Atlanta Hawks Need To Stop Panicking And Start Executing

The regular season Atlanta Hawks showed up last night in Brooklyn, albeit just for a little while.

The Hawks lost a second consecutive game in the Barclays Center to allow the Brooklyn Nets to tie the series up at 2-2. There are so many negatives to take from that fact, that the real positives could easily end up masked though.

After a completely lackluster performance in Game 3, the 60 win Hawks showed up again in the spotlight last night, that is until it got a little bit tense. This Atlanta team doesn’t seem as confident as they once were, and there are definitely visible nerves in their play.

I suppose that’s understandable too. This is a team who haven’t been there and done it. This is a franchise famed for its failure to advance to the latter rounds of the Playoffs.

What they need to remember most of all though is that they sailed through the regular season almost unmatched. Atlanta’s intelligence, philosophy and attitude is what makes them different, and now is the time for them to return to what they do best, and draw upon those qualities.

With last night’s game as close as could be when regulation finished, overtime offered the perfect opportunity for the Hawks to showcase their strengths and prove what they’re made of.

They did exactly that too, although the score may suggest otherwise.

Atlanta displayed the flawless, selfless offense that has allowed them to stun the NBA over recent months, but in the end the group’s nerves and Playoff front running inexperience was to cost them.

The Hawks opened their overtime scoring account by going inside and scoring an easy hoop, something they can at times be guilty of neglecting due to their general jump shooting proficiency.

Jeff Teague brought the ball down the floor, where Kyle Korver would move up to the top of the perimeter to meet him. The pair exchanged passes just past half court until the opportunity presented itself. With the paint wide open, Korver dropped a pass over the top to Paul Millsap who was always going to have far too much for Thaddeus Young to handle down low.

After a Thaddeus Young second chance tip in once again brought the scores level at the other end, Atlanta set about initiating their offense again in a similar shape.

With Kyle Korver holding the ball in the same spot that allowed him to pick out Paul Millsap on their previous offensive score, this time

Pero Antic

was the nearest big man for Korver to combine with. Antic recognized that his man

Brook Lopez

was caught in a no man’s land and unwilling to push up to the arc, so he rolled across to set a pick on Korver’s man

Bojan Bogdanovic

, allowing the sharpshooter to get to work.

Brooklyn would respond once again, this time with a Joe Johnson floater, and now it was time for the Hawks to mix things up a little. Get the ball moving, get bodies moving.

With twelve seconds left on the shot clock, Teague passed the reins over to Millsap. The All-Star power forward faced up with Thad Young once again and threatened to shoot the three-pointer that he has already stung Brooklyn with at times during this series, and so it was no surprise that Millsap’s shot fake got a lot of attention.

Young bit on it, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson then collapsed the defense in to try to cover Millsap’s drive, and the Louisiana native found his Junkyard Dog teammate DeMarre Carroll wide open in the corner for a big time three-pointer.

Down the other end, the Hawks put in an outstanding defensive possession almost forcing a turnover, but the ball didn’t break their way. Instead it fell to Brook Lopez allowing him to simply lay the ball in with a desperate foul from DeMarre Carroll, completing an old-fashioned three-point play.

It was a demoralizing moment for the Hawks, but they weren’t going to beat themselves up over it just yet. Atlanta came down the floor with an almost perfect response, a blur of simple player and ball movement, they kind of which has driven them to success all season long. In the space of a couple of seconds the ball switched from a Jeff Teague lane drive, to DeMarre Carroll on the perimeter, and to

Al Horford

inside for an easy layup.

The offense was rolling, it looked the best it had looked all series, how could this possibly go wrong for Atlanta now? Well, they left Bojan Bogdanovic open from deep, and all of a sudden the found themselves chasing from behind.

One point down, and with the ball in their hands, Atlanta needed cool heads and more of the same. Four of the Hawks’ starters had already got themselves on the board in overtime, now it would be Jeff Teague’s turn to contribute.

The point guard carried the ball up court and his teammates got themselves into position to initiate a set. Al Horford came up to set a pick for Teague, and then began to roll away seemingly expecting the ball back.

Except Teague had other ideas and chucked up an early shot clock heave.

This was pure unadulterated panic, and it set the tone for the barrage of off-balance Korver three-pointers that Atlanta tried to close the game out with.

The Hawks have clearly shown that they have what it takes to pick apart the Nets at will, they now just have to stay out of their own way, and trust in themselves to make the right plays.

Next: How The Atlanta Hawks Became A Juggernaut

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