Hawks University: A Vocational School for Bench Players

All three games played in Washington have left the impression that neither team played especially well and neither team played especially poorly. Lending credence to that impression of just watching an Eastern Conference playoff series happen before me, the Hawks twice took a 7-point lead in the first half at which point the Wizards went on 5-0 and 13-2 runs. After Washington took their biggest lead of the game (11 points) in the third quarter, the Hawks scored the next 11 points.

As in the first two games, the biggest issue for the Hawks is a lack of talent on the roster. A well-executed offensive possession that ends with, say, an open Kent Bazemore three-point attempt or Ersan Ilyasova having to finish at the rim on the move doesn't have the expected value that leads to road playoff wins. Not to pick on Bazemore and Ilyasova exclusively.

Tim Hardway, Jr. has no chance to guard Bradley Beal and John Wall and, except for a two-minute stretch in the third quarter wherein he scored 8 of his 15 points, can't make up for his defensive ineptitude* offensively at this level of competition. He played the entire fourth quarter, missed all five of his field goal attempts and grabbed a single rebound with nine seconds left.

*His defensive performance in this series should be used in schools to teach young people that playing defense is not simply a matter of trying hard. He's trying hard. He's a bad defender. 

Dwight Howard looked downright spry in the first quarter, twice contesting a shot to force a miss then moving to grab the rebound. Dwight Howard looked immobile in the second half and had a negligible impact on the game. The Hawks outscored the Wizards in both of Mike Muscala's second half stints but, per usual, one gets the sense that where Muscala's defender stands when he's on the court makes a larger impact than anything Muscala actively does.

The Hawks simply lack the talent to put five good players on the floor at any time despite sustained excellence from Paul Millsap* and Dennis Schröder. That the Hawks can stay in a road playoff game despite making 29% of their three-pointers, committing more turnovers, and attempting fewer free throws is a testament** to the soundness of the offensive and defensive framework in which they operate.

*If I can be indulged in one slight criticism of Millsap, he should just ditch his half-hearted pump fakes from beyond the three-point line. The league gets that he doesn't want to shoot that shot so the pump fake turns into more of a pause, allowing the primary and secondary defenders time to get set which makes it more difficult for Millsap to create a good shot (or draw a foul) off the dribble.

**It might be a testament to the Wizards not being that good, too.

On the brink of elimination that soundness provides hope for this team's short-term survival as well as the challenge of building a more talented, balanced roster for the 2017-18 season and beyond.

The Jose Calderon Game

Whether seen again or not, this weekend's version of the Atlanta Hawks, the one that shoots threes better and turns the ball over less often their opponents, provided pure basketball pleasure. Or at least pleasure as pure as possible over 2 games that featured 90 personal fouls and approximately 80 post-foul discussions between various combinations of referees, players, and coaches.

The Hawks paired typically stout defense with shot-making and ball protection. They got (Brandon Jennings 20-foot step-backs, excepted) what you want from surrendering mid-range opportunities. John Wall was 1-7 in Game 4 from between 14 and 21 feet. Markieff Morris was 3-7 (and only one 3PTA). Otto Porter, Jr. was 1-4. Kelly Oubre, Jr. and Bojan Bogdanovic both went 0-1. Bradley Beal was 3-5, but 6 points on 5 shots was less damaging than the 26 points he got on his other 18 FGAs.

Dwight Howard was excellent in Game 4, lending further credence to the idea that he and Thabo Sefolosha were redundant, but having one defensive-oriented role player on the floor is valuable. On the offensive end, Howard's presence complicates using Millsap as the screener in pick-and-rolls because of the extra defender Washington gets to leave in the paint. But, in the second quarter, Kent Bazemore showed, on consecutive possessions, it is still possible to get into the lane and drop off a lob for Howard to finish.

Given my pre-series focus on how the Hawks could connive to get Paul Millsap matched up against Jason Smith, it's a bit embarrassing to recognize that I overlooked the simplest path: get Markieff Morris in foul trouble and trust Scott Brooks to make a puzzling rotation decision in a playoff game. Going big against the Hawks isn't as big a risk as resting Wall and Beal simultaneously, but I don't see how it helps his team.

One of my main worries* going into Game 4 was who the Hawks' third scorer would be. Of course, the Hawks had scorers third through seventh contribute, including two I'd given up on: Kent Bazemore (truly excellent) and Tim Hardaway, Jr., who showed signs of offensive life early in the fourth quarter against Washington's second unit (hint hint, Bud). 

*Worrying about what happens if Millsap or Schröder has a bad offensive game is at the forefront of my thoughts about the decisive three games ahead.

Then there was Jose Calderon. In the kind of performance that can have a massive impact on winning a short series, he did the things you can fairly expect of him in his 36th year: make 40% of his threes, keep Bazemore and Hardaway, Jr. from playing out of position as the backup point guard...that's about it, actually. He also did things nearly unfathomable even as you witnessed them: a key fourth quarter tip-in in transition, confound the Wizards' attempt to get easy points by running him off of screens or posting him up with bigger shooters, raise the specter of a Jose Calderon/Brandon Jennings fight in a playoff game in the Year Of Our Lord 2017, and retroactively justify sitting Dennis Schröder for the last 14:28 of the first half because he had three fouls...in a game Schröder finished with three fouls after scoring 18 points in 18:49 of second half playing time.

What Does It Mean?

There's nothing better than making shots. Pair it with the Hawks typically stout defense and the result is an insurmountable 25-point lead less than 11 minutes into a playoff game. Is it a one-off event, just something that happened or something portentous?

The first quarter saw a second consecutive positive stint for Atlanta's starting lineup (they couldn't repeat the feat at the start of the third) which saw useful defensive activity from Dwight Howard despite his extremely limited offensive involvement (he didn't attempt a field goal or free throw from 2:55 left in the first quarter until 5:39 left in the fourth quarter) and the rare sight of good Atlanta three-point shooting. With Thabo Sefolosha out of the rotation, the Hawks need more quality defensive role player minutes from Howard than I suspected before the series started. It appears Budenholzer has gotten to a point where he's working to get those and willing to go small.

The Hawks made 5-9 threes in the first quarter but, by the end of the game, they stand 15-61 from deep in the series' other 11 quarters. I lean toward putting "making a high percentage of threes" in "just something that happened" column. However, the Hawks got a lot of high-percentage two-point shots in the first three quarters which should be more replicable, especially if the non-John Wall Wizards give another low-energy performance (just 6 offensive rebounds, only 11 forced turnovers, 28 more fouls). Taurean Prince offered a vital third scoring option, getting 14 points on 7 shots through three quarters, outplaying Otto Porter, Jr. almost as badly as Paul Millsap did Markieff Morris (in a less obviously psychically scarring manner).

Though Dennis Schröder is clearly the second-best point guard in this series, he's playing at the top of his ability to score 25 efficient points per game and earn 24 assists against just 6 turnovers. Schröder's defense is never going to be of "stop John Wall" quality, it might never be good, even, but it's a better workplace when he's giving visible effort on that end. Nor should Schröder's best self overshadow Paul Millsap's continued two-way excellence, which is unique across both rosters in this series so far.

A blessedly quick turnaround for Game 4 should offer more information as to where the series stands. I'm not entirely clear on whether, in Millsap's framework, a third successive win for the home team means the series is still 0-0 or not.

Washington 114 Atlanta 107: Game 1 Recap Bullets

• Dwight Howard got a lot of rebounds (14!) and the Hawks were not good with him on the floor (-21 in 29 minutes!).
• Which means they outscored the Wizards by 14 points in the 18:54 Howard didn't play.
• Mike Muscala is not a good NBA player in an absolute sense, but he's a functional one. Given the Hawks' dearth of talent, that's not nothing in this context.
• Also relevant in this context, the Wizards' bench is not good. There is no expectation five-out Hawks lineups could blow out the Wizards' starters to same degree we saw five-out lineups succeed against these units today.
• I think it's a fair expectation that the Wizards' starters can consistently house this Atlanta starting lineup.
• The Hawks' starting lineup: -14.8/100 possessions in 26:49 entering this game, was outscored by 13 points over 27 possessions in 12:01 of this game.
• Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway, Jr. cannot guard John Wall and Bradley Beal and aren't good enough offensive players to mitigate that inability. Especially Hardaway, Jr., who put in so ineffectual and awkward-looking a playoff performance in a Hawks uniform that you'd be forgiven for mistaking it as a tribute to the young Marvin Williams.
• Schröder's inability/unwillingness to stop the ball when John Wall has it in transition is breathtaking.
• The Hawks probably can't lose games where they get almost a third of their shots from beyond the arc (plus only 8 long twos) and attempt 39 free throws and win the series.
• Thabo Sefolosha is such a good role player (amidst a roster full of okay role players), one could argue the Hawks were missing their second-best player.
• Still, Bud's rotations were baffling.
• Malcolm Delaney's NBA career is over, huh?
• Markieff Morris would rather play the Hawks than VCU. 

A Brief Preview Advocating Something Extreme

The Hawks are deserved underdogs (about 33% to win the series at this writing) -- they were worse in the regular season than the Wizards and Washington is a bad matchup for the Hawks to boot. John Wall and Bradley Beal* are too productive for the Hawks' dynamic offensive duo of Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway, Jr to get away with their "What if Lillard and McCollum weren't especially good?" act. Instead of playing out the string conventionally and losing on merit, why not make bold choices in an effort to win and, failing that, at least lose** interestingly?

*Who is actually good year-round at this point which should allow me to leave behind (finally) my weird tendency to overrate the Wizards every October despite thinking Beal isn't very good.

**Easy for me to say as my employment situation will be entirely unaffected by the results of this series.

Ideally, the Hawks would put their best perimeter defender, Thabo Sefolosha, on Washington's best perimeter offensive player, John Wall, and figure out the rest from there. But Bud has extensive previous in not regularly cross-matching Paul Millsap and Al Horford on LeBron James so expect to see Schröder get toasted by Wall. To be fair to Bud, Schröder isn't that much less likely to get exposed chasing Beal around the perimeter or resisting the urge to ball-watch and losing track of Otto Porter, Jr. (Samesies for Hardaway, Jr. trying to guard either of Washington's wings.) 

Such is the fate of a playoff team that gets outscored by 70 points in the regular season: putting one of the best perimeter defenders in the world, blessed with length, strength, and quick hands, on a ball-dominant player (Wall) whose career eFG% outside of the restricted area is 36.8% offers but a partial solution.

What, then, can the Hawks do to pull an upset?

The Wizards have four good players plus Markieff Morris*. They will lean heavily on their starters, but they can't reduce their pitiful bench's contribution to 0 minutes played. On the other hand, how pitiful can a bench look if they get to play almost exclusively against Jose Calderon, Kris Humphries, and Mikey Dunleavy?

*Who renders the good/bad binary insufficient.

Marcin Gortat is the only one of the aforementioned good Wizards the Hawks can profoundly inhibit via a tactical decision by relentlessly going small/playing five-out. Gortat's a fine matchup for Dwight Howard, but vice versa. Making Gortat extend to guard Millsap or Mike Muscala (or Taurean Prince if Washington chooses to cross-match Morris onto Millsap) puts pressure on one piece of a superior starting five. If it encourages Scott Brooks to use the vastly inferior Jason Smith more, all the better. (Considering the Hawks don't have the option of putting more than three good offensive players on the court at one time, getting the opponent to remove one good defender might be their best shot at overachieving their putrid regular season standard of offensive production.)

Conversely, if Dwight Howard plays his typical 30 minutes a night, Jason Smith getting the injured Ian Mahinmi's minutes creates a small danger Scott Brooks could exploit: uncontested Jason Smith (36.6% career three-point shooter) three-point attempts. 

Dwight Howard doesn't close out on shooters. 1) He isn't really physically capable of doing so, and 2) He's more focused on getting defensive rebounds than forcing misses at this point in his career. The Hawks already struggle to take advantage of basketball math due to their dearth of good shooters. They can't exacerbate the talent differential on the perimeter by giving up multiple open threes per game to Jason Smith while Dwight Howard points in his direction.

The truly nightmarish first quarter timeline would be:

1. Howard draws two early fouls on Gortat, makes one of the four resulting free throw attempts
2. Jason Smith checks in, makes consecutive threes
3. While Dwight pulls faces, Dennis Schröder, unsolicited, offers his opinion
4. Hawks timeout

Advocating a thorough (yet temporary) marginalization of Dwight Howard isn't a referendum on his general usefulness. There are still things he can do to contribute to winning basketball games. However, due to poor roster construction, those things don't complement the majority of his teammates, who need helpful spacing and passing to accomplish even slightly below average things on offense.

I doubt Bud will demonstrate the humility and short-term flexibility to give Dwight Howard two weeks off in order to increase the chances of playing a second round* of playoff basketball, but the opportunity exists to be unafraid. 

*Presuming the Celtics win a playoff series for the first time since 2012, the second round would offer a better matchup than the Wizards for both the Hawks (not just because they would have the best player in that series), and Howard, who would have a legitimate opportunity to exploit a Boston weakness by crashing the offensive boards while generally getting to stay within his sphere of defensive influence guarding Amir Johnson on the other end.

Prediction: 

• Wizards in 5

Alternative, conditional prediction: 

• Hawks in 6 (if Dwight Howard plays less than 75 total minutes in the series)

Notes On 100% of Something

Sure, I could have looked at the schedule before blurting out that you should check this space every Monday, but I didn't and now I have to gin up some perfunctory conclusions after two games, one of them against a legitimate NBA team. Not that winning both of these games, and by healthy margins, should be taken for granted. I say this as someone deeply skeptical of the idea that Bradley Beal is a good NBA player.

The Hawks closed at -172 to win against the Wizards and -365 to win against the 76ers, implying a 63% probability of a Hawks win on opening night and 78% on Saturday afternoon. They should have won both games but, by actually winning both games, they outperformed market expectations by 0.58 wins through two games. (I'm now predicting 44 wins.)

What news there is is all good news so far. In brief:

• Paul Millsap is still excellent (extra credit due for providing another argument in favor of shortening the pre-season).
• Kyle Korver, too.
• Dwight Howard looked like a good role player (this is actual praise, not a smart ass and cutie pie faint praise gag).
• Thabo Sefolosha keyed some really good bench play against a couple of benches one would hope your team's bench would look good against.
• Will Mike Muscala finally be able to convert being in generally good places on the offensive end into good offensive play?
• Tim Hardaway, Jr. played pretty well. Not pretty well just by his standards, but by the objective norms of NBA reserves.
• No conclusions drawn about point guard play until at least half of their minutes have come against stiffer competition than Trey Burke, Sergio Rodriguez and TJ McConnell.
• Joel Embiid has faced Steven Adams and Dwight Howard. He scored 34 points in 38 minutes with a 56.1 TS%. Passing will come (he was credited with 3.6 assists per 100 possessions at Kansas), his defense will tighten up, and, eventually, the turnovers will decline. It is so nice to have him back.

Initial Feedback: Different Class

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

Boxscore

Players
Jeff Teague: Always aggressive but not intermittently effective. There's no doubt that this type of game is a necessary part of his learning and development. There's also no doubt that he could have been playing this type of game either of the last two seasons. 6/10

Kirk Hinrich: Timely contributions following Jeff Teague leaving the game with five fouls. Even with the vast gulf in quickness between them, Hinrich can defend John Wall pretty effectively since Wall won't kill you if you go under ball-screens. Plus, it's not like the Wizards surround Wall with shooters, so Hinrich had plenty of help when needed. 5/10

Joe Johnson: Put a dent in Chris Singleton's defensive reputation but didn't convert a percentage of shots befitting their quality. It was like March basketball worlds colliding, with Joe Johnson as honorary Jayhawk. The go-ahead possession should provide the template for every Atlanta possession. The lesson: Joe Johnson can't turn a defensive switch into a shot attempt at the rim on his own but he sure can make an open shot that team-wide ball and player movement creates for him. 7/10

Josh Smith: Quite understandably looked tired, having played a lot of minutes in three close games this week. Effective when going to the basket and made some jumpers in the first half and the one that tied the game at 90. To his credit, despite the heavy legs, he had a serious defensive impact. At least until a shot went up. After that, he was often just one of five Hawks getting overwhelmed by the Wizards on the defensive glass. 7/10

Zaza Pachulia: I don't know that he would have played tonight were the alternatives not Jason Collins and Erick Dampier. It's not often Zaza goes 10 minutes before grabbing his first rebound. Looked much more himself in the second half, carrying Atlanta's offense for much of the third quarter. 5/10

Marvin Williams: With Joe Johnson and Kirk Hinrich largely ineffective offensively for the first 40 minutes, Marvin brought a much-needed boost off the bench. You know, if Al Horford were healthy, the Hawks would have a pretty nice 8-man rotation. Of course, if Al Horford were healthy, the Hawks might have tried to trade Zaza Pachulia again, also. 5/10

Ivan Johnson: The way he contributes against the second units of lesser teams confirms his place int he league. Unless the opposition has a post behemoth on the court, Jason Collins should never be on the floor ahead of Ivan Johnson. 4/10

Willie Green: He defended Jordan Crawford well. If Crawford makes those shots, you tip your cap to him and invite him to do the same the next time you meet. 3/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Provided an object lesson in the value of the three-point shot in the third and fourth quarters. Later, he provided in object lesson in the value of Vladimir Radmanovic not dribbling. 3/10

Jason Collins: Now on a 57-day, 7-game, 63-minute scoreless streak. 1/10

The head coach
Hanging around and waiting for the inferior team to beat themselves isn't a bad idea given the hand Larry Drew's been dealt. Of the 10 Hawks who played, I'd be hard pressed to convince that more than seven of them were fully healthy. For three quarters, before a shot went up, the Hawks played good defense. In the fourth quarter, they started rebounding Washington's missed shots. For all the frustrations and absences, this is clearly an above average defensive team. 6/10

A thought regarding the opposition
The Wizards (Jordan Crawford and Chris Singleton in particular) made some shots the Hawks were perfectly content to let them attempt. Making shots always helps, but they controlled much of the game by virtue of all the rebounds they got off their own misses. 14 through three quarters equaled a 10-point lead. None in the fourth quarter equaled just 14 points and, ultimately, a loss.

Initial Feedback: Medium Fish Eat the Little Ones

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

Boxscore

Players

Joe Johnson: It's good to see that the pre-trade-deadline tendinitis has cleared up. 9/10

Josh Smith: After Rick Sund energized the fan base with the trade of a second round draft pick for cash, Smoove followed up with one of his most entertaining dunks of the year, a reverse 180 that brought back memories of Dominique. If Sund has stuck with the core this long, the Hawks need to stick with it through next season's playoffs. To trade Josh in the off-season or at next year's trading deadline without seeing what this group can do in the playoffs with a healthy roster would be a travesty. 8/10

Zaza Pachulia: Energized the fan base with yet another double-double. Did you enjoy the 7 assists? 7/10

Kirk Hinrich: It took 41 minutes of playing time, but 5 points and 5 assists with zero turnovers is a spectacular line for Kirk, relative to how he's been playing. With the Lakers trading for Ramon Sessions, Kirk will remain a Hawk through the playoffs. He's getting better, and we might see another impact performance in the postseason like what we saw against Orlando. He still has a chance to be worth two first-rounders if he can help the Hawks win another playoff series. 6/10

Jeff Teague: A performance that reminds you what Teague can do defensively when he tries. His 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals against John Wall were impressive. As he watches Mike Woodson's treatment of Jeremy Lin, the sensation who doubled MSG's market capitalization in 10 magical February days, Teague should count himself fortunate that he has earned Larry Drew's trust. 7/10

Ivan Johnson: Had a monster dunk of his own, and for one play he looked like the fearless player who won a spot in the rotation early this season. That was before Drew's roller coaster minutes made Ivan start second guessing himself and hesitating with his offense. A modest 6 points and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes was his line for the night. 4/10

Tracy McGrady: Played only 9 minutes, which apparently wasn't enough for T-Mac to give his usual production. Had only 2 points and did not record an assist or a rebound. 2/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Played only 5 minutes, so I won't bother with assigning a grade. Incomplete

Jannero Pargo: Not one of his more explosive scoring performances of the season, but this is exactly what you want from Pargo: 8 points, 1 assist and zero turnovers in 14 minutes. 6/10

The head coach

Drew should be happy that Woodson is back in business in New York. It means he's no longer a branch on a dead coaching tree. It will be interesting to see how the Hawks and Knicks perform down the stretch because both coaches have a limited opportunity to audition for a more permanent position. Can't give Drew too much credit for this performance against depleted bottom feeders. 5/10

A thought regarding the opposition

The trade of Nene for JaVale McGee helps both teams. George Karl may turn McGee into a better player than Nene, and the Nuggets obviously wouldn't ship out their franchise center for a project if he hadn't disappointed. But any transformation of McGee into a solid player was never going to happen in Washington, and Nene will instantly raise the team's professionalism. This failure of the Wizards' organizational culture reminds me how it took the Hawks organization way longer than it should have to realize (in two senses) the potential of Smoove, Teague and Zaza.

Quote of the Day -- December 29, 2011

John Wall:

"Get him out of the game!"

Context:

The Hawks scored the first 11 points of the game and led 19-4 before John Wall decided to send a charge into his team by scoring eight consecutive points for the team. But his frustration was apparent early on, as he looked at Coach Flip Saunders and shouted about one the Wizards’ starters, "Get him out of the game!"

Puts waiting for Kirk Hinrich to come back and replace Pargo and Green in perspective.

HT: Bullets Forever

Initial Feedback: Hawks Home Opener

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

Boxscore

Players
Jeff Teague: A somewhat uneven performance but let's bear in mind that was just the fourth time in his career that Teague played 28 or more minutes in a regular season game. John Wall certainly did not have his way with him. 6/10

Joe Johnson: At his best when passing or catching-and-shooting, the first unit's ball and player movement gave him ample opportunities to play to his strengths. Inability to keep opposing ball-handlers in front of him may be a problem when the opposing ball-handler isn't Jordan Crawford. 6/10

Marvin Williams: 17 points on 8 shots and he joined Smith and Horford in forming a three-man rebounding wall. Couldn't have wished for a better, more impressive start to the season. 8/10

Josh Smith: 2-10 on jump shots through two games, but passing, defending, rebounding, and making 80% of the good shots you take can make up for a highly visible ill. 7/10

Al Horford: Showing no signs of making the leap in usage that's necessary for him to become a franchise player, though he did step up to make two baskets in the paint in the final four minutes to put the nail in the coffin. The rest of his game remains as exquisite as ever. 7/10

Tracy McGrady: Looked very nice playing with the starters and played a role in dominating the defensive glass. If Marvin Williams and McGrady keep playing like this, Larry Drew will have a pleasant dilemma. 6/10

Zaza Pachulia: No idea how much his sore shoulder limited him. Got to the line and was active but only two rebounds and no hard fouls made for a less than vintage performance. 4/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Moves well without the ball, makes open shots, and tries on the defensive glass. Nice qualities to have in the ninth man in your rotation. 4/10

Jannero Pargo: He will have to make some open shots because he does nothing else to contribute. Despite good effort, his size really inhibits his effectiveness on the defensive end. 2/10

Willie Green: Bad offense, bad defense, bad player. 1/10

Ivan Johnson: Pargo and Green kept the ball from him during the two minutes he played. No rating.

The head coach
Another double-digit win notable for an appreciation of what Jeff Teague brings to the team. Saw the first intimations of understanding and reacting to the lack of backcourt depth with Teague playing the entire third quarter and both Marvin and McGrady getting some time at the 2. Flip Saunders didn't really go for it while the Hawks struggled to score for much of the fourth quarter. There will be more challenging games but I don't see how one could hold that against Larry Drew when evaluating his performance tonight. 8/10

A thought regarding the opposition
If Chris Singleton can make open shots, then the Wizards will have a very nice rotation player. Which will be desperately needed if Andray Blatche and Jordan Crawford aren't making shots.

Truth About It: 3-on-3: Back To Atlanta, What On Earth Will Jordan Crawford Do?

For the second day in a row, I'm riding the coattails of a more industrious TrueHoop Network blog. Over at Truth About It, Kyle Weide, Rashad Mobley, and I each posed a question for the 3-on-3 previewing tonight's game between the Wizards and Hawks:

Rashad Mobley: The Hawks lack a significant scoring threat off the bench, and Wizards are lacking a veteran presence in the back court to mentor/guide/spell John Wall. Jordan Crawford could be that bench threat for the Hawks, and Kirk Hinrich (when healthy) could play that role again for the Wizards. The draft pick part of the trade that brought Chris Singleton to D.C. notwithstanding, would Crawford and Hinrich be more effective on their old teams?

Bret LaGree: Hawks fans generally agreed that Jordan Crawford was talented but whether or not he could use his talents within the structure of a good basketball team proved divisive. Can he be a starter on a playoff team or is he destined for a life putting up shots on bad teams?

Kyle Weidie: It’s fiscally understandable that Atlanta had to let Jamal Crawford go. People might also agree that Tracy McGrady was a decent, low risk signing. But Willie Green, Jannero Pargo and Jerry Stackhouse….? Really? Why not kick Gilbert Arenas’ tires?

Click the link to read our answers. Leave your own in the comments.

The Enervating Run-In

The meaninglessness of these final four games is not entirely a result of the vagaries of the schedule and the stratification of the Eastern Conference. The first 78 games the Atlanta Hawks played, even the Summer and parts of Autumn that preceded the season, inform the emptiness even Pape Sy's NBA debut and the signing of Magnum Rolle can't fully fill.

For much of the season, it felt a fool's errand to try to explain or draw conclusions about this team. And that was when they were at full strength and/or trying to win games. Given the circumstances surrounding games 79 through 81, particularly the vague motives regarding injury and rest, it appears impossible to write empirically about the team.

Presumptions are possible in one distinct case: Josh Smith. I presume Josh Smith missed the games in Indiana and Washington because he was injured rather than because he was resting. Joe Johnson, who figures to use a plurality of Atlanta's post-season possessions, has played hurt essentially the entire season. Al Horford has (mostly) played through hand, ankle, and hamstring injuries for months. They both played when Smith did not. Thus, I presume Smith, due to his sprained knee, could not.

Nor did Smith's return exactly inspire, with 15 of his 17 points coming after the Hawks had fell behind by double-digits, fueled by Smith using six of his last eight shot on jumpers. There's no joy in watching Josh Smith play like Michael Beasley.

Given Larry Drew's inscrutable approach to playing time, no such presumptions can be made, with any confidence, about the health of Jason Collins. It's a fair question as to how long Collins, at full strength, can neutralize Dwight Howard in a seven-game series. Overlay the question of the state of his ankle to the subject and, well, good luck with your answer.

The combination of Drew's aforementioned inscrutable approach to playing time and the season-long problem of the odd, unbalanced roster at his disposal undermined the pleasure potential of the spirited fourth quarter comeback Atlanta's second unit offered up last night. The AP recap described Atlanta's fourth quarter unit as "a bunch of backups." Literally true, but far different than the motley collection of young and short-term Washington Wizards who devastated the unmotivated Hawks on Saturday night.

20 of Atlanta's 23 fourth quarter points were scored or assisted by Jamal Crawford, Zaza Pachulia, and Jeff Teague. Hardly LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh but clearly players six through eight in the Atlanta rotation and, competent a trio of Hawks as they are, their comeback may have drawn some aid from the 20-point hole the Atlanta starters dug partway through the third quarter.

The Heat could, quite reasonably, have expected the Hawks (now -56 on the season*) to give up as they'd done so many times before. To their credit, the Hawks didn't. Of course, the comeback didn't succeed for reasons fairly and equally credited to the Heat and blamed on Josh Powell. Powell, the patently terrible signing, provided one last, late reminder of all his flaws as a basketball player while sabotaging the good work of the four legitimate rotation players playing alongside him during the fourth quarter.

To wit:

• Zero (0) defensive rebounds in 23:02
• Two turnovers
• Four personal fouls
• The last two of which created a Crawford for James Jones with the game tied and a turnover with a minute left and the Hawks still down just six

Why did Josh Powell play 23 minutes? Because Jason Collins may or may not be capable of playing basketball at even his limited and particular current standard. Because Pape Sy and Magnum Rolle** were in street clothes making the other two options available to Drew:

• Etan Thomas
• Hilton Armstrong

Of the three, Powell might be the least bad option. But all three are bad, bad options for a professional*** basketball team. Which only underlines that all the limitations inhibiting this team (the rookie head coach, the expensive roster, the lack of depth, the lack of youth) are of their own making.

*Not entirely fair but, considering the Hawks were -4 on the season when they clinched the fifth seed, it's not entirely unfair either.

**Seriously, if Rolle had been signed in September and given Josh Powell's minutes all season, I'd have been interested and engaged. It's the timing of the signing that baffles me. And the age thing is an easy, irresistible gag at the organization's rather than the player's expense.

***I include most of Europe and the entirety of the D-League in this.

SBNation: Ziller: The Problem With Jordan Crawford And Wizards' New Big Three

Ziller:

Crawford has scored well since arriving in D.C. He's averaging 16.6 points per game as a Wizard, and has nine 20-point performances in 21 games. Productive? No doubt. But there's a cost for each shot Crawford takes, and the fact remains that he is wildly inefficient, even by rookie standards.

In the last five seasons, one other rookie has taken at least 10 field goal attempts a game and had a True Shooting percentage under .475: Adam Morrison, the No. 3 pick in 2006 and a player currently out of the league. Extend that back 10 seasons and you can add only Dajuan Wagner to that list. Wagner lasted 103 games in the NBA, though awful medical issues can be blamed for that.

Crawford could and should have a better career than either, but that's not a good record of success for prolific and impotent rookie shooters. Also consider that Crawford is 22; this isn't a 19-year-old still learning basketball. Leonsis is brilliant, and knows that Crawford has a lot of work to do to become a true member of any team's core.

This isn't an indictment of hope, just a word of caution to fans who see the gaudy point totals (125 over his last five games) but might miss the context (104 field goal attempts and 27 free throws to get those points, for a True Shooting percentage of .539, or below league average, during this "hot streak"). Crawford is producing, but he's not productive, and there's little in the record to indicate things will snap into place and he'll become an efficient scorer someday soon.

The Atlanta Hawks could have and should have played him more, had it been in blowouts, while Joe Johnson was out, or in the D-League. No one has any real indication why the Hawks drafted Jordan Crawford or if they had a plan to develop his skills. That the Hawks got themselves in a position where a 30-year-old Kirk Hinrich represented an upgrade at point guard, that the Hawks signed Mike Bibby to a contract so long and bad that they had to throw in Crawford and a future first-round pick to get Washington to trade away a player they didn't really want to keep...none of those things reflect at all well on the organization.

What Jordan Crawford's doing now, putting up gaudy, mostly bad (but better recently) numbers on a terrible Washington team doesn't reflect badly on the Atlanta Hawks. Not yet. Which isn't to say it won't.

Atlanta Hawks 99 Washington Wizards 92

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	85	1.165	50	35.6	27.8	11.8
WASH	86	1.07	54.5	23.4	16.7	11.6

Impressions...

Josh Smith (29 points on 19 shots and 8 free throw attempts, 16 rebounds) was magnificent in the paint (22 points on 10 shots and 8 free throw attempts). Washington had no answer for him there. Which makes it all the more disappointing he didn't attack the defense's constant weakness on the nine Atlanta possessions he personally used for jump shots (7 points on 9 shots).

With Smith using so many possessions (and mostly using them well), Joe Johnson didn't have to force anything and since Nick Young can't guard Joe Johnson that led to a quiet, efficient night: 21 points on 12 shots and 6 free throw attempts. Johnson attempted just three shots in the second half and scored four of his six second-half points on intentional foul free throws in the final half-minute.

Marvin Williams picked up his share of the slack created by Al Horford's absence, logging significant time at power forward, grabbing 12 rebounds and scoring 15 points on 11 shots. It's very difficult to imagine a scenario where the Hawks are better served by having both Jason Collins and Mike Bibby or both Jamal Crawford and Mike Bibby on the court rather than Marvin.

Bibby knocked down a couple of threes but could do nothing to impede Kirk Hinrich much less John Wall and spent the final 17 minutes of the game on the bench.

Still, Jeff Teague got another DNP-CD.

Mo Evans and Damien Wilkins combined to play 25-and-a-half minutes. Evans struggled but Wilkins, after sitting for the better part of three quarters, played the final 14:40 at small forward and played well on both ends, setting a season high in points with eight.

It will fall to someone more perceptive than myself will need to explain how, one night earlier with a full, healthy roster, Jason Collins starts at center to match up against DeAndre Jordan, then, with Al Horford absent through injury the next night, Zaza Pachulia starts at center against JaVale McGee and Collins comes off the bench, mostly matched up against Yi Jianlian.

The Hawks swept the weekend back-to-back (by 8 total points) against teams that have combined to win less than a third of their games this season on the strength of free throw defense as much as anything. The Wizards and Clippers combined to score 108.5 points per 100 possessions (league average 107) in the two games despite missing 20 free throws and shooting 56.5% (on 46 attempts) from the line between them.

Larry Drew on playing the Wizards:

"Even when they took the lead, I still felt very comfortable."

Larry Drew on Josh Smith:

"I thought he did a magnificent job in his post-ups. He made some passes out of the post and got to the basket a couple times for some three-point plays. I just thought he played a well-rounded game."

Drew on the nine jump shots Smith attempted:

"The third quarter, we got into a situation where we were taking some ill-advised shots, and him in particular, and he knows that I’m going to stay on him about his shot selection. I do feel very comfortable with Josh Smith taking the jump shot, it’s when he takes it that I have a problem with, but he and I, we’re going to battle that all year long, but we’re on the same page. We’re on the same page with it."

"We're going to battle that all year long, but we're on the same page." deserves induction in the coach-speak Hall of Fame.

Smith on Damien Wilkins:

"Every time he gets the opportunity to play, he does something good on the court. He definitely came in in the fourth quarter and gave us some big points and was pretty much able to hold Young down on his own."

C'mon. Let's be fair and give Nick Young some credit for that, too.

Joe Johnson on Smith:

"When you’ve got something that’s working, you’ve got to milk it. That hasn’t always been the case for us this year. I just kept telling Mike and Jamal, 'Just keep going to him because he’s in a rhythm.'"

Ken Sugiura:

Hawks free throws for the last 10 games – 12, 20, 14, 11, 23, 23, 23, 22, 9, 13. Notably, the Hawks took (and made) 13 free throws in the fourth, when in recent games they’ve resorted to jump shots.

Atlanta's FT Rate for the game (35.6) was the highest in more than a month (since the win in Los Angeles against the Clippers wherein Joe Johnson set a career high with 17 free throw attempts) and their fifth-highest mark of the season (the other three teams the Hawks have most gotten to the line against: Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Indiana) but six of those 13 fourth quarter free throw attempts came in the final 30.9 seconds courtesy of intentional Washington fouls. Those attempts were the result of game-long quality offensive play but were not particularly indicative, in and of themselves, of a change in style of fourth quarter play.

February 5th Game Preview: Atlanta Hawks (32-18) @ Washington Wizards (13-36)

TIP-OFF: 7pm (EST)

TELEVISION: SportSouth, NBA TV

RADIO: The Hawks have moved to 97.9 on the FM dial this season.

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Wizards

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Al Horford is questionable.

WASHINGTON INJURY REPORT: Josh Howard is out.

BY THE NUMBERS

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (off)	89.9	1.077	50.7	21.7	23.6	15.2
WASH (def)	93.3	1.093	51.2	32.6	29.5	14.6

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (def)	90.1	1.055	48.7	26.9	25.2	14.2
WASH (off)	93.3	1.024	47.4	22.1	26.5	14.3

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Truth About It, Bullets Forever

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -3, 195.5 o/u

PREVIOUSLY...the Washington Wizards lost 110-92 at home against the Magic last night. It was Washington's seventh straight loss.

The Hawks have already beaten the Wizards twice this season, with both previous meetings occurring in Atlanta. The Hawks won 99-95 on October 30th and 116-96 on Thanksgiving night.

Consider this an open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game (but pre-recap) thoughts.

Atlanta Hawks 116 Washington Wizards 96

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH	94	1.021	40.9	27.3	29.8	12.8
ATL	93	1.247	51.7	28.4	40	15.1

What a relaxing holiday.

Just the Wizards? Sure, but keep in mind the Hawks haven't blown out a lesser team since opening night. If there are particulars that temper one's excitement over the comprehensive victory (Al Horford getting the majority of his shots (6 of 11) and points (9 of 15) off of the offensive glass, Josh Smith's fondness for the long two-point jumper, whatever's going on with Jeff Teague's minutes) then one also has to acknowledge, for the sake of fairness, the atypically fine job the Hawks did of bottling up John Wall and Gilbert Arenas (exactly the sort of two-headed, off-the-dribble guard attack that has bedeviled the Hawks for years) and getting the perimeter players involved in the defensive rebounding effort. If that sort of defensive performance* on the perimeter can be replicated against better teams, teams not playing on the road on a holiday evening, then the dream of 50 wins is not dead.

*Note the extremely intentional choice not to use the word "effort."

The Hawks have never failed to understand how they play their best, they just struggle to achieve that level of performance. One, because it's difficult to do. Two, because their opponents just as clearly understand how the Hawks play their best and try to thwart them. Three, because their lack of depth, both in numbers and in the number of well-rounded players, limits their margin for error. Firing on all cylinders, this is a team to behold. It's a sight for sore eyes at this point in time but let's not fail to appreciate the degree of difficulty involved in a good performance regardless of the quality of the opponent.

Less encouraging were the immediate lessons some of the players and head coach took from the victory.

Larry Drew:

"They had to bring energy. That was the most important thing. It wasn’t about the game plan. It wasn’t about our strategy. The first line of business was to bring energy. That type energy I saw today I had not seen for a few games, especially from start to finish."

Josh Smith:

"We really did bring the energy and the effort tonight. We were able to bring it at both ends of the court. We were just helping each other out and having fun."

Mo Evans:

"We only put up one word on the board: 'Energy.' I think we fulfilled that. Everybody played with a lot of intensity, a lot of energy, and we played together for the first time in a long time."

In a sentiment sure to shock regular readers, I'm far more taken with Al Horford's analysis:

"The big emphasis was blocking out. McGee had been playing so well coming into this game. We held him off as best we could. I think our guards played a huge role coming in and making sure they helped out with the long rebounds."

To be fair, Larry Drew expounded on the fine defensive game plan the players executed so well:

"We made it a point to make sure we shadow wall and have a big guy somewhere in the vicinity and keep him from getting into the gaps. But then we have to defend the 3-point line with Gilbert and Nick Young and I think we did a good job of that."

Larry Drew on Joe Johnson:

"I thought Joe looked like the Joe of old. Just watching the ball come off his release, it had the rotation on it. He wasn’t hesitating. Hopefully he can sustain that and keep looking for his shot."

I don't think anyone need worry about that.

The Human Highlight Blog on Joe Johnson:

I appreciated that, except for a couple of instances, he was committed to keeping the ball moving. And it was good to see him hit open shots, too. Funny how the percentages start going up when the ball starts moving around.

Sebastian Pruiti breaks down a nifty flex set the Hawks used to get Josh Smith open in the lane last night. This one also features a key Mike Bibby screen.

Kris Willis praises the Hawks' domination of the glass:

Don't let the final rebounding margin of 49-38 fool you because it wasn't that close. Washington racked up some offensive boards in garbage time to help trim that gap. In reality this Hawks team controlled the glass from the outset and raced off to the tune of 16 first quarter fast break points. When the Hawks are rebounding the basketball they can score in transition even when they are not necessarily looking to. Al Horford and Josh Smith combined to grab 27 of those 49 rebounds but make no mistake that it was a collective effort on the boards with even the likes of Mike Bibby and Jamal Crawford throwing their bodies into Wizards players in an attempt to block out.

Mike Prada at Bullets Forever puts some of the blame of Washington's rebounding woes on Flip Saunders's zone defense:

On their own, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee are a subpar defensive rebounding duo (though McGee has made great strides here). Neither guy really knows how to box out well, and while McGee makes up for it with tremendous athleticism, there's a distinct lack of meat-and-potatoes play necessary to control your defensive glass. But when you go zone, it makes the problem worse. The bigs are now responsible for an area, not a man, which makes it even more difficult to box out. You're also forcing those two to step up and contest shots from the short corner and the high post, both holes in any zone defense. That leaves the basket area uncovered, and while a guard is supposed to rotate down, he has no chance boxing out guys like Al Horford and Josh Smith.

Happy Thanksgiving Game Preview: Washington Wizards (5-8) @ Atlanta Hawks (8-7)

TIP-OFF: 8pm (EST)

TELEVISION: TNT

RADIO: The Hawks have moved to 97.9 on the FM dial this season.

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Wizards

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Pape Sy is out.

WASHINGTON INJURY REPORT: Josh Howard is out. Al Thornton and Yi Jianlian are questionable.

BY THE NUMBERS

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH (off)	92	1.038	48.8	20.4	28.5	18.6
ATL (def)	90.9	1.082	49.8	27.5	27.7	14.4

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH (def)	92	1.108	52.3	30.7	30.4	17.8
ATL (off)	90.6	1.089	51.7	24	24.7	15.8

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Truth About It, Bullets Forever

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -7.5, 196.5 o/u

PREVIOUSLY...the Washington Wizards (for the second time this young season) beat the Philadelphia 76ers in overtime Tuesday night. It was the first game back for John Wall after missing 4 games with a left foot sprain. He came of the bench to score 25 points and earn 6 assists.

Wall's NBA career got off to a quick start thanks to his 28-point, 9-assist game against the Hawks on October 30th. The Hawks won a tight contest 99-95.

Consider this an open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game (but pre-recap) thoughts.

Atlanta Hawks 99 Washington Wizards 95

Boxscore

Gameflow

Hoopdata Boxscore

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH	92	1.033	52.6	19.7	21.1	19.6
ATL	92	1.076	45.1	32.1	33.3	18.5

They're not all going to pretty but even a game that only an illegal screen fetishist could truly enjoy can be instructive and Saturday night's 99-95 win over the Washington Wizards taught us some things about Larry Drew. We should expect overreaction to early fouls. We should expect a willingness to risk losing a game in order to give some starters extended rest. We should not expect quality of defense or infrequency of shots made to affect the playing time of any tenured members of the backcourt.

So Joe Johnson plays 43-and-a-half minutes, uses 23 shots and 4 free throw attempts to score 25 points while turning the ball over 4 times and earning 3 assists. On the other hand, Al Horford is limited to 25-and-a-half minutes because he committed two fouls in the first eight minutes and four seconds of the game. He finished with three fouls. He also finished with 21 points on 10 shots and 10 free throw attempts, grabbed 10 rebounds, earned 3 assists of his own, and turned the ball over just once.

When in the game, Horford looked constantly to attack to create easy shots for himself and his teammates. Yet Drew preferred using five minutes of the first half playing the slimmer but still profoundly limited Jason Collins rather than risk Horford actually getting in mild foul trouble. Collins squeezed three turnovers, two fouls, a defensive rebound, a block, and a 17-foot jumper into those five minutes. I suspect Horford might have provided more.

Somewhat similarly, Jamal Crawford played the final 15 minutes and 53 seconds of the game, the last 11:37 alongside both Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson, insuring little perimeter or transition defense, and even less help on the glass. Crawford made just 1 of 7 shots during this period and Jamal Crawford provides no other value to augment his scoring. Crawford, Bibby, and Johnson combined for 7 rebounds in 108 minutes of play and helped John Wall keep the Wizards in the game. Marvin Williams spaces the floor almost as well as Crawford and Bibby, doesn't turn the ball over, rebounds, plays defense, and doesn't keep the ball out of the hands of Horford or Josh Smith. Williams didn't play a second of the fourth quarter.

The above isn't to denigrate the team, the coach, or argue against the value of the victory. It's to point out the margin for error this team possesses and to acknowledge the very real reasons for optimism. On a night where John Wall had his way, Al Thornton celebrated being back home, and the Wizards played some pretty effective zone defense for stretches the Hawks won reasonably comfortably despite poor shooting from Johnson and Crawford, needlessly wasting Horford on the bench for most of the first half, Josh Smith throwing up two more long two-point jumpers (He's 4-15, 33.3 eFG% outside of 15 feet on the season now), and throwing away minutes on Jason Collins and Josh Powell. This team needn't be at its best to win. Still, it would be nice to see them make best use of their resources.

Joe Johnson:

"I'm a shooter. I've got to keep shooting."

Larry Drew on Joe Johnson:

"He’s our guy. We rely on him a lot down the stretch. I told him I don’t want him to get discouraged. We put the ball in his hands at the end of games."

Larry Drew differs in some obvious ways from his predecessor. In other ways he differs not at all.

Mark Bradley:

As much as we might want to call these the Same Old Hawks, they’re not quite. (Not that being the Same Old Hawks was all that terrible. They did win 53 games and claim the No. 3 seed in the NBA East last season.) But they’re not the Brand New Hawks, either.

I know. It’s kind of confusing. The Hawks won Friday in Philadelphia with Joe Johnson taking fewer shots than Al Horford or Josh Smith and working the fourth-fewest minutes among starters. They won here Saturday with Johnson playing 43 minutes and 28 seconds — a regulation game is 48 minutes — and taking eight of the team’s 20 fourth-quarter shots and scoring five of its nine fourth-quarter baskets.

Said Drew: “Joe — obviously he’s our guy.”

Which sounded odd, given that Drew’s case for being promoted to head coach was essentially, “I’m not like Mike.” (Meaning Mike Woodson, who requested two weeks ago in a high-decibel phone conversation that his name no longer be invoked in this correspondent’s discussion of the Hawks. That request has been inspected and rejected.)

Woodson’s Way was to give the ball to Johnson — Iso-Joe, as it became known — and get out of his way. The Drew Method involves more ball movement and less reliance on one man. And yet, come the season’s third game, here was Joe Johnson doing pretty much the Joe Johnson thing.

October 30th Game Preview: Washington Wizards (0-1) @ Atlanta Hawks (2-0)

TIP-OFF: 7pm (EDT)

TELEVISION: SportSouth

RADIO: The Hawks have moved to 97.9 on the FM dial this season.

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Wizards

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Mo Evans and Pape Sy are out.

WASHINGTON INJURY REPORT: Gilbert Arenas and Josh Howard are out.

BY THE NUMBERS

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH (off)	97.1	0.855	39.7	26.9	6.7	13.4
ATL (def)	96	1.068	43.7	33.9	22.8	12

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
WASH (def)	97.1	1.154	61	41.6	33.3	21.6
ATL (off)	94	1.185	54.7	35.3	26	18.6

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -9.5, 195.5 o/u

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Truth About It, Bullets Forever

PREVIOUSLY...the Washington Wizards lost 112-83 in Orlando on Thursday night. John Wall scored 14 points on 19 shots, earned 9 assists and committed 3 turnovers in his NBA debut. Cartier Martin led the Wizards in scoring with 17 points and Al Thornton led the team with 7 rebounds.

Consider this an open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game (but pre-recap) thoughts.

Hawks 105 Wizards 95

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	83.6	1.256	60.1	21.6	23.5	14.4
WASH	83.6	1.136	55.1	10.1	36.1	20.3

The Hawks salvaged both their one-game lead (effectively one-half game, given Boston's status as Atlantic Division Champions) and Washington's possible reputation as spoilers (you can't spoil anything if you beat both teams in a playoff race, then you've changed nothing) late. I'd love to report that Washington's 17-point fourth quarter was down to improved defense but I suspect that Flip Saunders deciding to play James Singleton for more than half of the final quarter had as much impact as anything the Hawks did.

In the game, Washington scored 27 points on 31 possessions with Singleton on the court and 68 in 52 with him on the court. In the fourth quarter it was 7 points in 11 possessions with Singleton on the court and 10 in 8 with him on the court.

Washington didn't have such help in shoring up their porous defense. The Hawks weren't appreciably more purposeful* in their attack but are essentially impossible to stop on nights when both Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson frequently conclude their long stretches of possession by making their jump shots.

*Case in point: on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter, with the score 58-64 and 61-66, the Hawks got the ball to Josh Smith in the post, he got into the paint and found first Jamal Crawford and then Joe Johnson for wide-open three-pointers. On the next possession (at 64-66) Marvin Williams made an aggressive move to the basket. Fabricio Oberto stripped the ball (maybe a foul, maybe not, no call) off of Williams' leg for an Atlanta turnover. Then the Hawks reverted to ill-conceived and unlikely methods. First, Joe Johnson dribbles into a crowd in the lane before kicking out to Josh Smith who, with six seconds left on the shot clock, misses a 20-footer so badly it ignites a Washington fast break that results in two Shaun Livingston free throws. On the second possession, the Hawks attempt to run screen-and-roll with Johnson but his unwillingness or inability to turn the corner leads to his familiar lateral movement across the screen, which leads to directly to a contested (and missed) 25-footer.

Mike Woodson saw it differently:

"I thought in the fourth quarter is when you got to have it and we stepped up. Our defense really picked up. We were able to score the ball a little bit."

More from Woodson:

"We’ve played well enough on the road to win but little things have been hurting us. Tonight we buckled down when we had to. That’s how we did it early in the year. We’ve got to get back to that heading into the playoffs."

Jamal Crawford:

"It feels good to finally close out a game on the road. We weren’t getting blown out. We’ve been right there but we haven’t been closing out games. We tightened it up when we needed to."

Al Horford:

"It was important for us to close out the game the way we know we can. We got stops when we needed to."

It's a pretty sound observation that I'm a curmudgeon before my time, but is anyone else feeling something less than an overwhelming sense of witnessing an accomplishment last night? I don't argue that winning is a definite improvement over losing (both tangibly and intangibly) but what does it say about a team that needs the psychological boost from out-scoring Washington on the road or beating Orlando by two at home? Maybe it just says that it's a long season both to play and to watch and our concerns might be rather beside the point unless the Hawks play such lackluster ball once the playoffs begin.

Joe Johnson takes a leadership position:

"It’s been frustrating to watch. For some reason we don’t seem to have the same enthusiasm or burst of energy [on the road] as we do at home. That’s something we’ve got to work on, now. We are 80 games into the season."

It's a terrible shame the Hawks spoiled their perfect road record in Joe Johnson's absence.

Flip Saunders takes a more accurate tack than the typical "young and athletic" description of the Hawks:

"I told our team at halftime that the way Atlanta was playing was just like a typical veteran team that is basically going to play, play, play then turn things up in the fourth quarter. Atlanta played like a veteran team that is a 50-plus win team. They hang in games then turn it up in the fourth quarter by making adjustments."