Ok Dwayne, you can have that one.
Seven assists.
The Hawks managed to bring home seven assists last night. That matched the number of two point jump shots Dwayne Wade made from one specific spot on the floor.
Certainly some missed opportunities and some bad "heat checks" contributed to the total, but a more glaring problem exists that this number seven just keeps reminding me of, prodding me, hurting my feelings. A truly biblical number looming over the team's head with biblical proportions.
Without the three pointer going down early and relatively often, the Hawks do not have the patience or offensive sets to win many games against average and above teams.
Because without that three ball, the Hawks turn into a post up offense*. An offense that has a few minor weaknesses.
- The Hawks are horrible at getting the ball into the post and/or getting open in the post. Twice last night, Joe Johnson posted up, already 18 feet from the basket, working like his mom just yelled at him, trying to get position. Slowly he was pushed outside the three point line and literally received the ball, still posted up against his defender now 27 feet from the basket.
- The Hawks, outside of maybe Josh Smith, are not good at passing out of the post. And the Inspector is one of the more impatient post players. It all leads to stagnant, predictable play usually resulting in a one on three offensive possession as the Hawk player with the ball heads to the hoop with blinders on.
- The Hawks do not run any kind of motion offense unless you consider setting screens to have someone else hold the ball 24 feet from the basket a motion offense.
Sometimes, when the threes are not falling, the Hawks can athlete themselves out the funk. In large part, they did this during Sunday's Suns game. And we all saw the offensive performance of that fourth quarter.
I am just tired of seeing stretches where the only guess work in the offense is thinking about who is going to post up with 12 seconds left on the shot clock.
*I am aware the Hawks run one other play. The Joe Johnson drive and runner from the top of the key. And certainly this play is effective as long as Joe is not playing four on one. Which he is not doing about 34% of the time.
And that was not even the worst part of last night
That three point shot at the end of the third quarter by the Heat put Solo into a negative +/- for the game. In all honesty, that shot hurt the most. As Nique would say, "a true dagger, a true dagger."