Blast From The Past?
This year’s Hawks have a feel that is eerily reminiscent of those Mike Woodson, Larry Drew led teams. Is that because this one is also a good, yet not great team? The answer to that remains to be seen. Is it perhaps because they are prone to taking nights off and losing to teams that may actually prefer to lose as many games as they can?
To recap how Mike Budenholzer’s group has came out of the All-Star break, they lost badly at home to the Miami Heat, 108-90 on Friday night. The Heat have been playing well of late, winning 8 of their last 10 games and are trying to get inside the playoff picture. They are currently just on the outside looking in, with a record of 27- 32 and in 9th place.
The Hawks made them look like world beaters, though, giving up a whopping 17 three-pointers. If that happens against the Cavs, that’s one thing, but when guys like Dion Waiters and Tyler (all players named Tyler are great at basketball, which is probably why this one is writing about it) Johnson rain triples on you all night, you’ve really got problems. There are missed assignments everywhere, because Bazemore, Hardaway and company are quick enough to close out to the three point line, but the opposition is routinely wide open.
The following night, they went to Orlando, where they were blown out by the Orlando Magic. I don’t exactly know how, but a team coached by Frank Vogel is at the moment, in second to last place in the Eastern Conference. Only the Brooklyn Nets are worse, at 9-49. I did figure he would get the Magic back on track, since leaving the Indiana Pacers a few seasons ago. That however, has not been the case.