able to contribute.”

• Mark Bradley is still predicting 50 wins.
• The inaugural edition of John Hollinger's playoff odds predicts 44 wins for the Hawks. (HT: Jake the Snake at Bullets Forever)

Either way, my pre-season prediction of 34 wins continues to look foolish.

WHEN: 7pm

WHERE: Fox Sports South, Hawks Radio Network, NBA Audio League Pass

Injury Report: Josh Smith is out. Al Horford* is a game-time decision. For Washington, Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood are out. Antonio Daniels is doubtful.

*I say don't play Al unless he's really healthy. No need to exacerbate his injury. Bear in mind, I have weak ankles.

Conditioning Report: Andray Blatche is out of shape.

Mean-spirited Follow-up Comment to the Conditioning Report: Andray Blatche is still better than any healthy big man on the Hawks roster.

Joke for Drew: Seat Randolph Morris next to Andray Blatche on the bench and I predcit you'll get a reaction from Randolph.

Joke from Basketbawful: Randolph Morris "sounds like an unfiltered cigarette."

Game Notes

For Entertainment Purposes Only: Atlanta -7.5, 199.5 o/u

Blogging With the Enemy: Bullets Forever, Truth About It

A quote from Eddie Jordan following last night's loss:

"This team is built a certain way, fellows. his team is built for Gilbert Arenas to lead us. This team is built for our All-Star forwards to carry the wings for us, and for Brendan Haywood to have a career year manning the middle for us. We don't have those things. And this team, you're asking people to do things that they're not capable of doing. You've got young guys who aren't going to make veteran plays night-in and night-out. You've got to stay positive, but you've got to be realistic about things."

One to rival Joe Johnson's Tuesday night proclamation "We can’t beat anybody like this."

Wizznutzz on Eddie Jordan's performance year-to-date, as of last Wednesday:

And DC kids start yelling "Fire Coach Jordan!" and "Blow It Up!" and "Pass The Sharpie!" and "Hopla-Hopla-Horray!"

Sure all thingz were pointing to an Annus Horribilis, and were not talking about Steve Blakes new niteclub on K Street (Biz Markie, VIP group showers, whats not to like?!)

Sure Coach looked overwelmed these first few weeks. The Princeton offense was out of sorts and even worse was the Steinitz Defense - not the famous one, but the less known one the chess hustlers in the park call "Pawns Fall Down."

Coach was emptying the bench quicker than when Justice Scalia ruled on Gay Seals V. Jesus!

Watching Eddie coach last week wuz like watching a dude trapped in a Bergman film having to play Jenga against Death!!!

See you in the comments.

Boxscore

Gameflow

Without both Josh Smith and (for the final 41 minutes) Al Horford, Atlanta's primary defensive deficiencies shifted from limiting dribble penetration to keeping any Pacer over 6' 8" from doing whatever he wanted. Rasho Nesterovic scored 21 points. Troy Murphy had 19 rebounds. Jeff Foster had 12 points (5-6 FGA) and 5 rebounds in 22 minutes. Fox Sports South must have chosen not to show Roy Hibbert begging Jim O'Brien to put him in the game.

Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby did what they could offensively* but they barely combined to match Danny Granger's production. Acie Law IV took advantage of his late introduction to the game and fueled a run that got  the Hawks within 7 with 7:59 to play. Atlanta had three chances to cut the lead further (four if you count Maurice Evans' missed tip on Joe Johnson's three-pointer) but could only muster an off-balance Marvin Williams jump shot, a Joe Johnson runner, and a Joe Johnson three-point attempt.

*36 Hawks field goals, just 13 assists. Offensively, it wasn't a pretty night as you might expect with a frontcourt rotation decimated by injuries and five-man units that likely made their debut last night: Law/Johnson/Evans/Hunter/Pachulia to finish the 3rd and open the 4th quarter for example.

On Indiana's possession following Johnson's missed three-pointer, the Hawks forced another missed shot but couldn't control the defensive rebound. Marquis Daniels eventually made a jumper on Indiana's second chance and the Hawks never again got closer than 9 points.

In what is becoming a common occurrence, an Atlanta player was asked after the game to comment on the opposing player who did whatever he wanted against the Hawks "defense." Here's Joe Johnson on Danny Granger:

"He's a pretty good player, I can't take nothing away from him. He made a lot of good shots tonight, so give him credit."

I think there's a small, subconscious part of Joe Johnson that wonders on nights like Tuesday, "How many points could I score if I got to play against our own defense?"

Johnson on his team:

"We haven't been playing together, playing with any energy, like we were in those first six games. I think we've gotten real complacent and we haven't been playing team basketball."

Can't wait for tonight's game to tip-off. Neither can Joe:

"We can’t beat anybody like this."

It took a couple of weeks but this is starting to resemble a Hawks team.

Excuse while I beat my head against a hard surface for a moment.

Okay, I'm back.

In better news, Sekou reports that Horford will try to play tonight:

After his injury, Horford limped to the locker room and never returned, staying in the locker room to soak his ankle in ice. He walked out of the locker room on his own after the game and said he would begin treatment this morning with the hope of playing against the Wizards.

Maurice Evans doesn't want to make excuses:

"I don’t want to use it as an excuse..."

But can't help himself:

"...but we’re just not at full strength right now. We’ve been hobbling since that Boston game."

You've also played New Jersey (without Josh Boone) twice and Indiana (without Mike Dunleavy, Jr.) once. Boone and Dunleavy aren't josh Smith but if you can take the Celtics to the final half-second in Boston without Smith, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the team to compete against short-handed Net and Pacer teams. Unless, of course, the Hawks' bench is, once again, terrible.

While Randolph Morris runs his personal foul to minutes played ratio up to 10:23 and Mario West warms our hearts, Nick Fazekas is playing in Belgium and Anthony Morrow is demonstrating that there's at least one undrafted free agent from Georgia Tech that can contribute in tangible, positive ways for an NBA team.

• Cornrows had so many compliments for Pacers that he had to bust out the bullet points.
• Winning six straight to open the season then losing four straight is a rare feat according to the Elias Sports Bureau:

With a loss to the Pacers on Tuesday, the Hawks have lost four straight after starting the season 6-0. The only other team in NBA history to win at least six in a row to start a season immediately followed by a losing streak of four or more games was the Philadelphia Warriors in 1960. They won their first nine games and then lost four straight.

• I'm worried about CoCo.

Updating yesterday's post...

TEAM DEFENSE GAMES 1-5

Before and after now include an equal number of games.

TEAM DEFENSE GAMES 6-10

Ouch.

Last night, the Hawks contrived to hit their four-game average of allowing 1.2 points per possession on the nose despite improving in three of the four factors relative to their recent defensive collapse. Lesson learned: Allowing your opponent to shoot 60% from the floor is destructive in and of itself.

WHO: Atlanta (6-3) at Indiana (4-5)

WHEN: 7pm

WHERE: Fox Sports South, Hawks Radio Network, NBA Audio League Pass

Injury Report: Josh Smith is out. Zaza Pachulia's status is uncertain. Reading Indy Cornrows, I learned that TJ Ford is a game-time decision. Deeper on the Pacers' point guard depth chart, Travis Diener is day-to-day.

Game Notes

For Entertainment Purposes Only: Indiana -3, 205 o/u

Blogging With the Enemy: Indy Cornrows

Pre-game links:

• Steve Weinman at CelticsBlog credits Marvin Williams for the good, early results earned through a summer's hard work.
• I like that Marvin Williams likes Flip Murray (in part) because Marvin's dad so loved Flip's 2003-04 performance in Seattle.
  

Hoops Addict has the first edition of the 2008-09 rankings up.

After the jump, my ballot.

Continue reading this post »

Is anyone panicking? I hope not. Mild concern is certainly appropriate in my opinion but I think a fair rule of thumb is that one's degree of concern over last week's defensive performance(s) should not exceed the degree to which one enjoyed the first five defensive performances of the year. Just as it was unrealistic to expect the team to continue to post defensive numbers this good...

TEAM DEFENSE GAMES 1-5

...for an entire season with or without 82 games from Josh Smith, it's unrealistic today to expect this dreadful defensive form*...

TEAM DEFENSE GAMES 6-9

...to continue even before one factors in the positive impact of Josh Smith's eventual return.

*I think it's fair to feel more concern after seeing the cumulative defensive rates from the last four games. I did. It's why this post didn't get finished yesterday.

The Hawks' field goal defense will improve with Smith's return. The Hawks' will get more defensive rebounds* when both Smith and Pachulia are healthy, and their opponents' free throw rate should decline as soon as Mike Woodson is no longer faced with a choice between playing a small lineup or going big with Solomon Jones (17 fouls in 125 minutes) and/or Randolph Morris (7 fouls in 20 minutes).

*I believe they stand a pretty good chance of remaining a below average defensive rebounding team for the course of the season though that may be me just hoping that I'll make one correct prediction regarding this year's team.

One more thing to consider: The Hawks good defensive start featured not only a healthy Josh Smith but also Joe Johnson guarding the opposing teams' point guards. That works great when Johnson can sag off Jameer Nelson or Chris Paul and the Hawks can hide Mike Bibby on Mickael Pietrus or Morris Peterson without fear that Bibby will get abused in the low post. You can't hide Bibby* defensively against a Derrick Rose/Ben Gordon or Devin Harris/Vince Carter backcourt.

*The defensive performance in the loss to the Celtics had more to do with the Hawks not having anyone capable of guarding Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett. Those defensive limitations did create a bunch of open three-point shots (a problem which persisted through both games against the Nets) for Ray Allen and Eddie House, both of whom, quite politely in my view, missed the vast majority of those shots.

Some nights the Hawks are going to have to pay a defensive price to reap the benefits of Mike Bibby's shooting, passing, and ball-handling. Some nights, though, they'll be willing and able to acknowledge his defensive limitations and minimize the deleterious effects. On those nights the Hawks will be very difficult to beat.

Boxscore

Gameflow

Let's review the Hawks' defensive performances from the past week:

That's poor.

Mike Woodson fell back on the previous day's post-game refrain:

"We had no answer for them from a defensive standpoint."

It was just as true Saturday night as it was Friday. Which makes the timing of this Terrence Moore column odd. Three game losing streak? Check. Week-long defensive implosion? Check. Eleven-percent of the season complete? Check. Career record? 112-225. Perfect time for an I told you so column.

Joe Johnson:

"They were the aggressor [Friday], and then they come in here and pretty much did the same thing. One-on-one, we haven’t been really guarding our man particularly well. And I’ll take a lot of heat for that. But at the same time, we haven’t been man-ing up and guarding our guys. Guys are flying by and getting to the hole and then breaking our defense down.”

Al Horford:

"They were so good at stretching us out and then kicking the ball to their shooters that it just staggered our team defense. It makes it tough to help each other on defense when they’re constantly breaking us down and finding somebody who is knocking down shots."

Tha DJ crafted one of the best titles ever for his account of the game at Playoffs Hawks.

Good news: Josh Smith is off his crutches.

More good news: The Hawks won't see Devin Harris again until 2009.

Dave D'Alessandro on Harris:

It was one of those incandescent moments that only the special offensive teams have, so take this preemptive warning: When you read the word "Nets" in the next paragraph, assume that it's not a misprint.

Because if the last three games with Devin Harris running this astonishing show are any indication, the Nets are turning into an impressive -- nay, special -- offensive team.

Drew at Zaza's Playground on Harris:

The refs were horrible. Devin Harris took advantage of this fact. Devin also took advantage of playing the Hawks. Combined, Devin took advantage.

The Hawks have a couple of days off. I hope they spend part of that time developing a plausible strategy for keeping someone in front of TJ Ford. Hawks @ Pacers, Tuesday night.

WHO: New Jersey (3-5) at Atlanta (6-2)

WHEN: 7pm

WHERE: Hawks Radio Network, NBA Audio League Pass

Injury Report: Josh Smith is out. For New Jersey, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Stromile Swift, Josh Boone, and Eduardo Najera are out.

Game Notes

For Entertainment Purposes Only: Atlanta -10, 194.5 o/u

Blogging With the Enemy: NetsDaily, Nets Blast

No TV tonight and a prior commitment precludes me from either attending the game or setting up shop in a tavern which beams in League Pass. Eyewitness accounts are welcomed.

Boxscore

Gameflow

I think it's fair to expect that if the following things occur the Hawks should win the game.

• Joe Johnson scores 32 points on 16 shots.
• Joe Johnson scores 21 points and does not miss a shot in the fourth quarter.
• The Hawks make 15-27 three-pointers.
• Marvin Williams scores 21 points.
• Flip Murray scores 21 points on 13 shots.
• Acie Law IV (welcome back) scores 9 points and has three assists in ten minutes.
• Mike Bibby makes 4 three-pointers and doesn't turn the ball over once.

How did the Hawks go about wasting their broad offensive success last night?

• By letting the Nets shoot better than 50% from the floor.
• By also letting the Nets rebound more than 35% of their own missed shots.
• By sending the Nets to free throw line almsot twice as often as the Hawks visited the stripe.
• By forcing just 8 turnovers on roughly 90 Net possessions.

It was a terrible defensive performance crowned by a 42-point New Jersey fourth quarter wherein a small Hawks lineup couldn't guard the Nets' perimeter players at all. 16 fourth quarter points for Devin Harris. 12 for Vince Carter. 7 for Keyon Dooling (3-3 FGA). 5 for Ryan Anderson (2-3 FGA).

To be fair, Al Horford, Solomon Jones, and Zaza Pachulia shouldn't be left off the hook. For the first three quarters the greatest question concerning the Hawks' defense was Why is Brook Lopez scoring so much more easily than he did against collegiate competition? I don't have an answer to that. Or why Ryan Anderson scored just as easily as he did when he played for cal.

Also lacking answers, Mike Woodson:

"Give them credit because coach Frank had them ready and we just didn't get it done tonight. They made the plays and hit big shots down the stretch. We had no answer for it.

I thought we were lethargic to start the game. We let Lopez establish himself down low. He got going and we couldn't control him or the kid Anderson. Those were two guys we weren't counting on to come out and play big.''

Dave D'Alessandro co-signs Woodson's surprise at the rookies' good play:

Whoever scripted this has a vivid imagination...It had an unimaginable, accelerated growth spurt from two rookies -- Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson -- who stepped in for injured vets Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera, and not only helped bring the team home, but carried it through crucial stretches.

Joe Johnson keeps it simple:

"We just didn’t keep our man in front of us."

That's the recap, that sentence there. Back at it tonight.

WHO: Atlanta (6-1) at New Jersey (2-5)

WHEN: 7:30pm

WHERE: Fox Sports South, Hawks Radio Network, NBA Audio League Pass

Injury Report: Zaza Pachulia is questionable. Josh Smith is out. For New Jersey, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Stromile Swift are out. Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera are questionable. Devin Harris is listed as questionable but is expected to play.

Game Notes

For Entertainment Purposes Only: Atlanta -2, 192 o/u

Blogging With the Enemy: NetsDaily, Nets Blast

• For an outsider's perspective on the Hawks hot start, check out Brandon Hoffman's post at ballerblogger.
• For a learned opinion on the Nets, check out Dave D'Alessandro answering questions at Hawks.com.