Atlanta Hawks Off Day News and Notes

Coach Larry Drew on the Hawks performance in Utah:

"From start to finish I thought it was one of the most complete games where we controlled it from start to finish on both ends of the floor," Drew said. "Defensively, I thought we did a great job. And then we actually got our and ran, made the extra pass."

The Hawks execution was near flawless in this one whether it was in the half court, fast break, or secondary break situations. Atlanta made Utah pay at every opportunity. 

Utah coach Jerry Sloan on the Hawks offensive success:

"A lot of that had to do with the way we tried to guard them in the post," Sloan said. "They threw the ball out of the post a number of times for guys to be able to take shots. That’s one thing; the other is whenever they were looking for three-point shots we had trouble getting to them."

Brett LaGree on Joe Johnson's performance in Sacramento and Utah:

Johnson earned just three assists in the two games and 14 of his 22 made field goals were assisted. Certainly the Hawks will take a decline in Johnson's assists in exchange for more frequent and efficient finishing. It's a fair question how much credit for Johnson's explosion should be apportioned to better shooting, how much to better offensive execution, and how much to poor defending but perhaps, somewhat paradoxically, a reduction of Johnson's offensive workload spurred increased production.

Michael Cunningham on the Hawks lack of success historically in Utah:

The victory against Utah was surprisingly lopsided under the circumstances. The Hawks won for just the third time in nine road games against opponents with winning records and started a winning streak in a city where they once went 17 years without a victory.

Basketball John at SLC Dunk marvels at the Hawks performance:

The Hawks came in after a late game against the Kings last night and outplayed, out-hustled, and and out-shot the Jazz in every facet of the game.  I think  the ESPN box score might be broken though because it shows that the Hawks only made 50% of their shots and 56% of their threes.