The Atlanta Hawks are finding out how difficult it is in the playoffs when a defensive minded coach has days to prepare for an offense built around sharing principles. The question going into the playoffs was who could stop the Hawks generous, yet at the same time, extroverted style of play. The Hawks move the ball, they don’t isolate, they feed off of one another.
It’s not complicated what Lionel Hollins is doing. He is cutting off the head of the snake, closing the lane for penetration, forcing the Hawks to make jump shots without the benefit of ball movement, elevating the offensive stress level when the Hawks miss shots. For the second game in a row, the Hawks couldn’t make open shots and didn’t do a good enough of job rebounding their own misses of which there were plenty, 58, for those of you counting.
And there was this: Kyle Korver seemed like a stranger on the court, a replica of himself, throwing up misses, many of his shots uncontested, but having to work hard just to get open. Without Korver on the perimeter draining jumpers and forcing defenders to run at him, the lane stayed jammed with Brook Lopez and then Miles Plumlee. The decision making by Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder to penetrate through narrow gaps, desperate to make something happen instead of letting the game come to them, was mostly a failure. Sometimes aggression has a piper to pay.
"“They are a big physical team”, Korver said post-game. “We had a hard time getting good shots.”"
He didn’t add the obvious, that a lot of the shots the Hawks took weren’t shots worth taking.
Apr 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford (15) defends against Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez (11) during second half in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Barclays Center. The Brooklyn Nets won 91-86. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
Coach Bud has seen his offense look perfectly efficient and then horribly confused and finally ordinary and mundane. The Hawks have become chameleons these past two games, turning into a version of themselves they rarely displayed in the regular season, pressed into their offensive funk by the Brooklyn Nets willingness to be physical and to slow everything down to a crawl. It doesn’t take much to warp a resonant offense. You just need ball pressure, missed shots and ruining the tempo.
But every decision DeMarre Carroll made worked. Coming off a hyper-miserable game two, Carroll got every shot he wanted, converting 9/12 and leading the Hawks in scoring. His effort was bookended by Paul Millsap who was, once again, the best thing on the floor in all areas of the game. 18 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, 1 block. No one else matched the efficiency, determination and effectiveness of the Carroll-Millsap combo. But Millsap was pretty clear on what went wrong.
"“We played pretty slow tonight. That’s not how we play. We got caught up in their pace. They slowed us down. We settled a lot on threes. Normally we drive and kick and get open looks.”"
Once a playoff series gets into the familiar, when you know what the other team is going to do, when the players expressions become tired and then just old, the storyline transitions from hero/goat to adjustments and advantages.
Sir Charles In Charge
At this point in the series, Lionel Hollins gets all the credit for peeling back the skin and exposing something damaged at the root. He has dismantled a beautiful offense into one that can barely put the ball into the basket. The Hawks are shooting 40% in the series, 30% from three. The only thing holding them together is that their defense is still pretty damned good.
Another Hollins adjustment is sagging off of Horford and letting him take open mid-range shots and in game 3 his shot was dying on the vine. He missed 9 out of 12 shots, a lot of open looks, many of which weren’t even close to the rim. A lot of his clanks were flat and skipped off the iron into the open hands of a Nets defender. It was a prolonged Horford vanishing act as the game got longer and longer, as every shot was an opportunity for a Nets rebound.
The arithmetic was bad in this game, on every level. The Hawks missed 58 shots. They missed 24 three point shots. They had 15 turnovers. Two starters had 9 points between them. DeMarre Carroll had as many points- 22– as the entire bench combined. The Nets had a 31 point quarter. The Hawks had a 10 minute scoring drought.
"Afterwards, DeMarre Carroll summed it up in pure DeMarre style. “We threw a punch and then they threw another punch”"