Nets 119 Hawks 107

by Hoopinion on Nov 16, 2008 12:45 PM EST

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
NJ	94.8	1.25	63.8	44.9	28.6	19
ATL	94.8	1.13	51.9	36.8	27.8	17.9

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

Opp	Off Eff
CHI	1.14
BOS	1.13
NJ	1.28
NJ	1.25

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.

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Comments

great review as usual

i think the Hawks without Smith and Zaza should be expected to be slightly worse defensively, its unfortunate that Morris is too young and dumb to be a impact player, this could have been a time for him to prove himself, and he did, the wrong way. it was really just the timing of everything, back-to-back Nets without Josh or Zaza and a returning from injury Devin Harris was too much for the Hawks to overcome

Marvin Williams has been playing great though

by higherself08 on Nov 16, 2008 6:25 PM EST reply actions

Though I expected the Hawks to regress some defensiveIy w/o Smith, I don’t understand why Smith’s absence has coincided with a team-wide inability to prevent dribble penetration.

by Hoopinion on Nov 16, 2008 8:32 PM EST up reply actions