Victory Bullets
by hawksdawgs on Mar 1, 2010 9:49 AM EST
25 comments
- I am not sure how clear it was that Josh Smith was taking plays off, but he spent parts of the second and third quarter standing at the three point line. Doing nothing. Literally nothing, and making it quite clear that was his intention. In his defense, if he tried all the time, he would be a top ten player in the league. And that would be hard work. On the positive side of things, Josh Smith is really, really good.
- The refs last night were wonderfully consistent and good (outside of the horrendous loose ball call on Josh Smith, which may have been a foul but was called only after the ball rolled out on the Bucks). If you beat your man on offense you got the foul call, even if there was not a foul call. If the defender had good position, there was no foul call even if one was committed. Josh Smith's head almost exploded over this consistency.
- The reason this reffing worked so well for the Bucks for most of the game was they moved without the ball and constantly worked the ball around the perimeter and inside out. The contrast between the two teams was stark. It looked like Atlanta had never played together before. For a large portion of the game the Bucks did as much isolation as the Hawks. They let Salmons and Stackhouse go attack the rim, but their isolations attacked and started with Atlanta defenders a half step out of position.
- Third and final bullet on this. Joe Johnson's style is anti-attack. He makes the isolation as slow as possible. I don't know how to solve this problem. Certainly not posting up Joe two feet beyond the three point line where the entry pass still takes eight seconds would be start. Josh Smith on the other hand only needs a half step. The guy is unstoppable with a half step. It is a coaching cluster @#!$ to never try and put one of your players in a known unstoppable position.
- Ok, for real final bullet. Watching this game live, I cannot begin to describe how bad Mike Woodson was. He took out a struggling Joe Johnson after he finally made two shots in a row. He had a strategy of Joe on Jennings that worked great and then did nothing to figure out how to stop the wings from killing the Hawks. And he had no influence or literally nothing to say on what was a horrible offense for the entire game. I am sorry. I am a man of hope, but I have no hope in that man.
- Kicking a defender away with your leg is just like pushing him with your arm. They are both offensive fouls. John Salmons commits a lot offensive fouls.
- Jeff Teague played very good defense on Jennings. Not awesome, shut down stuff you go bragging about, but it was good. And it was nice to see a PG actually guard a PG. He also ran his one pick and roll by hitting the jumper when the defender did not show and got to the lane at will. The only issues were a bad turnover (made slightly better by Mo Evans committing the exact same one on the next possession) and the fact that he did not have the confidence to finish every time he found his way into the lane. Again to harp a bit, how can you know a player can get to the lane and not have anyone cutting to the basket? I don't know if you noticed but this game made me angry.
- Joe Johnson hit big shots when it mattered. Of course, it would not have mattered if he hit normal shots.
- Nice to Marvin in during crunch time, and hey, it worked!
- After sleeping on the game last night, I still find the flaws as egregious, but I have realized this game had a playoff feel. It was very physical. The (smaller) crowd was into the game. The intensity was there throughout (minus a few moments by Josh Smith), and players really wanted it. Horford and Bogut were dueling from the opening tip. Joe Johnson played defense for four quarters plus. John Salmons had a killer instinct until the overtime. There were 256 timeouts. And the Bucks are a playoff team that is playing well. So if this win actually had happened in the playoffs, I would have been beyond happy. Words like "gut" and "will to win" would have been tossed out freely. Yet this team and I have history and it
iswas February and the leap from bad win to tough playoff like victory is a tough jump. - The Hawks turned 16 Milwaukee turnovers into 26 points. (via the Sporting News)
- The opening three minutes of this game were some of the best basketball the Hawks have played. I almost completely forgot about it due to the terrible run of basketball over the next 30 or so minutes. But it was good, really good.
- A win is a win. I can't ever argue with this logic.
Go Hawks!
0 recs |
25 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
This game continues our long running theme of the most likely way for the Hawks to beat a playoff team is to have their best player (Michael Redd) not play.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about who should start for the Hawks, but it seems like the bigger problem is not who plays the first 6 minutes of the game but who plays the last 12 minutes. Having no PG on the floor or having 2 defensive blackholes (Bibby and Crawford) seem to me to be the main problem. I’d like to see Marvin, Mo, and Teague playing more in the 4th and less Crawford and a lot less Crawford and Bibby at the same time.
The heavy guard rotation may do ok before the half
but in the last quarter….forget about it. If he preaches defense so much, he should be able to tell that this is a fatal flaw in late game situations. Marvin should be in there in the end to get some stops if for nothing else.
I finally understand why people are so down on Mike Woodson...
He just doesn’t get it. The ball does not move on offense. On defense, the hawks have no plan other than to switch on screens, leaving a point guard on a center in the post most of the time. It really isn’t just Joe Johnson isolation anymore either. He runs Al Horford in isolation, which is getting ugly at times when he is pushed out to more than 7-8 feet from the basket. The last play of regulation was frustrating to watch because we all knew what was going to happen: a contested, fade away long 2 point jumper by Joe Johnson. I don’t know if he was tired or is just lazy and just doesn’t want to drive the ball, but if you are 6’ 7’’ and your defender is 6’ 4’’, you should be able to drive at him or at least shoot over him without falling backwards and completely off balance. As a coach, if a player insists on doing that, even if he is your captain, you should get in his ear.
Mike Brown
You hear people saying the same things about Mike Brown, I consistently hear Charles and Kenny and others claim that its Lebron 1 on 5 too much, but the fact is Lebron is that good and they win more than the Hawks so people go to Woody and stick there. Woody is not the worse, he is no worse than Mike Brown who has won coach of the year, which is a joke, if the Hawks were winning 60 games a year no one would care about these glaring flaws. I kinda think the consistent Woody bashing is a little ignorant. I guess that’s the way life works though, if every guy on here teams up and says I’m too negative that’s the perception that will be put out to most, even though I think you guys are way more negative when it comes to criticizing Woody and Joe consistently.
right
like Lebron is coaching defense and passing the ball as well. Woody has had six seasons to have his veterans play like beginners. You can not tell me these guys have had the fundementals instilled in them during this time.
Atlanta will win a championship....someday
two things
1. take say LeBron and Joe away from their respective teams and the Hawks are much, much better than the Cavs.
2. Mike Brown has had the best player (arguably but not really) on the planet the last three years and have zero finals appearances in that time.
it is not that things don’t work under a certain model. it is how much better could they work under a different one.
Comon
Remove Lebron and the Cavs are still a playoff team. Remove Joe and the hawks are NOT A PLAYOFF TEAM. Just imagine a back court of Jamal and Bibby … We would get killled !!!
Mo Williams, Delonte West, Jamario Moon, Anderson, and (sometimes) Shaq are not better than Bibby, Jamal, Marvin, Josh, and Al.
Period. I am pretty sure Cleveland would not pause to trade every single one of those guys for the Hawk counterpart minus Bibby.
the only problem is you forgot Antwan Jamison, Big Z in another couple weeks, J.J. Hickson, Leon Powe, Jawad Williams, and Daniel Gibson. We might be slightly better 2-5, but they’ve got depth that we only dream about.
i just think people forget how much attention LeBron gets
JJ Hickson has not shot a jump shot where someone is within four feet of him all season.
and to move back to the original point from a different perspective. Joe is not LeBron. no need to have an offense that is identical.
My point is simply
that Atlanta has a good all around team finally. In fact, even last year, many people said the Hawks had one of the best starting lineups in the league. Now that Al and Josh are playing well, they may have the best starting five in the league. It would be nice to see everyone used to their potential. If you think that it is ignorant that I want to see more actual plays run that don’t begin with the word “iso” then so be it. That is the beauty of a great blog like this. Each of us can give our own opinion.
When you don’t move the ball on offense, it basically gives four members of the opposing team a 24 second break every posession. In addition, the defense knows exactly whats coming and can adjust accordingly. I am not claiming to be an NBA coaching expert. I am far from it. But anyone who has played basketball at any level knows that ball movement is the key to success. Every time we run an isolation play, Dominique emphasizes the importance of moving the ball form east to west as well. It works…
You guys hardly make sense to me
I understand that most of you think the same of me, but it’s always something about Joe, Josh, and Woody. Let me give you a pointer or hint. You probably consistently notice flaws in these 3 people because they are consistently trying to make things happen. Al Hortford and Jamal Crawford need to find there games. Al has been playing erratic and inconsistent at best since his All-Star berth and Jamal has been bad since the game in Memphis. 6 of our next 10 are on the road and if these 2 guys don’t get back to playing really well consistently we will go 5-5 over the next 10 at best. 5-5 over the next 10 we could be looking at a 3 game lead over the 5th seed which is not good considering so many bad things could happen when you let teams stay around, in games and during races for seedings.
i agree that Jamal has been pretty bad
and I am certainly guilty of glossing over that. although, I just expect that from Jamal and Rick Sund told me face to face. We brought Jamal in to fearlessly shoot the ball off the bench. So he is doing that for better or worse. that is his role.
joe is the mvp. he is the max contract guy so when multiple people deserve criticism, he is going to be first in line.
And woody does so little positive (but I will admit I may not know enough to be able to point out the positive he does do) that he is always going to get blame.
as far as Al goes, he played terrific defense against Bogot, hit clutch shots, and literally does not get the ball very much. Not that he does not get position but literally is not given the time or play call to be allowed to get position. Al had back to back bad shooting nights before the bucks game. but that was the first time that happened all season. last night, he put in 17 and 10 with some clutch 4th quarter defense and rebounding. Plus, he altered about four of John Salmons shots in the fourth and OT. He had a few lapses in help defense, but played pretty dang great.
by simple math, if he got the same number of shots as Joe Johnson he would have had 34 points.
Marvin played great in the 4th quarter
Not really point wise but defense and rebounding, which is exactly what we need from him. I really hope to see him in the 4th quarter tonight, especially if the game is close. We need his defense against Deng. GO HAWKS!
Jamal Crawford is hurt, the Hawks look bad right now, Woody's shortcomings are being exposed
and the Hawks are somehow 4-3 since the break, despite starting out on the West Coast and facing the 3 hottest teams in the league within a week of each other.
Jamal Crawford is an amazing offensive talent. He is a 41% career shooter. Since the injury he got right before the All-Star break, he is barely shooting over 31%. In the 7 games since the injury, Crawford is 26-84 from the field.
If Crawford were shooting at the 46% clip he had been for the entire season, he would have gone 38-84 over that stretch and his PPG would have gone up by a couple of points and the Hawks likely would have won 2 of the 3 that they lost.
This team has managed to get through most of the season with few injuries, but something is seriously wrong with Crawford right now. The Hawks just got through playing the Jazz,Mavs and Bucks, who had won 39 of 41 games combined coming into their matchups with Atlanta.
I am as frustrated with Woody as can be, but I think we need some perspective and we need to hope that Jamal is able to get well for the stretch run. This team is not the same when he is hurt.
off topic but on an ajc blog
It was written that “Ray” said the players sometimes dont listen to woody and just play how they want to. Not saying they dont listen, but evidently smoove dislikes iso and tries pass more than isolation plays rather than dribble. It was controversial but weird cause it seemed like opinions but facts……idk but read the article and tell me your feedback on ajc.com under hawks and atlanta hawks at bulls aka big ray and woodys way.
This game should be pretty good
Like I said, we play well with our backs against the wall. Lets see if they have the guts they had yesterday(sorta)
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
Related FanPosts on Peachtree Hoops
Related FanShots on Peachtree Hoops
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
