Atlanta Hawks Playoff Preview

[Giantmetfan07]

 

Raise your hand if you had the Hawks getting 60 wins and topping the Eastern Conference by seven games. Nobody should have their hands up.
 
Sure, the Hawks brought back the nucleus of a team that scrapped to the playoffs without Al Horford last season and probably should have beaten the Pacers in the first round. But nobody could have predicted this level of success, not with the upgrades the rest of the East made and especially not given the racial turmoil that enveloped the organization this summer. A so-so start turned into a magical 37-4 run that stretched from December to early February. Four starters represented the club at the NBA All-Star Game, the ultimate triumph of team over individual.
 
The Hawks faded a bit after the all-star break, but still enter the playoffs with as good a chance to win the title as any time in franchise history.

How they beat you
 
You'll hear a lot about the Hawks' unselfishness over the next few weeks, but the real key to their success is that every player can shoot. Only the Clippers and Warriors posted a higher effective field goal percentage than the Hawks this season, and only the Warriors shot a higher percentage from the three-point range.
 
That space lubricates Atlanta's movement, passing and screening. The Hawks don't run a lot of set plays. Instead, they have a few basic alignments and read and react off those. It's organized chaos that works because everyone is a high-IQ player that understands spacing and will set screens. Atlanta leverages threats, whether it's Kyle Korver's three-point shooting, Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroeder penetrating, Paul Millsap slipping on a pick and roll, Al Horford charging to the rim or anything else. The second the defense takes one threat away is when the Hawks have you beat, because they're really trying to get you with another.
 
The Hawks' defense works in the opposite way. They know most teams have primary threats and less developed secondary options, so they tilt their coverages to force teams to do what they don't want to do. It's common to see Korver venture way off his man to zone against a star player trying to isolate or run a pick and roll. Great players usually find ways to beat this kind of coverage, but the Hawks confuse them because all five players rotate like they're tied together.

 
 

 

 

[RawrWithAPen]

From what I've seen, the Hawks might waltz right into the Finals. Not just because I'm an Atlanta fan. (No not just this year lol. I've been a Hawks fan since 07-08 when I started watching basketball, I live in Atlanta so...yeah. No bandwagon here .)
 
They simply are better than the other teams in the East. The offense and defense they run are so Westcoast style that the East just can't hang with it. East team's are mostly chucker teams that don't even run an offense. They just give it to someone and tell them score it. Lot of 1-on-1 ball in the East, the Hawks will double team that...If you pass out, they play the passing lanes so well that you're in a catch-22 unless you swing the ball at the start of your half court set. It will be hard to beat the Hawks because you can't gameplan for any particular player. It's easy to face teams with stars because you can gameplan them. You can figure out their tendencies if their star players struggle, the Hawks you can't do that. You have to gameplan for EVERY player on the Hawks, even the bench players because they'll come in and go off just as much if not more than the stars. And Dennis...Don't even get me started. I can go on for days about how good this Kid is for it to only be his second year. When you have a PG coming off the bench that is better than most team's starting point guards, it REALLY helps. Most benches are garbage in the NBA. The Hawks bench is filled with high percentage shooters mixed with veterans.
 
The first game against Brooklyn they had it well in hand. I was never personally worried. I think they got bored and got careless. Two 16 point leads...I mean they really just made it look easy out there and took some possessions off. It was a bit too close and rebounding is obviously an issue, but I look at it this way. The Hawks create many turnovers and bad shots with their good defense. Rebounding is not too bad when you can force bad shots and turnovers. They make up for it elsewhere.