As promised, Sekou Smith delivers more about the surprise re-appearance of Acie Law and Solomon Jones Saturday night:

Just the sight of the five of them on the floor together caused heads to turn.

Five Hawks reserves playing together usually means they’re at practice. Five Hawks reserves on the floor together in a game, as they were in the second half of Saturday’s last-second win over Houston, is noteworthy.

And something, according to Hawks coach Mike Woodson, that likely will have to be repeated on a regular basis with the rigors of the NBA season.

“I’ve got to get back to that somehow,” Woodson said. “And I know I keep saying that, but eventually we will. We’ll have guys in and out. I want to try to, at least, get to nine or 10 deep that we’re playing on a regular basis.

“But it sure would be nice to get some big leads and keep them so we could work all our guys.”

This is why I so frequently correct, fact-check, or just make fun of Mike Woodson quotes. I do not believe he tends toward understatement, subterfuge, or deliberate obfuscation. In complimentary terms, he appears to be too honest for any of those modes of speech. In more critical terms, he appears to lack the verbal communication skills to engage in such multi-purposed modes of speech.

Woodson genuinely does not believe that Acie Law is capable of playing 10 or 12 minutes a night backing up Mike Bibby. Or, he does not believe that Acie Law is capable of playing 10 or 12 minutes a night backing up Mike Bibby any better than can non-point guard of long standing, Flip Murray. I think it's time to stop wondering* why. 

Same goes for Solomon Jones but in his case, I'm completely with Woodson because

1. Smith/Horford/Pachulia plus some spot power forward time for Marvin Williams is a good frontcourt rotation.
2. Solomon Jones was never a good college basketball player.

*Though we can start wondering why Woodson seems to envision himself so passively with regard to who on his team gets playing time.

Acie Law fans can, I believe, take long-term encouragement for his NBA career in the following quotes from his teammates.

Josh Smith*:

"That has to be the toughest part for those guys. You come to work every day, and everybody wants to play minutes. There’s no doubt about that. But it’s nearly impossible to keep 12 guys happy that way, because everybody wants to play as much as possible. That’s why we have to be grateful for the times that they come in and do what they did [against the Rockets], because it’s a huge boost for our team."

Zaza Pachulia:

"I’ve been talking to Acie, especially just because I’ve been in that situation before. I think he’s done a great job. And he has to respect it, because it’s very hard to stay ready when you’re not playing. But this is professional basketball, and he’s a good young player and he’s showing good character by accepting his role the way he has.”

*How can a guy who can't but say something perceptive damn near every time he opens his mouth not be a moe self-aware basketball player?

Joe Johnson sounds like a guy who would welcome a lessening of his burden. Unless he's still thinking about Mike Bibby dragging in the fourth quarter in New Jersey:

"The bench definitely has to be effective in order for us to be a good team. There’s just no way the starters can play 40-plus minutes a game every night. So those guys have got to be ready whenever their number is called.”

Last word goes to the man in charge:

"When you’re learning to win everybody has to understand that and accept their role, knowing that whatever minutes I get I have to make them most significant minutes I can to help our team win basketball games. Because you never know when you’ll be called upon. And Acie was great for us, Solomon was great for us. You just never know what can happen, so you have to ready mentally and physically to do your job.”

Boxscore

Gameflow

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.

Boxscore

Gameflow

Watching last night's game almost felt like work. Dig beneath the numbers so frequently published in this space and you'll find the beating heart of a basketball aesthete.

The Hawks came out looking very much like a team playing on the road on the back end of a back-to-back. Except for Josh Smith. He just looked like he was injured.*

*At this point, I think it would be safe to use a line graph of the Hawks' game-by-game defensive efficiency numbers as a graph of Smith's physical health.

Zaza Pachulia entered the game with 7:30 left in the first quarter and provided a spark by contributing 7 points, 3 rebounds, and a steal (The first of two inbounds passes following a made shot the Hawks would steal on the night.) before quarter's end.

The second quarter devolved into an exhibition of bad jump shooting. The teams combined to shoot 17-48 from the floor and 2-13 from the three-point line. I took two notes the entire quarter and neither of them makes any sense to me this morning.

Moving on...

The less said about the third quarter's 19 personal fouls, 2 technical fouls, and 33 free throw attempts the better. Unless one or more of Joe DeRosa, Louis Grillo, and Violet Palmer had the over last night* that was as atrocious a display of NBA officiating as I can remember. The upshot was that their third quarter performance was unsustainably bad and things rather returned to normal in the third.

*That, in the midst of a stream of touch fouls being whistled, the occasional incident of genuine contact on a shooter tended to go ignored leads me to believe that a massive bout of incompetence was the true cause.

By normal, of course I mean that Joe Johnson hit a bunch of shots, the Hawks couldn't begin to stop dribble penetration and thus couldn't put the game away, Josh Smith attempted (and missed, natch) a three-pointer with the Hawks up 105-104 with 1:18 left, redeemed himself with a couple of excellent defensive possessions matched up against Danny Granger, in between which he found, from the low post, Joe Johnson for a game-icing three-pointer with 32 seconds left, all of it culminating in a narrow home loss for the Indiana Pacers.

Other morsels of thought...

• Were I a Pacers fan, I'd wonder where Troy Murphy was in the fourth quarter. Also, what's with TJ Ford being too injured to start but able to play a little bit as part of a three point guard rotation? And why more Roy Hibbert than Rasho Nesterovic?
• Speaking of Hibbert, I think last night's game confirms, was anyone wondering, that Dominique Wilkins does not watch or follow college basketball. At all. Granted, both Hibbert and Brandon Rush played poorly last night but I came away with the impression that to 'Nique they were both guys off the street rather than two guys who must have played a combined 100 times on national TV over the last three years and whose strengths and weaknesses are (I assume) fairly common knowledge.
• Another two assist night for Flip Murray! That's two out of the last three games! Five assists (in 52 minutes) in the last three games!
• Last night's game serves as a reminder to be accurate about whether I'm discussing pace/possessions or tempo. Helped by all the loose ball fouls following missed Pacers shots, the third quarter had 26 possessions for each team. That's more possessions than any other quarter but I wouldn't call it an up-tempo quarter of basketball. Conversely, the fourth quarter, which certainly featured a lot of half-court basketball but despite that (and following the third quarter) felt like it was played at a higher tempo than the third featured just 20 possessions for each time.

Really, this is how the unnamed AP writer chose to open the game recap:

Joe Johnson's stellar play is putting him in high company.

The Atlanta guard scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, including the final five of the game, and the streaking Hawks beat the Indiana Pacers 110-104 on Tuesday night.

"What can you say? Joe has been huge for us this season,'' Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "I put him in the same class as LeBron, Kobe - he's playing at that level. He's making big plays for our team, he's making players around him better.''

Johnson, who entered as the league's ninth-leading scorer at 23.3 points per game, would like to be mentioned in the same sentence as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and other NBA stars.

"I don't get treated like that, but I feel like I'm up there in the elite,'' Johnson said.

In victories mean the Hawks played good defense news, I present Head Coach Mike Woodson:

"I think guys are committed. We're really working hard on the defensive end, rebounding the basketball and we're sharing it offensively. We're coming up with big plays in the fourth quarter.''

I think the question that quote inspires is...How poor would the Hawks team defense be if they weren't really working hard on the defensive end? That, or, Is Mike Woodson the greatest deadpan basketball satirist of our times?

Josh Smith, amateur numerologist*:

"How about six? We finished 2008 the same way we started [the season], man. There’s something there. I don’t know what right now, but there has to be something."

*I know, I know. There aren't professional numerologists.

Mike Woodson on Joe Johnson's final three-pointer:

"[Smith] made a great basketball play. He drove and drew two, three people and everybody sucked in and left Joe out on the 3-point line and Joe hit a big-time shot. What can you say, man? Joe’s been huge for us this season so far.”

Joe has been huge this season. Let's hope the Josh Smith-related lesson manifest in that play isn't lost on either player or coach.

Elsewhere...

• Indy Cornrows has a nice recap from the Pacer perspective.
• Perhaps the biggest benefit of the 21-10 start: Apparently Drew's not drinking alone anymore.
  

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.

Boxscore

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.

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.

Boxscore

Gameflow

One long winning streak was hearty enough (or its hodler was healthy enough) to survive a trip to Atlanta. But only barely. Check out the four factors above. The boxscore saw this as tightly and evenly contested a game as did my eyes.

Possible determining factors for Boston's win...

• Whereas only Ray Allen (1-8) struggled atypically from beyond the arc for Boston, both Joe Johnson (1-7) and Mike Bibby (2-8) struggled for the Hawks. Of course, the flip side* of that for Atlanta is that Josh Smith and Ronald Murray combined to make 3 of 5 three-pointers. Atypical isn't really a strong enough word to describe that.
• Atlanta's willingness to switch ball screens and leave Mike Bibby guarding Paul Pierce one-on-one. On a night when no one who was used to making three-point shots was making them, Pierce attempted just one three-pointer mostly because he didn't need to. I presume the Boston staff watched tape of the Cleveland game where a couple of times in the second half, the Cavaliers had either Mo Williams or Delonte West set a screen for LeBron, the Hawks switched, and LeBron got to attack either Flip Murray or Mike Bibby one-on-one. Cleveland only ran this a handful of times. Boston had to run it at least 12-15 times. Bibby never had a chance.
• Boston, with the bizarre exception of Atlanta's penultimate possession (if you count Bibby's prayer with .7 left a possession) where Joe Johnson was presented with just Ray Allen as an obstacle to the basket, did Johnson no such favors. When Atlanta ran (and ran and ran) isolations for Johnson on the wing, Boston put at least three defenders on the strong side. There was nowhere for Johnson to go and no one to receive the ball as off-the-ball movement, as 'Nique pointed out (and pointed out and pointed out) on the local broadcast last night, isn't really a part of the Hawks' half-court offense.
• Marvin Williams missed three of seven free throw attempts. This is not to pick on Marvin, who had a strong game, especially on the glass, but to highlight the narrow margin of difference between victory and defeat last night. Marvin's a career 80% free throw shooter. If he makes his typical five or six out of seven, I'd probably be recapping a Hawks victory or at least a game that went into overtime.
• Rajon Rondo: 7-12 FGA, 6 rebounds (2 offensive), 4 steals (I would have guessed more.), and another data point indicting Billy Knight's inability to find a good point guard.
• Kevin Garnett in the final 8 minutes of the 4th quarter (10 points on 5 shots and 1 free throw plus 2 assists) vs. Joe Johnson in final 8 minutes of the 4th quarter (10 points on 6 shots and 6 free throw attempts and 0 assists). It was easier for Boston to get a good look down the stretch than it was for Atlanta.
  

*See what I did there?

Joe Johnson:

"We were right there and we just couldn’t get over the hump. This is tough, tough, man. This isn’t the way we planned it.”

I presume that Joe recognizes that the Hawks aren't in the game in the first place without him and hope that the disappointment of missing that free throw does not eat at him unduly.

Marvin Williams on missed free throws:

"That man has made too many game-winners for us to say anything about that free throw. I missed three myself. It’s just one of those nights where you play great defense and do all the things you can, but the game gets away from you.”

Marvin's never going to justify his draft position but he seems to be a genuinely good  teammate.

Kevin Garnett goes on the record:

"For the record, this is not a rivalry. You have to win some games for it to be a rivalry. But they are a very good team.”

He's right. Drew thinks so too.

In The Boston Globe, Frank Dell'apa has a longer version of Garnett's quote:

"This is not a rivalry. [The Hawks] are a very good team, they play with a lot of confidence and swagger. Joe Johnson is one of the best in the business and they cause a lot of hell and havoc. But you have to win for it to be a rivalry."

Rajon Rondo:

"If they played everybody the way they play us they’d be a top five team in the league."

Kelly Dwyer goes behind the boxscore at Ball Don't Lie:

Before we get down to the usual, I want to float something that I think is important. The Hawks could have won this game, and not only were they a few obvious changes away from pulling out the win (Joe Johnson making that last free throw, shoot a little better from the floor), they were also a few less-obvious changes (not tightening up in the final minutes, and I'm not referring to Joe Johnson ‘ere) away from winning.

But for them to be that close, even given this team's history with Boston, even given the home court advantage, that's an accomplishment. Horseshoes and hand grenades, I know, but this squad entered the game 11^th in offense and 15^th in defense. Josh Smith missed a few games, so you might bump those numbers up a few slots, but this team is way, way short of Boston's (7^th and 1^st, respectively) realm. They're probably short of Orlando's realm, even.

So the idea of having these sorts of expectations, and this brand of hype leading up to Atlanta's third straight loss against the defending champs, is pretty significant. It's no consolation, but we do need to keep some perspective.

Boston won because they have more talent, they play consistently to the final buzzer, and because they're smarter and cagier than the Hawks. They're smarter and cagier than 29 other NBA teams, really, and it's not even close.

Leading of the Daily Dime, John Hollinger chronicles how Garnett lead the Celtics to victory:

Atlanta led 72-66 with 6:48 left and seemed poised to pull away before Garnett took over. He did it, unusually, by going to the low post -- an area in which he's rarely been seen lately. He started by scoring on the block against Josh Smith while drawing a foul, then stepped out and hit a jumper from his familiar perch at the top of the key. On his next post-up he dropped in a perfect pass to a cutting Rondo for the lead, completing an 8-0 Boston run to put the Celtics ahead.

He wasn't done. Garnett fed Perkins for a basket and a foul, and got so amped up he slapped Perkins in the chest four times while yelling encouragement (or whatever it is KG yells out there). And after Atlanta briefly regained the momentum courtesy of a vicious Smith cradle-and-cram over Perkins, Garnett re-established order by scoring on three of the next four trips.

But the final two buckets were the most impressive. With 1:38 left, the Celtics had the ball with the shot clock winding down. Rondo dribbled through the lane and came out the other side without an opening for himself or a teammate, leaving him marooned at the top of the key with five showing on the clock. Garnett was battling Al Horford in the post and commanded Rondo to give him a lob.

"I read his lips and he told me to throw it," Rondo said. "Usually it's eye contact, but this time he said, 'Throw it.'"

Garnett took the lob and slammed it home to give Boston a temporary lead. He followed that up on a post-up bucket with 30.8 seconds left, making a difficult hook shot in the lane to put the Celtics ahead for good.

Charley Rosen breaks down the Hawks' strengths and weaknesses in detail.

CoCo takes up a defense of Josh Smith at The Vent:

Do we want Josh out there jacking up shots outside of 12-15 feet? No, but it's going to happen from time to time. The problem I see is that fans seem to only have a problem when Josh takes a bad shot. No one says anything when Flip is out there shooting at will. Everyone just accepts that this is what Flip does. What's that about?

At Braves & Birds, Michael concludes that the difference between the Hawks and the Celtics is Mike Bibby, defender:

If you asked me for the major difference between the Hawks and the Celtics 25 games into the season after the teams have played two very tight games, I'd have to say it's Mike Bibby. The Celtics don't have a defensive weakness on their team. The closest they come is Ray Allen and he's not exactly a bad defender. Of the ten starters on the two teams, Bibby is by far the worst defender. Normally, the Hawks can hide him on Rajon Rondo, but last night, when the Celtics needed a basket, they ran a screen up top for Pierce to get Bibby on him. In contrast, there are no weak defenders on the Celtics for the Hawks to target using ball screens.

All in all both a good effort and a tough loss. If Mike Woodson can refrain from getting bamboozled (I don't want to see any four guard lineups even if that's the only way Acie Law is likely to get on the floor.) by Don Nelson on Friday night, the Golden State Warriors (2nd in the league in pace, 29th in defensive efficiency) should provide the perfect opportunity to bounce back.

Boxscore

Gameflow

I'll keep this brief as I missed the game last night* and spent most of this morning waiting for my car to be repaired while overhearing against my will an impassioned conversation about the dangers of the "European military" to Americans and the highly orchestrated lies of the mainstream media.

*I followed the fourth quarter online. Not witnessing the events is little comfort when you still know that the Hawks know no better way to ice a game than have Josh Smith shoot 18-foot jump shots as the shot clock winds down. But, hey, when you hold the other team to 11 points in the fourth quarter, you're own offense has plenty of margin for familiar, repeatable error.

Quick notes...

• Josh Smith got the Horford treatment again. He sat the final 14:15 of the first half with two fouls. He finished the game with three personal fouls in 33:44.
• Who thinks that Acie Law IV would get to play 6:36 of the fourth quarter if his first half line was 0-5 FGA, 0-2 3PTA, and two turnovers? I guess when Flip Murray posts that line it just suggests to Mike Woodson that he's due to flip the switch.
• Joe Johnson was apparently awesome.
  

Speak of the devil...Joe Johnson wins Quote of the Night:

"We have a tendency to make things harder than they have to be. This is a game we should have won going away. But we always seem to make it harder on ourselves.”

Links...

• I don't feel as bad when Larry misses the game, too.
• Playoffs Hawks on the game.
• Heavy Koncak's assessment.
• The Queen City Hoops recap.

Full service to resume as soon as humanly possible.

Boxscore

Gameflow

It's much more pleasant to write these when I've nothing to get off my chest. My natural disposition and accompanying prose style may limit me when it comes to expressing simple pleasure. Thus, last night's game offers me with 1) a nice viewing experience and 2) an opportunity for personal growth.

Bob Rathbun hit the nail on the head when he mentioned how tired both teams looked in the second quarter. Both teams were listless, the players were cranky* and it colored my perception of the entire game. One low-scoring quarter in an obviously low-possession game convinced me, in the course of watching the game, that I was witnessing a defensive struggle. This despite the score being, you know, DISPLAYED ON THE TV SCREEN** AT ALL TIMES. This is another point in favor of not writing on deadline: I can sleep off my foolishness.***

*The latter characteristic did not really disappear even after the adrenaline kicked back in in the second half.

**In HD, no less. Which is just a ridiculous improvement over the picture quality on regular definition Fox Sports South.

***It's not hard to figure out: The Hawks typically have fewer than 90 possessions per game; this game appears to be played at a much slower pace than that; both teams have scored more than 90 points by game's end. This was probably not a master class in team defense. Still, I failed to connect these dots.

Cleveland's 11-game winning streak ended with an atypical win for the Hawks, fueled not by field goal defense, forcing turnovers, and making three-pointers but by out-rebounding their opponent on both ends of the court and getting to the free throw line a ton.* It was a team effort on both counts. Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson took more than half of Atlanta's field goals but Marvin Williams and Al Horford led the parade to the charity stripe as six of eight Hawks attempted at least four free throws. Similarly, five Hawks corralled between six and eight rebounds on a night when there were few rebounds to be had.

*The Hawks' free throw rate last night was greater than the Nets' free throw rate in either of those miserable games in mid-November.

A couple of the usual complaints apply to last night's game.

• Josh Smith sat for the final 11:08 of the first half because he had two fouls. He played 20:34 of the second half and finished with four fouls.
• Al Horford sat from 5:43 to 1:40 of the fourth quarter with five fouls. He did not foul out either.
• Zaza Pachulia stayed in the game from 2:58 to 1:40 with five fouls. If you can make sense of any of this you're better than I.
  
• Acie Law IV's reward for good play in Houston and San Antonio? Four minutes playing alongside Flip Murray in Miami and a DNP-CD last night. Murray was a dreadful backup point guard last night: -13 in 12:37, going 1-4 from the floor (0-2 3PTA), 1-2 from the the line, turning the ball over twice, and overseeing a shot clock violation.
• On the other hand, when Murray was out there alongside Bibby, Flip couldn't do any real damage. The Hawks were +7 in 3:59 with that backcourt pairing wherein Flip missed a lone three-point attempt, made1-2 of free throws and did not turn the ball over.

Al Horford:

"This was a big, big win for us. Especially after they came back and took the lead on us in the fourth quarter. But our guys made some big shots down the stretch when we needed to. When we needed them, Mike [Bibby] and Joe [Johnson] stepped up and made the shots for us.”

Bibby concurs...

"It’s definitely a big win for us."

...before careening off the tracks:

"They’re one of the best teams in the league. We came out and just showed how good we can be when we help each other out defensively.”

Cleveland's average offensive efficiency: 113.8.

Cleveland's offensive efficiency last night: 110.8.

Missing Cavaliers: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Boobie Gibson.

Cleveland's average defensive efficiency: 99.2

Cleveland's defensive efficiency last night: 116.8

Clearly, Atlanta's defense was the key in stopping Cleveland's win streak.

Mike Woodson:

"You knew they were going to make a run. We hung right in there, and made play after play, and kind of matched them. For every great play they made, we made a great play on the other end. I’m just proud of our locker room and the fact that they defended tonight again and we rebounded the ball as a group. It was a total team effort.”

A pattern has emerged in Coach Woodson's post-game comments, one which began with the win in Chicago early in the season.

Hawks win = We played good defense.

Hawks loss = We shot too many three-pointers.

Remember this and you could be easily entertained after several of the next 59 games.

Mike Brown (sort of) refused to blame the referees for the free throw disparity and thus for Cleveland's loss:

"We didn't lose the game because of that, but I was a little shocked with the way the disparity was. You question some calls, but I'm sure when we win some games, our opponents question some calls too; so I'm OK with it.''

LeBron James, gracious in defeat:

"It was just a matter of who got more stops in the end, and the Hawks came up with more than we did. We definitely had our chances tonight, but the Hawks just made more plays.''

Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak combined to shoot 5-24 from the field last night.

Brian Windhorst provides an excellent, detailed look at Cleveland's late-game defensive adjustments:

There was some interesting pingpong going on in the fourth. Johnson was basically playing point guard a lot and after he made three shots in a row, Mike Brown put LeBron on him. So the first thing Mike Woodson does is call for a pick-and-roll with Mike Bibby and the Cavs switch and Mo Williams ends up on Johnson. He drove and hit a nice shot over Mo, which was huge in the scheme of things. So then Brown goes to "blitzing" Johnson and when the Hawks run the play again the Cavs double-team him. He backs up, jumps over two guys and finds Bibby for that long 3. Finally Brown adjusted to put Delonte West on Bibby so when there was a switch there was a better matchup with West on Johnson. This finally worked but the Cavs couldn't get a defensive rebound when they needed it.

Mike Brown, again:

"You have to give the Hawks credit. They did a nice job defending us and scoring down the stretch. I thought Joe Johnson was a monster. We tried to blitz their pick-and-rolls, and he would make the right play. You have to give Joe Johnson, Mike Woodson and the Atlanta Hawks credit. They played a heck of a ball game. This was also a great test for us, to see how our composure would be in a tough game. Starting with me, I don’t think we had good composure down the stretch. Joe Johnson made play after play towards the end of the game, so you have to give him credit for helping their team win tonight.”

In the interest of fairness, Josh Smith made a couple of jump shots last night, so I'll break out The Josh Smith Personalized Box Score again:

One note: the missed three-pointer resulted in a loose ball foul on Anderson Varejao and two made free throws by Zaza Pachulia. A second note: the blank squares are those categories which are not applicable to the particular breakdown.

Winding down...

• At Playoffs Hawks, Tha DJ takes issue with the AP's description of the local fan support. I'm with Tha DJ. On TV, at least, it looked like one of the better home crowds of the season.
• Heavy Koncak with the dissenting view.

No TV for Monday night's game against the Bobcats. My attendance is up in the air at the time of writing so there's potentially one more ticket floating around, waiting for someone to give it a home. Let's not just fill up Philips when the best player in the world visits.

Boxscore

Gameflow

Let's start with the positives as I think there were some last night. Going semi-chronologically...

• Al Horford's defensive performance in the first-half. He did a creditable job on Tim Duncan, didn't commit a foul (which is more important than it really should be due to a certain company policy), blocked three shots, and, most impressively to me, twice, when caught on a switch guarding Tony Parker, Horford did not let Parker get past him and create offense for either himself or a Spur teammate.
• If I'm going to give Joe Johnson grief* on the nights he struggles, I must give him credit on the nights he's exceptional. He was exceptional last night. 29 points on just 20 shots, 6 assists against just 2 turnovers, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
• Acie Law IV played an excellent (Grading a curve? Sure, but this guy needs to catch a break.) 2nd quarter and wasn't bad in his brief second half appearance. That he made an appearance in the second half is probably achievement enough to be noted.
• Flip Murray played very well on both ends of the court. 17 points on 10 shots. 3 assists against a single turnover. 4 steals and 2 blocks and a few more deflections.

*Said grief stems more from the franchise investing two first-round draft picks and a max contract to build around the fourth-best playeron a legitimately good team thus seriously limiting their potential even before accounting for Billy Knight completely screwed up the 2003 and 2005 drafts and various free agent blunders.

Now, as one would expect when talking about a loss, there's a flip side to that coin.

• Al Horford really struggled to make positive plays when he caught the ball with his back to the basket when guarded by either Duncan or Fabricio Oberto. Each of Al's three traveling violations were legit calls. This are of his game is a work in progress probably due in part to him receiving the ball in the post with his back to the basket about eight times a week.
• Speaking of someone who's limited because he's never been given the opportunity to develop his post-up game to the degree necessary even though he's in his fifth year in the league and has conclusively proven to be a terrible jump shooter: Josh Smith had another bad game. I'm not entirely clear why, on a night when his shot selection wasn't especially poor* he played just 24 minutes whereas the night before in Houston he took bad shots regularly and constantly and played 35 minutes but, as has well been established, I'm neither the coach nor one who understands the inner-workings of  his mind very well.
• Smith couldn't even demonstrate team-leading selfish petulance last night. Horford and Mike Bibby win that particular self-destructive race for their concurrent technical fouls earned  for arguing a Horford personal foul that gave San Antonio nothing more than a side out-of-bounds with the Hawks down 3 with 3:27 left in the game. Manu Ginobili converted both free thows. Tim Duncan made a basket on the San Antonio possession and the two Hawks had turned a two-possession game into a three-possession game.
  
• Even though Acie Law and Flip Murray both played well last night, Law still played much better without Murray on the floor.

• The Hawks' defensive rebounding is degenerating from poor to laughably bad.
  
• Watching Gregg Popovich get quality minutes from both Matt Bonner (the ginger Horry?) and rookie point guard George Hill provided a glimpse at how the other half of fandom gets to live. Not that the average amount of purposeful ball- and player-movement in a San Antonio offensive possession doesn't engender a hideous amount of jealousy on its own.

*I've got him with just one jump shot attempted though his attempted spin move in the post which ended up with him behind the backboard attempting a lean-back scoop shot then complaining that a foul wasn't called rather than getting back on defense immediately made enough of an impression to inspire the lead-in to the bullet to which this note refers.

Bibby on his technical:

"I didn't really say anything. If saying 'Come on, man,' deserves a tech, then I deserved the tech. I've heard a lot worse get told to people and (they've) not got a tech.''

Horford on his technical:

"I said 'What happened?' to Mike because I didn't know what was going on. You've got a tight game going on - a great game - and you're going to blow it up doing that?''

I obviously don't know what either player said, but Horford leaves unmentioned that he began pulling faces the moment he was whistled for the foul.

Joe Johnson's assessment of the game does nothing to engender confidence:

"They set the tempo early and made it clear that they were going to go after every loose ball. They played like they wanted this game. And we’re running out there with no energy, like we don’t even want to be out there.”

That's just super. Had he included the difference in talent and coaching between the two teams he'd have hit the Spurs > Hawks trifecta.

Woodson's account of the pre-game is the true, bang-your-head-against-the-wall quote of the night:

“One of the things we talked about at our pregame meeting was that we had to come out and rebound against this team, or it would be a long night. We have to have all five guys rebounding. That’s the only way we have a legitimate shot at winning.”

Once more...

In other breaking it's-the-players'-fault news:

“We’ve got to be mentally tougher in terms of doing the things we’re supposed to do. Because when I can watch film and we come out of a timeout and don’t execute the things we’ve been taught to do, I know we’ve had some slippage.”

For what it's worth, Gregg Popovich's assessment of the game differs from Joe Johnson's:

"Both teams were really dragging, neither were really sharp."

Charley Rosen breaks the game down almost exclusively from the San Antonio perspective. His one real note regarding the Hawks agrees with my own take on the technical fouls, so I'll quote it.

Even when the Hawks made their late-game move, the Spurs never lost their poise. The same cannot be said about the young Hawks: On one damaging sequence with the Spurs margin once again reduced to three points, Horford and Mike Bibby barked too loudly at the refs over a foul that Horford had clearly committed and were assessed technical fouls. Ginobili calmly bagged both freebies — and the Hawks final rallies were always two critical points short.

Both Rosen and Kelly Dwyer mention that Bruce Bowen is not what he once was defensively. True, but credit to Bowen for blowing up the play the Hawks attempted to run out of a timeout with 32 seconds left. Bowen bothered Joe Johnson when Johnson received the ball, forced him away from the basket, and forced Johnson to pick up his dribble and pass the ball to Flip Murray. Murray did well to get to the rim but couldn't finish in the presence of Tim Duncan. The Spurs made their free throws and the game was over.