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Do you begin by saying the Hawks never should have been in a close game down the stretch given how the first half played out or do you begin by saying Vince Carter never should have had to make a 29-footer at the buzzer to win the game given how the second half and overtime played out?

If you prefer the former, the Hawks had a 19-point lead at the half despite not playing particularly well, New Jersey (reduced to being coached by Brian Hill) were in disarray, and Atlanta missed 8 of their 12 free throw attempts in the second half.

Do you tend toward the latter, it took a Mario West half-court shot at the halftime buzzer, a better return than could be expected from Josh Smith choosing to take 8 jump shots* (and they were all choices...bad ones), Devin Harris missing a fourth quarter possession due to injury (a possession which gave us all an object lesson in Keyon Dooling's limitations as a point guard), Joe Johnson committing his fifth foul with 4:46 left in the game which meant that a) Marvin Williams was pressed into duty guarding Devin Harris and did an extraordinary job (After Johnson's fifth foul, Harris went 0-5 from the floor and committed 3 turnovers) and b) Maurice Evans had to be put in the game with 20 seconds left in overtime (New Jersey ball, Hawks down one) to commit a foul, only Evans didn't foul anyone, instead he stripped the ball from Devin Harris which led to Josh Smith's go ahead layup with 11 seconds left in the game.

*3-6 on two-point jumpers and both of his fourth quarter three-point misses: at 6:13 with the Hawks down 77-74 and at 0:51 with the Hawks down 85-83 were rebounded by a teammate. Tip of the hat to Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby for correctly anticipating and grabbing those misses.

Marvin Williams:

"They just came out and punched us in the face after halftime, and we didn’t respond. Being up that big at the half on the road, especially against a team that’s already beaten us twice this year … there’s no excuse and no explanation for something like that.”

Sekou Smith is firmly in the New Jersey-never-should-have-been-allowed-to-get-back-in-the-game camp:

Carter’s last shot should never have been.

And not because the Hawks have shouldn’t have squandered that 20-point lead or because they should have made their free throws down the stretch or because they should have kept the ball moving on the offensive end until they found the best shot (as the Nets did to perfection in the second half).

But because Carter never should have been allowed to scoop up an errant inbounds pass from Jarvis Hayes without the Hawks swarming him like the ice cream man on a sweltering summer day.

A fair perspective, I think, but I do take issue with his description of the Hawks play so far this season:

...the Hawks have enjoyed a monster season so far while playing far below their potential for much of their first 32 games...

• Joe Johnson is having the best season of his career.
  
• So is Marvin Williams.
  
• Mike Bibby is having a career year shooting the ball.
  
• So is Flip Murray.
  
• Al Horford is playing a little better than he did last year.
  
• Zaza Pachulia has given every indication that last year was lost due to injuries not an erosion of skill.
  

Other than Josh Smith missing 12 games, what has gone counter to the most incredibly optimistic outlook for any Hawks player (who is allowed to play in games)?

Let's not use this surprisingly strong start as a stick with which to beat the team should they not continue to win 2 out of every 3 games the rest of the season.

Mr. Pelton, take it away:

Forty percent of the way through the schedule, I think I've come to a little bit better understanding of how the Hawks could take a dramatic step forward after a net loss of talent during the offseason. Explaining it starts with knowing that the difference is virtually all at the offensive end of the floor. Atlanta has improved just slightly in terms of Defensive Rating and continues to hover right around league average. On per-possession offense, however, the Hawks have gone from 16th in the NBA to sixth (not including Tuesday's game).

Let's take a look at the league's most improved offenses along with a mystery stat that has seemed to mirror their overall improvement.

 

                OFFENSIVE RATING         MYSTERY STAT
Team          0708    0809   Diff     0708    0809   Diff

Cleveland    107.5   115.1   +7.6     .190    .256   +.066
Portland     108.5   115.6   +7.1     .218    .258   +.040
Miami        102.2   107.7   +5.5     .217    .244   +.027
New Jersey   105.6   111.0   +5.4     .222    .253   +.031
Atlanta      108.3   111.2   +2.9     .165    .279   +.114
New York     105.6   107.6   +2.0     .215    .344   +.129

Any guesses as to what the mystery stat might be? Here's a hint--and what makes this so interesting. The mystery stat is not an "outcome" stat like a shooting percentage or offensive rebounding. Instead, it's a tendency stat, and one that in theory should not necessarily have anything to do with the performance of an offense. Got it? Maybe the enormous leap by the Knicks tipped you off that the mystery stat has to do with three-point shooting. It is, in fact, the percentage of the team's field-goal attempts that have come from beyond the arc.

...

The Hawks present an interesting case study in the value of the three. Their increased number of attempts can be traced to three factors: a full season of prolific bomber Mike Bibby, newfound three-point range for forward Marvin Williams and replacing reluctant outside shooter Childress with trigger-happy Evans and Murray.

How have the changes affected the holdover Atlanta starters?

 

                 2P%            3P%            TS%            TO%
Player       0708   0809    0708   0809    0708   0809    0708   0809

Bibby        .438   .486    .373   .437    .515   .580    15.5    9.5
Johnson      .453   .499    .381   .364    .534   .553    11.8   11.1
Williams     .466   .509    .100   .382    .540   .583    10.4    8.0
Smith        .477   .474    .253   .278    .520   .513    15.5   15.7
Horford      .503   .511      -      -     .540   .559    15.3   13.5

With the notable exception of Smith, the other Hawks starters have improved virtually across the board. I suspect we are seeing the benefit of a well-spaced floor and the need for defenses to respect four of the five players beyond the arc. The improvement in turnover rates is especially striking, while Bibby is hitting a career-high percentage of his two-point shots and Williams too has made major strides inside the three-point line as well as outside it. Johnson's two-point improvement is not actually as impressive as it looks; he hit 50.4 percent of his twos in 2006-07 before suffering through a fluky 2007-08 campaign.

Add it up, and the starting five has improved by more than enough to offset swapping Childress' hyper-efficient 64.7 True Shooting Percentage for Murray's woeful 50.0 percent mark.

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Gameflow

Left mostly implicit in my brief comments published in the game thread last night was my expectation of a game not dissimilar to Chicago's 90-77 loss to Miami on Boxing Day. Instead, we got something out of the NBA circa 1986.

In short, there was nothing not to like offensively and nothing to like defensively. In a lengthier examination, there are bullet points.

Re: Offense

• Atlanta's scoring by quarter: 32, 36, 30, 31. Not that there weren't some runs (early in the second quarter, the second half of the fourth quarter) but the Hawks scored easily and consistently for 48 minutes.
  
• Joe Johnson's scoring by quarter: 12, 10, 8, 11. That's how you stroll to 41 points.
  
• All five starters had at least 4 assists and they combined, in 185:49, to commit five turnovers.
  
• The bench played well, too. Zaza Pachulia scored 10 points on 7 shots. Maurice Evans scored 5 points on 1 shot (and 2 FTA). Even Flip Murray, who shot the ball like, well, Flip Murray, recorded 2 assists. Doesn't seem like a big deal? It's the first time Atlanta's backup point guard had more than 1 assist in a game since December 10th (or 8 games ago) in San Antonio.

Re: Defense

• It was fairly well established in Chicago in November that the Hawks could not guard Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon simultaneously as either one is too quick for Mike Bibby. Last night, the Hawks couldn't manage to guard either of them at all for three quarters except when Rose was at the free throw line.
  
• The Hawks can't guard Rose and Gordon? Fair enough. They're both good-to-excellent offensive players. Allowing the rest of the Bulls (minus Hinrich, Gooden, and Deng) to shoot 61.8 eFG% is the real concern.
  
• Finding the silver lining is (admittedly) not my strong suit. I'm as surprised as anyone to have found a glimmer of hope in the midst of a performance defined by allowing 127 points per 100 possessions to a team that at one (brief) point had a lineup of Lindsey Hunter, Larry Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha, Andres Nocioni, and Joakim Noah on the floor. That glimmer: defensive rebounding. If you're looking for a reason the Hawks won other than, duh, making a lot of shots, their above average (both their own season average and the league's average) performance on the defensive glass played a factor.

Charles Odum's recap for the AP is chock full of people confuses pace of play with good defense:

After holding 14 of their last 15 opponents under 100 points, the Atlanta Hawks expected a low-scoring game against Chicago.

When that plan failed, the Hawks seemed to enjoy a rare opportunity to change their style.

...

The Hawks, who average only 96 points, topped their previous season best by 10 points.

...

Hawks coach Mike Woodson normally complains when his team gives up 100 points. On this night, he followed his team's lead and focused on his team's scoring.

On the season: Atlanta is 7th in the league in offensive efficiency and 17th in defensive efficiency. Their relatively low-scoring games are due to playing at the sixth-slowest pace in the league.

Al Horford:

"We've been a pretty good defensive team. We just had to adjust and play their style of game, and we got it done.''

Josh Smith:

"It shows we are real versatile. It doesn't matter whether we're playing a fast style of basketball or slow, just as long as we win.''

Just to be clear, last night's "fast" style was less than half a possession faster than the league average and two possessions slower than Chicago's season average.

Mike Woodson reacted to Atlanta's offensive explosion with his usual wit and insight:

"Our offense was solid, probably the best it has been all season."

In truly dysfunctional team news, Andres Nocioni:

"It's personal, you know? Everybody needs to take the challenge. If we don't play 'D,' we will be out of the playoffs for sure. Today was terrible, terrible defense. We need to stop the ball one-on-one. hen nobody helps or crowds guys or takes a charge. So everybody can drive the basket or get offensive rebounds. It's energy. It's attitude. And that's it."

versus head coach Vinny Del Negro:

"It's definitely not the effort. Guys are playing hard and giving me what they can."

Okay.

Wait, I think Larry Hughes has something to say:

"I'm not a spot-minute guy. I don't play well in that situation. If you want me to produce, I have to be out there. I can make a difference at both ends if I play."

If that's the alternative, I'll take this kind of nonsense from Woodson all day:

"You’re going to have games like this. And you have to give them credit. This is the first time all year we didn’t hold a team under 33 or 34 percent from the 3-point line."

Or at least the first time since Tuesday when Oklahoma City shot 41.7% from the three-point line. Oh, and opponents are shooting 33.9% on threes on the year.

Forget it, though, this team's 19-10.

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I guess when you're the second-most dysfunctional team in the building and you play pretty good defense for most of the game you can survive a 33-point second half. Now, that point total is equal parts low-scoring and inefficient as the teams barely snuck past the 80 possession* mark. At that pace both coaches could lean on their starters; all ten played at least 34 minutes with six starters (three from each team) playing more than 40 minutes.

*Those in attendance Friday night got to see 20% more basketball than was played Sunday afternoon.

Two starters who didn't break the 40 minute barrier, Mike Bibby and Rodney Stuckey, carried the load offensively for their respective teams. Bibby achieved the relatively rare feat of posting a 100 eFG% on 13 shots. Stuckey played a key role in getting the Pistons back in the game with a perfect third quarter of his own (5-5 FGA, 1-1 3PTA, 1-1 FTA, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals). In a sneak peek at why, perhaps, Joe Dumars considered interviewing Mike Woodson for Detroit's head coaching vacancy last summer, in the fourth quarter Michael Curry played Stuckey in two separate, brief stints (one of 2:34 and one of 4:32) and Stuckey's only field goal attempt of the final quarter (an attempt he made) came with 1:03 left in the game, the Pistons down seven, Rip Hamilton ejected, and a previously benched and visibly disinterested Allen Iverson taking Hamilton's place on the floor. If you're a young point guard, your head coach need only sit in Larry Brown's old seat for your life to be difficult.

Now, some of Stuckey's offensive prowess was a direct result of Mike Bibby's defensive limitations but I think that was fair trade-off for Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, and Maurice Evans harassing Allen Iverson and Rip Hamilton into a combined 11-27 shooting night.

To Stuckey's further credit he spent more time leading the Pistons' effective defensive focus on Joe Johnson. It was Allen Iverson who most frequently lost Bibby, a point Michael Curry was willing to make after the game:

Curry said Allen Iverson lost Bibby on four of the 3s.

"It was just mental lapses. You can't ball-watch and Allen struggles ball-watching sometimes. Bibby made him pay.''

To his credit, Iverson owned up to his mistakes:

"He got into transition a couple times and I lost him three or four times, and he was able to hit 3s and they jumped out to a big lead. Just ball-watching. Once guys dropped it to the basket, I was looking at the ball. And when they would throw it back out, and he does a good job moving around, and I just got lost on a couple of them."

Back in the AP story, Rip Hamilton on his technical foul and ejection:

"I don't deserve to get kicked out of the game for that. There's a lot worse stuff being said out on the floor. I was in the wrong for saying what I said, but not by any means do you get kicked out of the game for that.''

Curry on Hamilton's ejection:

"(Mott) was being nice; if he'd given him two they'd have shot two (free throws). Whether a guy missed a foul or not, Rip can't lose it and get a technical in that situation. That's unfortunate how that happened right at the end.''

I like and relate to that first sentence's sarcastic pessimism masked as optimism.

In the other locker room, the head coach was still defining success as losing to the Celtics:

"We expect this team to beat good teams. If you can hold the Celtics to (a three-point win), you should be able to beat anybody.''

Sekou has a slightly different but equally infuriating version of that quote:

"I expect this team to beat good teams. We’ve shown that here as of late. And if you can take the Celtics to seven, you should be able to beat anybody in this league.”

Marvin Williams reveals his primary motivation technique, threatening the point guard's life:

"I’m not lying, I was [ticked off] at him. I told him that at halftime. ‘You haven’t missed yet and you stop shooting.’ And then he went back out there after halftime and hit his next one. I could’ve strangled that cat.”

Josh Smith:

"When he’s shooting it like that everybody wants to see him keep shooting it. He shot extremely well today and was confident in his shot. You go 5-for-5 in the first half, I don’t know why you don’t shoot that much in the second half."

Not going 5-for-5 in the first half has never stopped Josh Smith from shooting jump shots in the second half.

Drew has a good recap at Zaza's Playground. (WARNING: Do not click link if you do not wish to have Mike Bibby look into your soul.)

16 and 17

Ok maybe this is the same old Detroit Basketball. Because those are our numbers by quarter in the second half. Even more impressive the hawks opened the quarter with a quick six or so points. Unbeknown to me at the time, that was pretty much the games dagger. (Not sure if Nique said that in the time, but i know he thought it.)

Still, 16 and 17? I don't care if that is against 8 Detroit Pistons that is not good.

I am sure most of you were not worried. You know seeing that we went with the old tried and true give the ball to Joe Johnson for large stretches of these quarters. We didn't even post him up the whole time. A lot of it had him working to not double dribble or have the ball stolen about 35 feet from the basket. At one point, I really thought no one else was going to touch the ball. Which of course i was fine with, since Bibby was having an off night.

It's cool though, my head needed a good bang against the wall. I had almost forgotten what is was like to bleed...

Natalie Sitto sings the rotation blues at Need4Sheed:

DNP Jason Maxiell…..and Kwame and Walter Hermann. Amir Johnson got eight minutes of floor time but I would love it if someone can explain Curry’s rotation schemes. At what point do you just play the best guys you have rather than trying to match up (unsuccessfully it seems) with every lineup you face?

Posting may be light over the next few days due to holiday travel. Tuesday's game against Oklahoma City will have its game thread and recap though I make no promises on the timeliness of the latter.

It's been mentioned in more than one game thread here. Drew's written about it. CoCo's written about it.

ITEM: Flip Murray and Acie Law IV do not form an effective backcourt combination.

On the season...

• They are -42 in 137 minutes on the court together.
• Over the 137 minutes they've shared in the backcourt, the Hawks have averaged 86 points per 100 possessions.

During their shared minutes...

• Acie Law has shot 39.5% from the field*. Overall, Law has shot 41.5% from the field.
• Law averages 6.1 A/40. Overall, Law averages 6.8 A/40
• Flip Murray has shot 31.7% from the field. Overall Flip Murray has shot 38.7% from the field.
• Murray averages 17.5 FGA/40. Overall, Murray averages 16.2 FGA/40.

*This is the old, less revealing FG% rather than eFG% as the former is that's listed with the player pairs stats at 82games.

Admittedly, 137 minutes is not a huge sample size but I believe that it's time to try something else, be it more minutes for Law alongside Mike Bibby (with Law serving as the primary ball-handler), giving Flip Murray's minutes to Thomas Gardner* for a month, or using Maurice Evans for the vast majority of the minutes backing up both Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson.

*Gardner would certainly maintain Murray's tradition of bad defense and turnovers but would possibly make more shots while handling the ball less often.

Some more fun Flip Murray stats to make you feel ill...

Just think how good the Hawks offense (6th in the league) could be if Flip Murray (43.6 eFG%) didn't shoot 60% more often than Al Horford (53.3 eFG%).

Only Joe Johnson (27.5) has a higher usage rate* than Flip Murray (26.2). Josh Smith (21.7) and Mike Bibby (21.5) are third and fourth on the team in usage rate.

Only Zaza Pachulia (TO%: 20.2) finishes more of his possessions with a turnover than does Flip Murray (TO%: 18.6).

*Usage rate estimates of the percentage of team possessions used by an individual player when he is on the court.

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It was nice to have Josh Smith back. His value to the team's defense was immediately apparent. Had Memphis not spent the game's first six minutes making several jump shots the Hawks must have been quite content with them taking, the Grizzlies would have struggled to score 30 points.

The second half was a different story, though one written in part by the Hawks nine second-half turnovers rather than being penned solely by a defensive meltdown.

Smith tired visibly towards the end of each of his on-court stints. His 12-game lay-off may have limited him physically in the second half. Memphis did not simply benefit from Atlanta turnovers. The Grizzlies got to the free throw line far more often in the second half (17 FTA) than they did in the first half (7 FTA) and did a much better job of rebounding their own misses.

Memphis's defense kept the Hawks (or at least this Hawks fan) from ever feeling like the game was truly in danger of being lost. Not that watching the Hawks allow a 26-point lead (74-48 with 5:44 left in the third) to become a 6-point lead (88-82 with 6:36 left in the game) filled one with confidence about the team's long-term prospects. You'd like to see the Hawks be able to waltz to victory over a 4-13 opponent at home on a night when Atlanta shoots better than 60% from the floor.

The culprit was the second unit. Maurice Evans had a terrible night (0-7 FGA, 0-5 3PTA), Flip Murray was Flip Murray, and both Acie Law IV and Solomon Jones were thoroughly ineffective.

Some bullet points...

Memphis has a lot of talent, but too much of it is redundant (Conley and Lowry and Crittenton, Warrick and Arthur, even OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay are not especially dissimilar offensive players).

• I don't expect Marc Iavaroni to be long for this job. Memphis's defense was atrocious both in terms of effort and attention to assignments at various points. For a start, the Grizzly players could start to put as much effort into guarding the opposition as they do to assigning each other blame following an opponent's made shot.
• Apparently Pau is the handsome Gasol brother.
• Also, Marc Gasol does not draw as large and boisterous Spanish crowd in Atlanta as does Joes Calderon.
• Mike Bibby played a perfect second half: 6-6 FGA, 4-4 3PTA, 5 assists, 0 turnovers.
• Joe Johnson wasn't perfect in the second half, but he was much improved over his recent performances: 5-6 FGA, 2-3 3PTA, 2-2 FTA, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover.
• I didn't notice it while watching the game, but Marvin Williams was +30 in 32 minutes of playing time. Not coincidentally, Rudy Gay needed 18 shots and 4 free throw attempts to score 16 points.

Josh Smith on his return to action:

"I knew I had to do something early just to get myself established in the game. I definitely wanted to start on the defensive end, and being able to come up with that steal off the tip was key.''

Joe Johnson on Josh Smith's return:

"He spreads the floor and then when he gets the rebound he brings it up, and we were able to penetrate and make plays. I think it makes us a tougher team to defend.''

Sekou Smith on the unnecessary second half excitement:

If, and more likely when, the Hawks are jockeying for playoff position months from now, the particulars of their 105-95 victory over the hapless Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at Philips Arena won’t matter nearly as much.

That they got complacent with a 26-point lead and allowed the Grizzlies to make it a competitive game late — they closed to within six points in the final two minutes — won’t matter.

The reason: The Hawks got what they needed, winning their sixth home game in seven tries this season to improve to 11-6 on the season. And just as they’ve fretted over games squandered early in seasons past, they’ll stack Wednesday’s game in the win column in March or April, a time when all that matters is wins and losses, not early-season style points.

Al Horford:

"I guess we kind of figured they were going to give up. But no team gives up. And every team in this league is capable of coming back. So we kind of had to gather ourselves. We kind of got lucky a few times and made enough stops to pull the game out.”

Zaza Pachulia on this blog's favorite subject for the past six days:

"I’m ready to play every night."

Mike Woodson on the same subject:

"It doesn’t matter who plays on this team. And that’s kind of how we’re trying to build. To worry about that, then we have problems. My job is to make sure that when guys do play, they’re ready to play and they do a job. If not, I have to go to the next guy and try to figure it out. Right now, everybody is on the same page, so the minutes you do get, you have to make it the best supporting minutes that you play.”"

I disagree with the first sentence. The third sentence isn't especially true. The fourth sentence I find disingenuous. As to the fifth sentence, I ask, What are 17 rebounds, 8 offensive in 24 minutes if not "the best supporting minutes you can play?"

Marc Gasol on the Memphis D:

"We're not trusting our system on defense. We don't trust that the next guy will help. We're just not doing the right things and we lose confidence as the game goes on. We should be sorry about how we're looking. We should apologize to our fans and then show them that we're not going to look like the team from a year ago."

Ouch.

Over at Hawks Str8talk, Larry gives Joe Johnson the Str8 Butter Award.

Anybody can ask questions. Heavy Koncak provides answers.

3 Shades of Blue denounces the improbably non-televised nature of the game. With that I concur wholeheartedly.

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With 3:32 left in the third quarter, Zaza Pachulia went to the bench. The Hawks were up 2, in no small part thanks to the 8 offensive and 9 defensive rebounds Pachulia had already grabbed. By the end of the third quarter, the Hawks would be down by 4 points. In the fourth quarter, the Hawks would never regain the lead. As a team they would grab, in the fourth quarter, just 7 defensive rebounds. Toronto would grab 15 fourth quarter rebounds, 4 of them offensive. Pachulia would never leave the bench.

Flip Murray* played part of the fourth quarter. Acie Law IV, on a night he played little and was offered even less to do when he was on the court (see Murray, Flip above), played part of the fourth quarter. Al Horford played the first 11:46 of the fourth quarter after having played the entire third quarter. He scored 2 points and grabbed a rebound in the fourth quarter. Zaza Pachulia did not play a second of the fourth quarter.

*Was your favorite Flip Murray appearance last night his first and second quarter spanning, 0-4, 1 TO, and 2 PF in 5:31 (Hawks -7 in that stretch) or his third and fourth quarter spanning 0-1, 1 TO in 4:35 (Hawks -10 in that stretch)?

It would be foolish to put the entire loss on Woodson's decision not to play Pachulia in the fourth quarter. The ineffectiveness of the bench beyond Maurice Evans didn't help nor did the latest object lesson in the difference in quality between Joe Johnson and a plausible franchise player. As frustrating as it was to watch the Hawks play with one Georgian tied to the bench, the game would not have been in doubt late had the officials demonstrated any interest in calling fouls on Hawks players attempting to slow Chris Bosh when he attacked the rim.

Mike Woodson's explanation for the defeat differs from mine:

"We hurt ourselves because we settled too much for 3s. We were just too selfish tonight. Sometimes those shots are appetizing and they look good, but if you're not making jump shots, you've got to get to the free throw line.''

On the season, the Atlanta Hawks are 3rd in the league in three-pointers made, first in three-point percentage, and 18th in FT Rate.

The AJC just reprinted the AP story linked and quoted above so I guess no one was there to raise his hand politely and ask the question, "Coach Woodson: Why didn't Pachulia play a single second of the fourth quarter?"

I don't have a real jones for acquiring press credentials but the questions I'm most interested never seem to get asked, or, if they do get asked, the answers are not published.

At Raptors Republic, Arsenalist pays Chris Bosh tribute:

Chris Bosh is the well that we all drink from and if it ever went dry we’d starve to death and have our carcasses eaten by vultures.

The AJC really didn't send a beat reporter to cover the game? Does this happen in other NBA cities? I just want to know why Pachulia sat for the last 15-and-a-half minutes. I don't want to settle for pure speculation poisoned by my long-standing anti-Mike Woodson bias. I'd like to know something true.

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I got to see the final 17 minutes of last night's game which, from that limited vantage, appeared to be a higher scoring version of the wins over Washington and Charlotte last week: The Hawks didn't play particularly well but closed out a valuable win against an injury-weakened opponent.

I won't attempt to draw too many conclusions from a game I didn't really watch (I'm sorry I missed what the boxscore leads me to believe was a good performance from Solomon Jones in relief of Zaza Pachulia.) but it was great to see Al Horford looking like himself again and Flip Murray was extremely valuable on a night Maurice Evans was uncharacteristically subdued.

I'm somewhat concerned that a Bogut-less Bucks could so dominate the glass and I'm resigned to the fact that any opposing point guard with a pulse will put up a night like Ramon Sessions' 21 points (9-15 FGA), 8 assists, and 2 turnovers against the Hawks at once exposing the team's inability to keep quick guards out of the paint and Billy Knight's abject failure to acquire a competent point guard.

The Hawks were appropriately glad to win without being impressed with how they did so.

Mike Woodson:

"I’ll take a win anytime you can get it."

Joe Johnson:

"We always find a way at the end to pull it out. And a win is a win. I’ll take it any way we can get it."

• One more thing for which to be thankful today: Josh Smith is traveling with the team this weekend.
• Brew Hoop has a typically excellent recap from the Milwaukee perspective.
• I always feel better when Tom Ziller agrees with me.

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Most of my thoughts can be found in the comments of the game thread from last night. Best not to draw too many conclusions from a blowout loss on the road, with an injury ravaged frontcourt, on the back end of a back-to-back, and against a better team. So just a couple thoughts on events which transpired after I called of my live commenting upon Mario West's appearance in the third quarter of the game.

Acie Law IV played pretty well in semi-garbage time. I have some concerns about his ability to finish often enough the good shots he creates for himself. What real use is getting to the elbow for an open 15-footer or getting to the rim if you can't finish consistently? A better problem than not getting yourself an open shot in the first place, to be sure, but something I'll be watching as he (one hopes) gets more frequent and longer stretches running the point in relief of Mike Bibby.

Related to the above paragraph, if Acie Law proves himself a decent backup point guard and Flip Murray continues to look less able defensively the more you watch him play do you then demote Flip Murray to Mario West's role and add Thomas Gardner to the active roster and use him to spread the floor with the second unit? Gardner has no real value other than shooting three-pointers but that puts him one up on West.

I'd take the Hawks' Offensive Efficiency number from last night with a grain of salt. They scored 56 of their 96 points in final 17:02 after falling behind by 28 points and never, despite that uptick in scoring, got closer than 11.

Mike Woodson on the Cavs (and implicitly on the Hawks):

"They look great. They're one of the top teams in the East. They have a legitimate shot to get to the finals. You have to play at a high level when you're playing those teams.''

Joe Johnson:

"It was a tough night."

Acie Law, ostensibly on the second unit as a whole but speaking in terms that only apply to himself and Mo Evans:

"We just tried to bring some energy. And with what we ask of our starters every night, the way we play, especially on a back-to-back, they’re going to be asked to do a lot. It was all we could do to try and crank the energy up. When you start in a 9-point or 11-point hole, or whatever it was, you look up and realize we just don’t have it tonight. So we were just trying to do our job as a bench and bring some energy and fill in where we could for the starters.”

With two more off days to follow this one, I'll spend the pre-Thanksgiving portion of the week assessing the Hawks through 13 games.

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A question for the forum: How can the same team that looks completely incapable of getting the ball to Joe Johnson in the post when he's guarded by either Raymond Felton or Matt Carroll for almost an entire quarter also be able to get wide open three-point shots at will for the final eight-and-a-half minutes of the game?

I'm thoroughly flummoxed. Any insight would be appreciated.

Some things I do know...

• I won't be going out of my way to watch the Bobcats/Wizards game on December 23rd.
• Marvin Williams is a significantly better player than he was at the end of last season.
• Maurice Evans* is rock solid.
• The Hawks' difficulty guarding opposing point guards will continue unabated. Last night further demonstrated that neither Mike Bibby nor Acie Law IV can stay with NBA point guards and that Flip Murray cannot both pressure the ball and stay in front of his man.
• Raymond Felton is thoroughly discombobulated. I don't know if he's lost all confidence in his game or just isn't very good. He needs a new team. I'm not as sure as I was yesterday that I'm interested in the Hawks being that team.
• Neither Al Horford nor Zaza Pachulia are completely healthy.
• I hope Dominique Wilkins' (wonderful) title, Vice President of Basketball, caries no real player personnel decision responsibilities. During last night's broadcast he expressed serious dismay regarding the Knicks decision to trade Jamal Crawford because Crawford is "a great young point guard." I say the following as someone who likes Jamal Crawford and believe him to be a useful player: neither of those adjectives nor that noun are descriptive of him. Best not to get into 'Nique's assertion that Joe Johnson doesn't shoot that many free throws because he's "so efficient."

*Am I the only one indulging in fantasies of the Hawks not screwing up Josh Childress's restricted free agency and signing Maurice Evans. That's the foundation of a 50-win team's bench.

(This is where I'd normally include any and all interesting post-game quotes.)

Quick links...

• Queen City Hoops has a typically thorough recap of the game from Charlotte's perspective.
• Micah Hart looks back at the first 10 games and ahead to the next 10.

Back at it tonight in Cleveland.