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  • Hawks at Grizzlies

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    lethalweapon3

    “Puh-leeze! I’ll never be a backup to this tubby guy!”

     

    Road Warrior Hawks? Or Road Kill?

    After blazing to a 4-0 road start, the Atlanta Hawks have dropped their last four away from home. It gets no easier as they head to a back-to-back post-Thanksgiving set, heading straight to San Antonio tomorrow after a little bear-wrestling with the Memphis Grizzlies  tonight.

    After Golden State and the Spurs and Cavs, parity has been strong throughout the league: only nine teams sit at 3-games-or-more above .500 at this stage of the season. The Grizzlies (9-7) look to trade places on that list with the Hawks (10-7) as these teams have been moving along contrasting trend lines.

    Up until about ten days ago, if you needed to talk to somebody about a scheme that no longer seemed to work, you could belly up to a bar on Beale Street, where Grizzlies fans were singing the blues. The Grit and Grind philosophy of the past near-decade was giving way to getting Grounded and Pounded. Through November 16, Memphis’ 53.3 opponent eFG% was the highest in the league. Only the stuck-in-mud Pelicans and the fizzling Rockets had a worse defensive rating.

    Opposing teams found success running against the Blue Bears, who seemed stuck in hibernation (16.7 opponent fastbreak PPG, 3rd most in NBA). The minus-6.3 PPG differential in the fastbreak department made up the bulk of Memphis’ average 6.4 PPG deficit through the first 12 games. Head coach Dave Joerger hasn’t necessarily fixed that defensive issue (17.3 opponent fastbreak PPG after Nov. 16, 2nd most in NBA) but he is insisting on pushing the ball more on the offensive side (19.3 Memphis fastbreak PPG after Nov. 16, 4th in NBA). They needed better defensive rebounding to spark their transition play.

    Memphis was the 12th-worst team in defensive rebounding percentage prior to November 17, and since that time, they’ve been the league’s best (84.0 D-Reb%). It’s more impressive of a turnaround when you consider the Grizzlies have been playing without both Zach Randolph (sore knee, missed past four games) and Brandan Wright (sore knee, missed last eight games), and first-round rookie Jarell Martin (broken foot) was sidelined for the season before training camp started.

    Joerger has turned to the Greens (Jeff and JaMychal) to fill in at power forward for Randolph and help take some of the pressure off All-Star center Marc Gasol (career-low 6.9 RPG). Z-Bo remains questionable for tonight’s game versus Atlanta, and if the Grizz will be happy if they can get away with continuing to rest his continually achy knee, ahead of a gimme on Sunday versus visiting Philadelphia. Gasol attributes his own funk to a lack of offseason basketball, as he worked out but eschewed participating in international competition for the first time with Team Spain, and believes the rust is finally coming off.

    Memphis started off 3-6, but has since won six of their last seven games. Part of that spark involved a riverboat gamble in taking Mario Chalmers off of tax-saddled Miami’s hands. They figured Chalmers (36.8 FG%, 87.2 FT%) would be a better option for perimeter scoring and defense than Beno Udrih, who was packaged to Miami along with center Jarnell Stokes, and thus a better complement with Mike Conley when the Grizzlies elected to deploy a smaller backcourt. Memphis also received former Hawks draft-and-tradee forward James Ennis, who is being brought along slowly. The turnaround since the trade has averted a further shake-up of either the coaching staff or the roster, at least for the time being.

    Conley has boosted his own scoring, averaging 20.1 PPG in his past six games while shooting 54.9 percent from the field (12.5 PPG and 34.7 FG% in the prior ten) with a superb ratio of 6.2 assists to 1.0 turnovers per game in this recent stretch. He’ll make for a fascinating duel at point guard against Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, whose 6.4 APG ranks 13th in the league and a shade behind Conley.

    With Conley, plus Tony Allen and Matt Barnes doing their Thing 1-Thing 2 impressions on defense for Memphis, ball control and shot selection will be crucial for the Hawks. After a stretch of underwhelming performances by guard Dennis Schröder (21.7 FG%, 2.7 APG, 2.7 TO/G in last three games), head coach Mike Budenholzer may turn to Shelvin Mack first off the bench, if not tonight then certainly tomorrow in San Antonio.

    Countering Allen (3.8 steals per 100 possessions, 3rd in NBA), Thabo Sefolosha (3.4 steals per-100, 6th in NBA) has been superb defensively, but has also found a comfort zone on the other end of the floor, shooting 70.8 FG% in his last three appearances while getting 1.3 SPG and 1.3 BPG. His ability to make Allen and Barnes pay for veering away from him to cover Kyle Korver (61.1 3FG% last four games) could be instrumental in the Hawks bouncing back from their disappointing performance in Minnesota. Sefolosha could also benefit if Kent Bazemore (ankle, questionable for tonight) returns to action soon.

    Either of Bazemore or Sefolosha would be a boost to woeful bench play for Atlanta, which reared its ugly head (5-for-25 FGs, four assists, six turnovers) in Minnesota. On the season, the Hawks’ 28.8 bench PPG is 7th-worst in the league, compounded by a disappointing ratio of 7.9 assists to 6.0 turnovers per game.

    The Hawks won’t discontinue their slide down the standings if they continue to experience uneven play by its reserves, if they continue to fail in producing turnovers and converting them into points, and if they find themselves more dependent on defensive rebounding from Korver (9 @ MIN) than its centers (Al Horford and Mike Muscala combined for 6 @ MIN).

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3


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