Miami Heat Vs. Atlanta Hawks: This Game Deserves No Recap Edition

This recap is going to be short and sweet because there is no way that I am not interested in sitting through that effort again. After all if the majority of the Hawks players are that disinterested to play in the game then why should I be interested to watch?

First some perspective. This is but one of 66 games this season and the compacted schedule is going to produce some lackluster efforts from a lot of teams. The problem here in lies is that we have seen this exact thing before from this group and the minute that they found out LeBron James and Dwyane Wade weren't playing it appears that they were no longer interested in playing in this game. That is fine for a bunch of high school kids but its not for professionals and there was very little if anything professional about this effort tonight.

This group has shown the ability in the past to throw up a stinker like this and come back with a spirited performance. However, sometimes losses like last night linger. Its the worst feeling I have had after a game since they got swept by Orlando and got booed off the court at Philips Arena. Judging by the dueling comments made after the game (highlighted in MC's recap) it seems that a lot of fingers were being pointed and that is certainly something that hasn't always happened in the past. It is also something that we must keep an eye on going forward.

Al Horford:

"That's a miscommunication there. That went on all game. Guys were not on the same page and we weren't switching. We were having some problems with the coverages. Jeff [Teague], you can't fault him, he expects it to be done the right way every time."

Josh Smith

"I don't know how much louder I can scream for whoever it is that a man is coming up and setting a screen. . . . We were giving up too many straight-line drives to the basket and dribble-drive layups. It's disappointing to see that when somebody makes a play, as teammates we have to come up and help them. "

More Josh

"I understand that they are looking to me to generate most of the energy but at the same time we are all professionals. Everybody has to be able to go out there and play no matter who steps out there on the floor."

You can read into those comments however you want but it punctuates that this might not have been your run of the mill upset regular season loss and it puts a lot of pressure on the coaching staff to get everyone back on the same page.