Initial Feedback: Who's Ready For a Day Off?

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: No one would have blamed the Hawks for packing it in, down five, just before Teague's and-one in the second overtime. A big bucket in a poor shooting night to that point. Credit due for Devin Harris shooting even worse. 6/10

Kirk Hinrich: For the second straight night, he was a big part of pulling the Hawks back into the game in the second half. 5/10

Joe Johnson: When a guy doesn't rely on athleticism so much as skill to score, perhaps he's better suited to maintain effectiveness when fatigued. Or maybe it's just not that hard to score against CJ Miles. His fatigue showed only in some of the passes he choose to make, not when the ball left his hand en route to the bottom of the net. 10/10

Josh Smith: Was a major defensive factor in the first half but, very understandably, didn't have much left in the tank after halftime. Given his play of late, he deserved to watch an entertaining basketball game as much as anyone. 7/10

Zaza Pachulia: A massive effort against Al Jefferson. Zaza struggled to guard him, but did everything he could to make up for that, including not sending Jefferson to foul line. 7/10

Marvin Williams: Like Hinrich, the Hawks don't get back in either of the last two games without Marvin Williams. He can still have a possession where he dribbles the ball off his person before throwing a pass off Zaza's face, but the Hawks are going to need rebounding and efficient scoring from Marvin in order to do anything in the postseason. 7/10

Willie Green: Couldn't initially rise to Hinrich's level but there was likely value, long-term in him sopping up some minutes and not just because Gordon Hayward seemed to really enjoy initiating Utah's offense while Green guarded him. Green looked relatively fresh in the fourth overtime. 4/10

Ivan Johnson: A second straight solid night off the bench. I say give him 20 minutes a night for the next couple weeks to see if a regular, defined role in the rotation suits him. You can't count on Tracy McGrafy's knee or Vladimir Radmanovic's back. Not really. 4/10

Jason Collins: A self-parody at this point. 1/10

The head coach
I get that he doesn't have a lot of good options, doesn't have a guaranteed contract for next season, and the Hawks (quite naturally) want home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Still, there are 16 games to be played over the next 32 days and I hope the very admirable effort evidenced tonight doesn't come back to bite the team down the stretch. 7/10

A thought regarding the opposition
Paul Millsap's pretty good but he's not nearly as tall as Solomon Jones.

Quotes, Notes, and Links: Atlanta Hawks 110 Utah Jazz 87

Recap

Gameflow

Hoopdata boxscore

Highlights

Larry Drew:

"From start to finish I thought it was one of the most complete games where we controlled it from start to finish on both ends of the floor. Defensively, I thought we did a great job. And then we actually got out and ran, made the extra pass."

Jerry Sloan:

"They pass the ball well. They got it to who was supposed to have the ball almost every possession. We didn’t seem to be able to do anything with it."

I'm not entirely clear if Sloan means that the Jazz didn't move the ball as well as the Hawks did or that the Jazz couldn't deal with Atlanta's ball movement. Either interpretation makes sense.

Drew on Atlanta's defense:

"We tried to take away a lot of the easy touches. The system that they run, they are so good at it. They put you in a position of switching and if you are not careful you can get back cut. I thought we did a good job of defending that. I think we forced them into more one-on-one situations than what they are accustomed to and then we defended it."

It is so much easier to avoid getting burned on back cuts when you don't switch every off-the-ball screen.

Josh Smith:

"We did a good job with team defense.

We wanted to match their physicality. I think we did a good job at really pressuring them and stopping them from swinging the basketball easily. We got in the passing lanes and did a nice job of limiting them to one shot and rebounding and getting the ball out."

Smith on Joe Johnson:

"Joe was on fire tonight."

Johnson:

"We are starting to figure things out about how L.D. wants things to be run offensively and defensively."

Kris Willis on Johnson's return to form over the past two games:

One of the biggest developments of this season has been the increased impact of Josh Smith and Al Horford offensively on the Hawks. With the injuries that the Hawks have suffered this season, both players have had to carry the load for the team. Often they have carried the load even with Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford both in the lineup. We have talked many times about the quality looks at the basket that the motion offense had produced Johnson and that he hadn't been able to cash in on a lot of those opportunities during the first quarter of the season. That left us wondering what this Hawks offense would look like if Johnson was able to return to form. We have got our answer the last two nights in Sacramento and Utah.

Also at Peachtree Hoops, Jason Walker on the historically unique nature of the victory:

I can't remember ever handling the Jazz like that in Salt Lake City. Dominant.

Well, I checked, and the Hawks have only won (4) times in Salt Lake City since 1986, and none of those wins were more than (9) points, much less the double digit, 23 point stiff-arm the Hawks gave the Jazz tonight.

Atlanta Hawks 110 Utah Jazz 87

Boxscore

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	87	1.264	59.5	20.3	28.1	17.2
UTA	87	1.00	44.4	33.8	26.2	14.9

If you can't take away Atlanta's first option on offense, they will destroy you. The Utah Jazz received a more severe lesson in this regard than the Sacramento Kings got one night ago, in no small part because Larry Drew chose to keep his starters in the game until the Hawks were up 24 with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter. Al Horford going 9-16 rather than 4-14 from the field didn't hurt, either. There would be no style points left unclaimed in this game.

Again allowed free reign of the court with the ball in his hands and again knocking down the open shots his teammates created for him, Joe Johnson made it 57 points (on just 35 shots) in 48 hours, with both of those totals matched exactly by Jamal Crawford over the same period.

Possible items of interest: Johnson earned just three assists in the two games and 14 of his 22 made field goals were assisted. Certainly the Hawks will take a decline in Johnson's assists in exchange for more frequent and efficient finishing. It's a fair question how much credit for Johnson's explosion should be apportioned to better shooting, how much to better offensive execution, and how much to poor defending but perhaps, somewhat paradoxically, a reduction of Johnson's offensive workload spurred increased production.

Johnson's defensive workload wasn't lessened tonight but he once again did a good job against Deron Williams. In a classic Atlanta Hawks sagging man-to-man defensive performance, his teammates followed suit. Last night, it appeared the Sacramento Kings settled for jump shots Tonight, the Hawks disrupted and frustrated the flex sets and forced Utah to take jump shots.

Everything worked. Had it occurred a day later the performance would have been thoroughly epiphanal. Still, it provided a reminder of why, even though this team struggles to make adjustments, they so often do not need to anything other than they wish.

January 5th Game Preview: Atlanta Hawks (23-14) @ Utah Jazz (24-11)

TIP-OFF: 9pm (EST)

TELEVISION: SportSouth

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

CHAT: Daily Dime Live

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Marvin Williams is not with the team.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Paul Millsap is questionable. Mehmet Okur is out.

BY THE NUMBERS

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (off)	90.3	1.071	50.9	22.7	23.6	15.4
UTA (def)	90.4	1.063	48.3	36	29	14.3

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (def)	90.5	1.047	48.3	27	25.3	14.4
UTA (off)	90.4	1.096	49.9	25.8	25.2	12.8

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Salt City Hoops, SLC Dunk

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Utah -5, 190.5 o/u

PREVIOUSLY...the Utah Jazz, like the Atlanta Hawks, are undefeated in 2011. It could be argued that Atlanta's two wins, as they came on the road, are more impressive than Utah's 98-92 and 102-97 home wins over Memphis and Detroit.

The Jazz provide a good chance for the Hawks in their efforts to improve their offensive play against quality opposition. Utah rank 15th in the league in defensive efficiency. Half of Atlanta's 12 games against teams with winning records have come against three teams (Orlando, Boston, and Miami) ranked in the top 4 in the league in defensive efficiency and 9 of the 12 games have come against teams ranked in the top 9 in the league in defensive efficiency.

The Jazz beat the Hawks 90-86 on November 12th in Atlanta. The Hawks blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead in that game.

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

Basketball-Reference.com Blog: Win Probability of Utah Jazz Comebacks

Neil Paine looks at the in-game win probabilities from Utah's five consecutive comeback victories. Their win over the Hawks was the most probable/least improbable of the five. Utah had an 8.8% chance of winning the game down 11 with 11:23 left in the fourth quarter.

Quotes, Notes, and Links: Utah Jazz 90 Atlanta Hawks 86

Recap

Hoopdata boxscore

Highlights

Joe Johnson:

"I didn’t get too excited about 6-0 because we weren’t playing playoff teams."

Al Horford:

"I have to take the blame for not knocking down those free throws at the end. But I will just have to keep working because I know I will be back in that situation again."

Larry Drew on rebounding:

"It’s a problem. It won’t be fixed until we get into our mindset that we have to pay more attention and be more focused. It will be worked on every day in practice, I can tell you that. It won’t be something we will let slide."

I think this organization might actually believe that rebounding and defense are pure manifestations of effort and "mindset" rather than talent. Neither will stop being a weakness for the team until that changes.

Deron Williams had three offensive rebounds. Earl Watson, Ronnie Price, and CJ Miles each had one. Al Horford and Josh Smith can't cover for their teammates defensively and box out multiple opponents and chase down every loose rebound.

Michael Cunningham on the fourth straight loss being the least bad loss of the four:

It’s not like the Hawks quit, either. It’s just that for the third time in the last four games they weren’t good enough to finish off a quality opponent. Viewed in isolation, this wasn’t such a terrible loss for the Hawks. But placed in the context of those losses to Phoenix and Orlando and the surrender against Milwaukee, this was a game the Hawks couldn’t lose.

Jerry Sloan:

"Even when we had a little trouble to start the season. at least they stayed together and worked themselves out of it. That’s the only way you have a chance. If you get [in] an ice pick fight out in the parking lot, then you have to try to solve that problem."

Al Jefferson on Sloan:

"He motivates us so well — for us to just go out there and leave it out on the floor."

The ice pick metaphors will do that.

CORRECTION

This item from the game recap was inaccurate:

The easiest solution would be to reduce Powell's minutes (the Hawks were -10 in the 11:25 he played tonight, they were outscored by 8.5 points per 100 possessions he was on the court this season entering the game) to something approaching zero.

There appears to be a one-day discrepancy between the "data through" line on BasketballValue.com and the data itself. Entering last night's game, the Hawks were outscored by 10.8 points per 100 possessions Josh Powell was on the court during the season.

I apologize for the mistake.

Utah Jazz 90 Atlanta Hawks 86

Boxscore

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH	84	1.071	45.2	16.7	33.3	10.7
ATL	84	1.024	52.8	15.6	18.2	19

The 17 points scored and the 11-point lead blown in the fourth quarter are sure to raise familiar questions about the Hawks. Those questions won't be entirely fair. The Hawks didn't lose the game because the offense got static down the stretch (save for the possession that ended with Joe Johnson's turnover with 58 seconds left). Nor did they lose the game because of a failure to stop dribble penetration. The Hawks lost because Larry Drew stuck with his reserves (plus Joe Johnson) until that 11-point fourth quarter lead had shrunk to 4 points, because Al Horford missed all four of his fourth quarter free throw attempts (including those earned on the dynamite possession coming out of a time out with 14.7 seconds and the Hawks down 2), and because the Hawks couldn't grab enough defensive rebounds in the final three-and-a-half minutes.

Larry Drew could get away with letting his second unit oversee diminishing leads against Philadelphia or Washington but Utah proved to be a different kettle of fish. Drew may have to abandon his apparent desire to use Zaza Pachulia and Josh Powell together. The easiest solution would be to reduce Powell's minutes (the Hawks were -10 in the 11:25 he played tonight, they were outscored by 8.5 points per 100 possessions he was on the court this season entering the game) to something approaching zero. The difference between Powell and Pachulia is significant, the difference between Powell and both Horford and Smith is vast and such differences become more stark in games (such as three of Atlanta's four losses) that go down to their final possessions.

The four missed free throws from Horford were a painful improbability. He's made 75.7% of his free throws over his career, and nearly 80% of his free throws over the last season-plus. Good team play got him the free throws. More often than not he makes at least three of the four charities. The misses contributed materially to this loss, but it's fair not to get too results-oriented on this issue.

The Hawks have ranked 24th or worse in the NBA in defensive rebounding each of the last five seasons. They ranked 16th entering the game but were trending in the wrong direction. Four of Atlanta's last five opponents had grabbed at least 28.9% of all possible offensive rebounds. Utah made it five of six. Once again, it came down to too little support on the defensive glass for Horford, Smith, and Marvin Williams. The starting frontcourt combined for 20 defensive rebounds (led by Smith's 10) but the rest of the team grabbed just 10 between them. Joe Johnson, though he did a surprisingly decent job defending Deron Williams, managed not to grab a single defensive rebound in 38 minutes and 3 seconds. The Hawks went scoreless over the final 3:33 but that was in large part due to them getting only five offensive possessions over that stretch.

Ten games into the season, the Hawks have displayed both what their greatest champions and their sharpest critics expected--an aesthetically pleasing (albeit turnover prone thus far) and efficient offense paired with mediocre-to-poor defense. It's difficult to improve weaknesses without either acknowledging or addressing them and the Hawks, from a personnel standpoint, did neither this off-season.

The Hawks were not as good as their 6-0 start indicated nor are they as bad as they've looked in losing their last four games. Winning six of every ten games, though, will get you 49 wins over an 82-game season and that's a pace that shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with this team.

November 12th Game Preview: Utah Jazz (5-3) @ Atlanta Hawks (6-3)

TIP-OFF: 7pm (EST)

TELEVISION: ESPN, ESPN3

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

CHAT: Daily Dime Live

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Marvin Williams and Mo Evans both practiced Thursday and could play tonight. Pape Sy is out.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Mehmet Okur is out.

BY THE NUMBERS

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH (off)	93.4	1.073	49.5	26.9	24.9	16.5
ATL (def)	92.4	1.075	49.2	25.1	26.8	13.5

2010-11	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH (def)	93.4	1.065	46.5	42	29.3	17.2
ATL (off)	91.9	1.115	53.2	26.5	25.4	16.4

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Salt City Hoops, SLC Dunk

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -4, 199.5 o/u

PREVIOUSLY...the Utah Jazz have won three consecutive games. In each of those games, vs. LA Clippers, at Miami, and at Orlando they fell behind by at least 18 points.

Paul Millsap, who is averaging 23.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game on the season, was the star of the comeback win in Miami, scoring 46 points on 28 shots. If only he had the length and athleticism of, say Solomon Jones, he might really be something.

Solomon Jones is older, too.

(Shakes head)

In the wake of Utah's impressive back-to-back wins in Miami and Orlando, Zach Lowe wrote the definitive overview of the Jazz, year-to-date, at The Point Forward. His conclusion:

I’m not ready to put Utah in the elite yet. There are just too many questions, particularly about the rebounding, and scoring depth will continue to concern me until C.J. Miles proves he can be a consistent threat on the wing and Mehmet Okur comes back healthy to space the floor.

But still: The Jazz have one of the two best point guards in the league, and they’ve proved they can win brutal road games. If they’re not among the top five or six contenders yet — and I don’t think they are — they deserve our attention as a team that could break into that group.

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

Hawks 105 Jazz 100

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	81.7	1.285	59.7	26.4	22.6	9.8
UTAH	81.7	1.224	50.6	16.5	42.2	13.5

Two streaks ended last one night. One began over 17 years ago. The other began at halftime in Phoenix Friday night. The absence of Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko shouldn't take from either accomplishment. The Hawks are not yet good enough to concern themselves with the quality of their road wins and creating high percentage shots in the half-court in the fourth quarter against any five people is a profound and noticeable improvement.

For the better part of the past two seasons, I wrote about how initiating the half-court offense through Josh Smith either in the low- or high-post (last night Smith and the Hawks extended his usefulness all the way to the top of they key) would improve both spacing and ball movement simply by putting Smith in a position where he had to be guarded. That this inversion of the typical offensive set would also put Joe Johnson in a position where he was still capable of finishing (and might even create for him easier shot opportunities than he could get on his own) made it seem a no-brainer.

Last night, the Hawks (mostly) went down that tactical path for the final seven minutes. Smith took two shots (an alley oop from Mike Bibby and a layup and-one), scored five points, earned three assists, and did not turn the ball over. One of those assists set up Jamal Crawford for a wide-open three-pointer. The other two of those assists led directly to Joe Johnson buckets (a three-pointer and a layup). Johnson scored 11 points in the last 7-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter. He needed just five shots to do so.

Johnson didn't score in the third quarter but it may still have been a great stretch for his reputation among Hawks fans, a reminder that it's more the "iso" than the "Joe" that frustrates. The Hawks spent much of the third quarter making a concerted effort to get the ball to Al Horford on the left block. Horford's post game is improving but remains a work in progress. He doesn't necessarily draw a double-team. Not that Utah had to commit to double-teaming him while he was isolated on the left block. As is typical of the iso-Joe sets, Josh Smith set up 20-22 feet from the basket on the wing opposite Horford and, as is typical of the iso-Joe sets, the other team (quite reasonably) felt no need to pay attention to him there. Furthermore, as is typical of the iso-Joe sets, Smith just stood there. Horford would receive the entry pass, look for the double team, see none arriving but recognize the opportunity for one to come, begin his (somewhat mechanical and deliberate) post move, at that point get doubled, and have no teammate working to help him.

It's to Horford's credit that, though the effort to get him the ball didn't increase his usage, he maintained his efficiency. On the night, he got to the line eight times, allowing to score 13 points on just four field goal attempts while adding three assists against a single turnover.

As lovely as the half-court offense was in the fourth quarter, Mike Bibby's play and his presence on the court for all but the final 24 seconds of the fourth quarter creates concern. On a night where both Marvin Williams and Maurice Evans were aggressive and productive, Mike Woodson chose to leave Bibby on the floor to be harassed by Ronnie Price's ball pressure before spotting up and waiting for someone to give him the ball back and to be hidden defensively on (but not stopping) Wes Matthews or CJ Miles. While the Hawks ran beautiful sets through Josh Smith, Utah kept pace for almost the entire fourth quarter by running their offense through Kyle Korver or Miles simply because they were guarded (poorly) by Jamal Crawford and Bibby, respectively.

I still fail to see the compelling argument for playing two poor perimeter defenders together for long stretches of the fourth quarter especially when one of them is incapable of creating his own shot and looks increasingly unlikely to convert the open shots his teammates create for him. If Bibby really is something like a 35% three-point shooter these days, well, so are Williams and Evans and they're both better defenders and rebounders and are no more likely to turn the ball over than Bibby.

Joe Johnson:

"I thought we were very composed tonight in the fourth quarter when we got down. We were able to not get rattled and made a run of our own."

Al Horford:

"He [Josh Smith] kept harping on us to share the ball, share the ball and make it easier for each other."

Josh Smith:

"I just noticed that we were passing the ball one time and taking a shot. They were catching our misses and getting out on the break."

Mike Woodson:

"That was a total team effort by everybody who played. That’s what we need the rest of the way."

You can make it so, sir, and, in doing so, make your future.

Jamal Crawford on his dumb technical in Oakland:

"I’ll take the blame for that loss. When good things happen I get credit so I’ve got to take blame when things go bad."

Jerry Sloan:

"Well, we made a couple mistakes trying to come down the stretch and turned the ball over a couple times and missed free throws that could help keep you in there. But I thought our guys played hard, being short-handed and that kind of thing. I thought everybody tried to step up and play hard."

February 22nd Open Thread: Atlanta (34-20) @ Utah (36-19)

TIP-OFF: 9pm (EST)

TELEVISION: SportSouth

CHAT: Daily Dime Live (in which I will be participating)

RADIO: Hawks Radio Network, Audio League Pass

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: None.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Andrei Kirilenko left last night's game with back spasms and is a game-time decision. Mehmut Okur is expected to return to action following the birth of his son.

BY THE NUMBERS

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (off)	89.6	1.123	50.3	21.5	27.2	13.3
UTAH (def)	91.6	1.055	48.6	34.6	25.2	16.6

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL (def)	89.6	1.076	49.8	27.9	27.3	16
UTAH (off)	91.6	1.11	52	25.5	25.6	16.8

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Utah -5, 196 o/u

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Salt City Hoops, SLC Dunk

PREVIOUSLY, THE UTAH JAZZ...came from 25 points down to win 93-89 in overtime in Portland last night without Andrei Kirilenko or Mehmet Okur. It was Utah's fourth straight win, all of them coming on the road. Reaching back further, the Jazz have won 13 of 14 and 17 of 19 with lone losses coming at Denver and at home against the Lakers.

The Hawks beat the Jazz quite impressively (96-83) in Atlanta on December 18th. The Hawks have lost fifteen straight in Salt Lake City, their last win coming 17 years ago. Wow...Koncak, Keefe, Graham, and Henson. What a bench that was. Depth has never really been this organization's strength has it?

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

Hawks 96 Jazz 83

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Entire game...

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH	95.3	0.871	44.3	47.1	21.1	25.2
ATL	95.3	1.007	48.2	19.3	20.0	13.6

Through 3 quarters...

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH	71.5	0.713	36.4	30.9	17.1	25.2
ATL	71.5	1.133	53.8	16.9	20.6	12.6

Now is the time to be excited. Yes, the excitement may be brief what with the next four games and six of the next eight to be played on the road but last night's defeat of Utah was the most thorough and impressive entry in the Hawks' current six-game winning streak. Most impressive because the Hawks integrated* their offense and their defense to beat a good team.

*Through three quarters, the meaningless fourth destroyed the full measure of the home team's statistical, box score dominance as demonstrated above.

Utah's probably not quite as good as Dallas and this game was played at home rather than on the road but we've seen the Hawks win a game as they did in Dallas in seasons past. A jump shooting team had a cold night and Joe Johnson single-handedly carried the Hawks not-especially-impressive offense on the strength of contested runners and fall-away jumpers.

Utah's offense, in the past, has bedeviled Atlanta's defense. The volume of off-the-ball screens and screens for screeners that Utah sets has thrown the switch-happy Hawks into defensive disarray. Add the absence of anyone who can consistently keep Deron Williams in front of him on the roster and the ability of both Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer to pull Al Horford and Josh Smith away from the basket and out of their preferred (and often necessary) help positions and you've got a recipe for negating Atlanta's athletic advantage through scheme and skill.

With rare exception, none of that bothered the Hawks last night. Switching or not switching, Hawk defenders stayed between the Jazz and the basket. Granted, Atlanta was somewhat fortunate with regard to the volume of jump shots that Utah missed in the first half but it's what they did with those misses and the huge number of turnovers they forced that decided the game long before the third quarter buzzer sounded.

Through three quarters, Utah made just 20 off 55 field goals. Atlanta grabbed 29 of 35 (82.8%) possible defensive rebounds, forced 18 turnovers (10 off steals), and relentlessly pushed the ball up the court off of both. The result: 26 assists on 37 made field goals (24 on 32 through three quarters) and 29 fast break points.

The Hawks attacked off of their defense. If Boozer and Okur possess the skills to limit Al Horford and Josh Smith's defensive impact, Smith and Horford (with the necessary help of their smaller teammates) possess the skills to create offense before Okur and Boozer get back past half-court.

Josh Smith:

"We were making it hard for them to catch, playing passing lanes. We're still a little raw at it, but if we keep doing what we know we're supposed to do, we'll be fine. We just got up and made it hard for them to run their plays. We clogged the paint, and got out and got some easy points."

Too often in the past, Atlanta has allowed their opponents to dictate the style of play in any given game. Last night, they attacked to their advantage and forced their opponent to try to adapt. Even in the low-scoring, not especially well-played first half, Atlanta's offensive tactics were sound. They pounded the ball into Joe Johnson, mostly on the block, against rookie Wes Matthews. Johnson (and his teammates) recognized that Utah would have to send Matthews help. Johnson waited for the help to show (but didn't wait so long that the help arrived) and found the open man. It might have taken a second or third pass to get the open shot, and several of those open shots were missed, but the ball movement and team concept were both sound. More importantly, the Hawks didn't go away from it.

Come the New Year, this approaching spate of road games may remind us that Utah is, after all, a terrible team on the road and make this morning's missive look irrationally exuberant in retrospect. Today, though, we've catalogued another example of Atlanta's improvement--the head coach's improvement, the players' individual and collective improvement--and, for one day, at least, the question shifts from Will they really win 50 games? to Could they win 60?

Mike Woodson:

"Tonight, it was beautiful to watch."

Marvin Williams:

"That was fun.

We got every stop and made every shot for I don't know how long."

Al Horford:

"We're starting to develop that killer instinct."

Peachtree Hoops:

I hope you watched this game because I cannot describe how well Josh Smith played. He took charges, poked steals, skied for rebounds, block shots, and dunked. And that was on consecutive possessions. You can't expect Josh to get as lucky as he did tonight. The ball certainly bounced right. Still, games like this make it clear how far he has come. The man can take over games. Shoot, he can turn the tide with one shot and defense.

And I don't mean to beat a dead horse that has been dead since the mid way through the third, but I can't remember a player performing that well against a good team in a long time. Josh Smith was that good.

Deron Williams:

"We apologize to all the fans. We played like crap. I played like crap. I think more than anything, their length hurt us."

Jerry Sloan:

"They were terrific. They did everything they had to do. We got caught up in wanting to score. We had eight assists the first half. We couldn't shoot it fast enough. And far enough. They just kicked our butts from the jump."

The Human Highlight Blog:

We didn't check, but we're pretty sure the Jazz lose all games where Deron and Boozer combine for less than (10) points total. Ok, make that very sure.

SLC Dunk:

One night after appearing on national television and hearing Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley call him the best point guard in the NBA. Deron Williams put up this line: 2 points on 1-8 shooting, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 turnovers and a +/- rating of -36 in 21 minutes. If he's ever had a worse game as a professional, I can't remember it.

At Crashing the Glass, Brian Anderson leads off the game recap with a(nother) wildly inaccurate prediction of mine. That an entire is blog is not dedicated to just that premise is down only to my unimportance and the good and generous nature of those of you who read this regularly.

December 18th Game Thread: Utah (15-10) @ Atlanta (18-6)

TIP-OFF: 7:30pm (EST)

TELEVISION: SportSouth

CHAT: Daily Dime Live

RADIO: Hawks Radio Network, Audio League Pass

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Joe Smith has been upgraded to day-to-day.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Matt Harpring is out.

BY THE NUMBERS

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH (off)	90.2	1.124	52.0	24.2	26.4	15.7
ATL (def)	90.7	1.060	49.9	26.4	26.9	16.1

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH (def)	90.2	1.091	50.2	34.9	25.0	15.3
ATL (off)	90.7	1.160	51.3	21.4	30.4	13.2

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -6, 206.5 o/u

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: Salt City Hoops, SLC Dunk

PREVIOUSLY, THE UTAH JAZZ...beat the Nets 108-92 in New Jersey Wednesday night.

I suspect this will be a tough game for the Hawks. Switching every screen against Utah will leave the Hawks susceptible to back-door cuts. Deron Williams will be a handful with the ball in his hands. The Okur/Boozer post combo will tax Atlanta's interior defenders, not least of which becasue Okur will take one of them away from the interior while Ronnie Brewer, Wesley Matthews, and (possibly) the newly-healthy CJ Miles give Utah defensive depth to deploy against Joe Johnson.

On the other hand, Utah's propensity to foul, foul again, and then foul some more could aid the Hawks who, even though they currently have the league's most efficient offense, don't typically get tot the free throw line very often.

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

Hawks' D-League Affiliate To Be In Orem, UT

The Hawks old affiliate, the Anaheim Arsenal, moved to Springfield, MA. Apparently the Hawks needed to maintain near-maximum inefficiency with regard to location so they'll share (Ha!) the Utah Flash with the Utah Jazz.

I don't expect Jeff Teague or Sergey Gladyr to play there but maybe Othello Hunter can get another three-game stretch of experience while the Hawks are on a West Coast road trip.

Four New Blogs Join the TrueHoop Network

Philadelphia, Orlando, Utah, and Europe are now under the microscope. Update your RSS readers.

Hawks 100 Jazz 93

Boxscore

Gameflow

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
UTAH	91.3	1.02	47.9	17.4	30.2	17.5
ATL	91.3	1.10	53.3	28.8	25.6	14.2

1) It's imperative the Hawks secure the fourth seed in the East. They're simply a different team at home.

2) It's likely the Hawks secure the fourth seed in the East. They have a game-and-a-half lead over Miami and the Hawks play 11 of their final 17 games at home where (see above) they're a different team.

The Hawks won their third straight at home last night with each successive game against a better team arriving in town with a longer winning streak intact. This team is not yet to the point (though it's close) where beating New Orleans and Utah at home is a ho-hum affair. Part of that has to do with the vast difference in energy the Hawks display at home* compared with their road efforts. There's no explanation for that, or at least there's no explanation free of borderline-insulting suppositions and thus no good explanation. The question of whether the Hawks are more of a good home team or a poor road team won't be resolved today.

*And part of that surely has to do with their opposition being on the road and coming out as flat as Utah did last night.

Outside of the third quarter (Granted, a significant exception.), the Hawks did a good job stifling Utah's halfcourt offense both before and after* a shot went up. None of the Hawks were able to do much to keep Deron Williams (who, in my opinion, played a little too unselfishly last night) out of the lane though Acie Law IV gave a game effort. However they didn't compound Utah's matchup advantage by letting Ronnie Brewer, CJ Miles, or Andrei Kirilenko get many good looks while going to the basket.

*It's my contention that the constant switching on screens contributes to Atlanta's poor defensive rebounding both in terms of positioning at the time an opponent's shot is released and the general passivity it encourages.

It's a smart acknowledgment of the team's defensive liabilities at the point to trade some easy shots Deron Williams created for himself for some jump shots from Brewer, Miles, and Kirilenko. Perhaps the Hawks were let off the hook by Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver making just 7 of 18 FGA but, had, the Hawks taken better advantage of Utah's propensity to send their opponents to the free throw line, the margin of victory would have been more significant.

Free throw shooting (1-4) was the one area where Mario West did not contribute in a positive way during his 14 first half minutes. Though it was good to see the "energy guy" get to use his energy for a longer stretch, it was better to see that Mike Woodson chose to counter Utah's third quarter explosion with basketball players rather than push his luck with West.

I suspect there's no silver lining to Marvin Williams' still-mysterious back injury, but it, in combination with the dying embers of Mike Bibby's contract push, has forced/allowed Mike Woodson to use Acie Law for extended stretches at the point. Keeping in mind we're talking about a guy with less than 1500 minutes played for his career, there are encouraging signs of progress: his assists are up and his turnovers are down compared to last season, and, though he still isn't making a very high percentage of his field goal attempts he's getting to the free throw line more than twice as often as he did last season. I think it would be risky to hand him the starting point job next season but, if he continues to play at his current level through the end of the season I believe he could allow Rick Sund to be both more frugal and more creative with filling the roster spot currently occupied by Mike Bibby.

Josh Smith is obviously drunk on defensive rebounds following his recent binge:

"This shows everybody in the world the Hawks are for real. They have to take the Hawks seriously. Utah is an outstanding team. We played the best in the West and were able to beat them."

Mike Woodson was more measured in expressing his good feelings:

"We’ve had some fourth quarters like that earlier in the year when we started out but this fourth quarter was huge for us from a defensive standpoint."

Utah's final 12 possessions resulted in four points all on Ronnie Brewer free throws. Huge indeed.

Ryan Cameron gets some attention at the top of Ross Siler's game recap in The Salt Lake Tribune:

As the final seconds ticked away Wednesday night, the public address announcer at Philips Arena couldn't help himself, yelling, "We are the streak busters. We end winning streaks. Hawks fans, make some noise!"

John Hollinger presents the evidence that Utah isn't a very good road team, either:

Let's get right to the three key numbers from Wednesday: 1, 9 and 12.

Twelve is the big number you'll hear about, because Utah's 12-game winning streak ended in a 100-93 loss to the Hawks thanks to 31 points from Joe Johnson, Josh Smith's best game in several weeks and a lengthy, productive first-half cameo from Mario West.

But going forward, it's the 1 and the 9 that are of much greater concern.

The number 1, because after Wednesday that's still the number of times the Jazz have beaten a winning team on the road this year. Yes, just once: a 120-114 overtime win at Detroit on Dec. 19. They lost their other 10 tries -- make that 11 after Wednesday -- and most of them weren't even close: only two were decided by six points or less.

Eh, I'm still pretty pleased with the win.

March 11th Open Thread: Utah (41-23) @ Atlanta (36-28)

TIP-OFF: 7pm

TELEVISION: SportSouth

RADIO: Hawks Radio Network, Audio League Pass

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Marvin Williams is out.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Carlos Boozer and Jarron Collins are both listed as game-time decisions.

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Atlanta -2, 196.5 o/u

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: SLC Dunk

PREVIOUSLY, THE UTAH JAZZ...have, you may have heard, won 12 straight games. Four of those wins, including the two most recent, have come on the road. Before their last loss, more than a month ago in Golden State, Utah won three straight games.

The fifth win in Utah's current streak is a 108-89 de-pantsing of the Hawks in Salt Lake City. I predict there's an 80% chance that Josh Smith gets fouled hard by a Jazzman tonight.

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

Jazz 108 Hawks 89

Boxscore

Gameflow

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	92.7	0.96	54.3	18.6	21.6	21.6
UTAH	92.7	1.16	53.4	15.9	37.8	16.2

In a micro-tactical sense Mike Woodson coached fairly well last night. Things weren't transpiring according to plan so he deviated from the plan. He stayed with the Murray/Johnson/Evans/Smith/Horford lineup for the better part of the second quarter. That group played the only stretch of passable defense any combination of Hawks managed last night and pulled the game back from 29-48 to 52-61. A questionable goaltend call* against Josh Smith and a Ronnie Brewer halfcourt heave at the second quarter buzzer undermined their good work but they kept the game from being over at halftime.

*And, really, I'm reluctant to acknowledge it as a questionable call given Smith's overreaction to every foul called against him, against a teammate, or not called against an opposing defender. One would think that a player struggling in so many areas might have sufficient internal issues to prevent him from focusing on his perceived persecution by the referees. One would be mistaken in Smith's case.

Woodson gave Bibby (-20 in 12:12 during the first half) another chance to start the second half. Two minutes, 55 seconds, and three (Mike Bibby defended) CJ Miles buckets later. Bibby was done* for the night. At that point the Utah lead was 22, they'd scored 76 points in just under 27 minutes and the game was essentially decided** because, in a macro-tactical sense, Mike Woodson seriously diminished the Hawks' chances of winning in Utah when he decided that, defensively, this team would spend the season switching on every screen. It's a functional strategy against teams with a limited number of offensive options and/or little off-the-ball movement. Against Utah it essentially rendered the Atlanta defenders stationary, calling out switches but never moving their feet as the Jazz players ran their offense without interference.

*Having read the AP recap this morning and learned that Woodson sat Bibby because Bibby was sick, I've decided both to leave the above as written last night and delete the aside here about the positive sign that the Hawks might accurately value Bibby's strengths and weaknesses as a player at this point in his career and not commit cap suicide by re-signing him to a ridiculous contract this summer. Seriously, Bibby was sick? Sure didn't effect his defense. Zing!

**Even the resulting 6-0 Hawks run made little impact as it took over 2-and-a-half minutes, included a couple of missed free throws, and neither energized the visitors nor worried the hosts.

It's an odd, passive choice for a team that has an admitted problem with playing hard. Certainly, in general, some ground must be ceded in deference to Bibby's defensive limitations in order to reap the benefit of his offensive talents. I don't believe this to be any sort of platonic ideal of a defensive basketball team but they haven't been challenged to become a better defensive team. In the terrible home loss to the Clippers, Acie Law IV got chewed out by Woodson and Marvin Williams for screwing up a defensive possession by having the temerity to try and fight through a ball screen. A blown assignment? Yes. An example of a young player trying to earn more playing time by giving extra effort? Yes, also, but his effort was viewed primarily as disruptive rather than positive. A small moment, to be sure, but one that has obviously stayed with me for more than two weeks.

Utah's end-of-game offensive numbers should be damning enough but do not forget or overlook that they are dampened by a 15-point, 5-25 FGA, 0-3 3PTA fourth quarter. Jazz players not named Matt Harpring* went 1-19 from the floor and scored 4 points in the final quarter. Through three quarters, the Jazz scored 1.34 points per possession, shot 66.7 eFG%, and grabbed 42.1% of possible offensive rebounds.

*I suppose I should write something about Smith's flagrant foul. I don't think he made much of a play for the ball. I certainly don't think he made as impassioned a play for the ball as he made a play for Harpring. Harpring fell badly (but not intentionally so) but thankfully was not seriously hurt. I'm not proud of this, but, in the moment, I wanted Harpring to get to Smith so I could see how Smith would react to being confronted. Five years into his NBA career and we still don't know, do we? What would happen if someone said (and acted upon the following premise) to Smith, "You can't shoot. Work on your post-up game and you'll get some touches. Until then, focus on defending and rebounding if you want to play." It's hard to avoid (but impossible to do anything about) the fact that the root cause of Smith's current funk is that no one within the organization figured out four years ago that Smith was destined to be a power forward and should be tutored as such. So much wasted time and now he plays as if he has no idea who he is or what he can do to help the team win.

Last word to the head coach:

"The results of this game were an embarrassment."

February 23rd Open Thread: Atlanta (32--22) @ Utah

TIP-OFF: 9pm

TELEVISION: SportSouth

RADIO: Hawks Radio Network, Audio League Pass

GAME NOTES: Hawks/Jazz

ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: Speedy Claxton is out. Othello Hunter and Thomas Gardner are presumed still to be with the Anaheim Arsenal. Never mind.

UTAH INJURY REPORT: Carlos Boozer is expected to return tonight.

FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Utah -7.5, 203.5 o/u

OTHER PERSPECTIVES: SLC Dunk

PREVIOUSLY, THE UTAH JAZZ...have won four straight games (wins over the Lakers, Celtics, and Hornets included), seven of eight, and 14 of their last 16 at home.

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

Summer League: Hawks 72 Jazz 63

Box Score (.pdf)

Recap

Eyewitness Account

Jazz 100 Hawks 94

Boxscore

Gameflow

Mike Woodson:

"I thought their bench was the difference tonight against our bench."

Can't disagree with the head coach on that point. For once, it wasn't his fault. He didn't whiff on the 2006 draft. (Solomon Jones, 33rd pick in that draft, amply demonstrated his rare combination of bad hands and bad feet for the 2:11 he was on the court. Paul Millsap, 47th pick in that draft, contributed 8 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block while playing solid defense for almost 21 minutes.) He didn't take Marvin Williams second overall rather than trading down, gaining a pick and drafting a point guard in the process. It would have been nice had he not wasted a roster space on Mario West all season so that someone like Jeremy Richardson who might could play hasn't been around long enough to know what he's supposed to be doing.

Utah didn't play well last night. Atlanta's starters (with the exception of Marvin Williams) played when they were on the court. It wasn't enough to steal a victory but there's reasonable evidence to believe that the offense will be better with Mike Bibby and he's not demonstrably worse defensively than the players he's replaced.

There are still wasted possessions: running plays to post up Marvin Williams against Millsap or Andrei Kirilenko; coming out of the timeout with 46 seconds left, down 4, and ending up with Josh Smith taking and missing an 18-foot baseline jumper (his only miss from the field in the 4th Quarter) with 10 seconds left on the shot clock. There's ample evidence that the only thing Marvin Williams does well in the half-court is make open jump shots. There's ample evidence that the only thing Josh Smith does poorly in the half-court is shoot jump shots. Yet the Hawks piss away a handful of possessions every game further demonstrating the above.

EDIT: I think the 4th Quarter against the Warriors shows that feeding Josh Smith in the post isn't going to turn the team into an offensive juggernaut. However, even though the Hawks struggled to score for a couple of significant stretches in that quarter they never appeared completely out-of-sync and Golden State never managed to take control of the game. Atlanta made them work defensively and, in refusing to become stagnant offensively, the Hawks better maintained their defensive energy and awareness.

The offense is going to look especially bad, in terms of design, when directly contrasted with Utah's. Joe Johnson gets double-teamed in the post and his best option is to back out to the three-point line, either shooting a contested jump shot as the shot clock expires or passing the ball so someone else can. Deron Williams gets double-teamed in the post and his best option is a simple pass to Kyle Korver wide-open behind the three-point line.

Anybody know if Phil Johnson has any interest in a head coaching job?

Josh Smith Jump Shot Log
February 23, 2008 vs. @Utah

Result	Quarter	Time	Shot Clock	Distance
MISS	1Q	9:14	(:15)	19'
MISS	1Q	5:22	(:02)	20'
MAKE	2Q	6:54	(:14)	20'
MAKE	2Q	0:01	(:01)	30'
MISS	4Q	0:32	(:10)	18'