Atlanta Hawks: Ball movement key to success this postseason

The Atlanta Hawks will be fighting for their playoff lives in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Missed opportunities have led to a 2-3 deficit against the Milwaukee Bucks and a chance the Hawks special season comes to an end. If they want to avoid that, they’ll need to avoid the same key mistake from Game 5.

On top of getting out-hustled, turning the ball over, and allowing the Bucks to eviscerate them in the paint, the Hawks went away from what allowed them to dominate Game 4: ball movement.

Moving the ball was and is critical to the Hawks having success against the Bucks. It was said ahead of Game 5, but without Trae Young in the lineup, the Hawks lack someone who can consistently create for himself and set up others outside of Lou Williams whose prime objective is to score.

The Atlanta Hawks need to make the extra pass if they want to break down  the Milwaukee Bucks tough defense

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Williams and the Hawks were terrific in Game 4, his first career playoff start. But he had six turnovers and shot 25 percent from three-point while the team had 22 turnovers in Game 5.

Worst of all, Atlanta’s offense often stagnated for stretches while its defense was getting shredded.

With another shot at the Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo likely, Williams and the Hawks can’t let that happen again.

In that surprising Game 4, Atlanta’s ball movement was superb, to the tune of 26 assists. A quick check of the box score will reveal they still had 24 assists in the humbling loss.

So, what gives?

It’s become cliche at this point but they weren’t making the extra pass. The Hawks made 277 passes in Game 5; 16 fewer than the game prior. This led to just one secondary assist, or as some may know it, the “hockey assist”. It’s basically the play before the play and in Game 4, Atlanta made plenty of them with five secondary assists.

They lost Game 3 but led into the fourth quarter even after Young exited with his injury, later revealed to be a bone bruise that threatens his availability for Saturday. They had six secondary assists in that one.

In their blowout Game 2 loss, the Hawks managed just 13 assists so it should shock no one that they didn’t get one of the secondary variety.

The Game 1 win followed the pattern as did most of the series against the 76ers.

A lot of what goes into those numbers hinges on guys making shots. But that becomes a lot easier when the team is passing up good looks for great ones; something they didn’t do in Game 5 but must in Games 6 and (hopefully) 7. Cutting out the aforementioned turnovers wouldn’t hurt either.

Even if Young plays he won’t be fully healthy. Bogdan Bogdanovic appeared to tweak the sore knee he’s been gutting through in the last outing and Cam Reddish is still not in game shape according to both he and head coach Nate McMillan. Wouldn’t it make sense to ease the burden of creating against what has been a swarming perimeter defense?

Doing the opposite certainly hasn’t worked.