Hawks 115 Warriors 99

Boxscore

Gameflow

Mike Woodson didn't make many decisions with which I agree last night but against the Warriors sans Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis, and Corey Maggette (but with an intriguing first half performance from Marco Belinelli) it didn't matter a whit. Plus Flip Murray redeemed the massively undeserved confidence Woodson deomnstrated by inserting him into the game with 2:37 left in the third quarter and leaving him in for the duration. So I guess congratulations for last night are in order even as anticipatory cringes course through my body.

I'm cringing because Woodson found minutes for Murray following a seven-minute, three shot (to be fair, two makes), one assist, and three turnover first half but could not find minutes for Acie Law (seven minutes, five assists, one turnover), Mike Bibby (seven points, seven assists, and eight rebounds in 26 minutes), or Al Horford (14 points, six rebounds, five assists, three blocks in 28 minutes). I know Murray finished +24 in 21 minutes, scoring 20 points but I don't think he made any better decisions than he normally does. His success had more to do with Golden State's defense and his bi-weekly good shooting night than any indication that he's going to stop being a below-average basketball player.

I still don't believe that Woodson recognizes who his best players are, how good (or not good) individual players are, or what combinations of players give the Hawks the best chance to win. The idea that he has any interest in developing Acie Law into even a quality backup can be put to rest at this point. There's clearly nothing Law can do to earn playing time if a bad veteran player's available for Woodson to use instead. It didn't matter last night against a short-handed Golden State team but it doesn't fill me with confidence going forward.