Cavaliers (93) Hawks (88) Game Recap

Same script different game for the Hawks last night in Cleveland. It has to be disappointing for the team to be able to compete through the first three quarters during all three games only to fall flat in the fourth in each of them. At this point I am not sure what the answer is. The fourth quarter is about adjustments offensively and defensively. That certainly has not been a strength that the Hawks have shown all season as most times they simply give the ball to Joe Johnson or Jamal Crawford and let them “go make a play”.

The premise that we need to run something in the fourth quarter has been beat to death so I won’t completely rehash it here. I thought for a second that maybe we should have Bibby in the game as sometimes he can get us into a set. However, that most likely would have come at the expense of Marvin Williams who to my naked eye seemed to have the most luck guarding LeBron James. I know plus/minus stats are probably not the best indicator for an individual game basis but I was shocked to see Marvin at a team low –17 last night. The only other solution would have been to leave Marvin in and take out Jamal. Before the fourth quarter I felt like Jamal was playing the best of anyone so it is probably not right to second guess at this point.

The loss really stems from losing the battle on the boards. I thought with both O’Neal and Varejao that the Hawks could negate some of that size advantage that the Cavs had inside. That was simply not the case as James (13 rebounds) and J.J. Hickson (16 rebounds) more than made up the gap. For the night the Hawks were outrebounded 55-36. You can’t win that way especially on a night when Joe Johnson is 6-17 without a free throw attempt and scores only 13 points.

So if you are this team then where do you go from here? The important thing is to forget about this loss and move on because they have a game tonight at Phillips against Detroit. The Hawks remain a full game in front of Boston for the 3rd seed in the East due to the Celtics loss to the Rockets last night. They simply can not afford to let this loss linger and drop the game tonight at home against the Pistons.

Tags: Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers