"Slide over, Shaq! I'll be joining y'all here on Thursday Nights soon!"
There’ll be plenty of snake-charming going on, as the Atlanta Hawks and their fans give the Black Mamba a nice send-off, Kobe Bryant visiting Philips Arena for the final time (safe to say they won’t meet in the NBA Finals) with the Los Angeles Lakers (8:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports South, TWC SportsNet).
Dendroaspis polylepis is the binomial nomenclature for the Black Mamba at the Atlanta Zoo. From now on, when you pass by Isaiah Rider in the sloth cage to check out the reptile cages, you’ll find the zoo’s Black Mamba now goes by the apt name of “Kobe.” Sorry, Will Bynum, we never named any primates after you.
Tonight we witness the passing on of the legend who won five NBA titles, was named to 17 All-Star Games, was a holy terror at ski lodges, and had millions of impressionable six-foot-tall middle schoolers everywhere convinced they’ll never need postsecondary education, so long as they can put the rubber ball through the hoop in high volumes. Tonight is also a good time to recognize an endangered species that’s indigenous to the Metro Atlanta area.
Kobeus fanboius atlantus can be spotted around downtown just once a year, usually when Dendroaspis polylepis is in season at the Highlight Factory. They’re expected to shed their purple-and-gold epidermis for the final time when the Black Mamba slithers off the hardwood. Whither the Atlantan Kobe Fanboy (and his sister species, Kobeus fangirlus atlantus) once there’s no longer a Kobe to cheer beyond all sense of human rationality?
Part of the Superstarus fanboius family, some of the Atlanta Kobe Fanboys will morph fully into Durant, Westbrook, LeBron, and Curry Fanboys, decked out in whatever gear the objects of their attraction will be donning over the next several seasons. But until guard D’Angelo Russell (10.7 PPG, 40.6 FG%) or forward Julius Randle (11,7 PPG, 43.9 FG%) becomes a thing, and until Byron Scott (Exlakerus cantcoachus) is replaced, we’re not going to see much purple-and-gold flaunting around town for quite some time after today.
The Atlantan Kobe Fanboy has longed lacked an appetite for members of the Buteo family, particularly the red-tailed Buteo jamaicensis atlantus. And who could blame them, really? For almost two decades, Kobe signified the ruthless champion attitude the Fanboys happily projected onto themselves. Barring a sea change in the nature of the Atlanta Hawks, they’ll likely go the way of the extinct Jordanus fanboius family, last seen booing the Hawks off the floor, never to return, when Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s buzzer-beater dispatched Michael Jordan’s Wizards in 2003.
The undulating Hawks (12-9) have not prevailed in back-to-back contests since sometime around All Saints’ Day. While the Lakers have been a shell of their former glories, all it takes is a spell of poor performance by their opponents to find Fanboys chanting their bi-syllabic “Ko-BE!” mating calls while perched on the edge of their seats. That happened last November, when the Mamba struck with an And-1 20-footer over the outstretched arm of Thabo Sefolosha to cap off a 114-109 win and grant the Lake Show just their second victory in 11 games.
It also happened on Wednesday. Shortly before the Hawks collapsed at home before Kyle Lowry and the no-longer extinct Raptors, Kobe had Kobeus fanboius colombianus districtus reaching for any Kleenex they could find. Bryant poured in 31 points on the Wizards to grant his Lakers just their third victory in 18 games. A winning Black Mamba (Kobeus victorius) is a rare sight at this final stage of his development, but it’s possible whenever Laker opponents put their guards down and let L.A. hang around. The Lakers would be thrilled to cobble together their first two-game winning streak since last February, their first road winning streak since last December, with a victory in another big pro-Kobe town.
Two nights ago, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer resorted to Bitter Beer Face posturing and curt postgame commentary after Atlanta players missed wide open threes (29.6 team 3FG%) and more importantly, blew gimme shots around the baskets, leaving the door open for Kyle Lowry to blow through it in the closing frame (39-20 Toronto advantage, Lowry with 22 points) of the 96-86 defeat.
Coach Bud preaches incessantly about good defense fueling the team’s offense. But there’s the other half of the Hawks Cycle that has gone unnoticed by the coaching staff. Good offense can enliven the defense. The Hawks were up by 17 midway through the 3rd period, Bud elected to lean on Mike Muscala, Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schröder to carry the water. 12 minutes of bad, stagnant offensive possessions later, Atlanta’s lead was wiped out.
DeMar DeRozan and Terrence Ross had found a groove in the third, and Lowry went bananas in the fourth while ex-Hawk Lucas Nogueira enjoyed the greatest game of his natural life. Throughout that time, Bud struggled to find the proper substitutions to make to re-establish the offense and slow the Raptors’ roll. The good news for the Hawks was there are no Kyle Lowry Fanboys in their stands cheering the Dinos on. They won’t have that luxury tonight. Budenholzer must recognize when units aren’t working and sub them out, rather than ride them out, before the momentum vanishes.
It’s not just Bryant (31.1 FG%, 22.2 3FG%) who needs at least 30 shots to put 30 points on the board. Kobe will be joined on the floor by Russell, for as long as Scott aavoids pulling on the short leash, and fellow starter Randle; at times, by ATLien and former Hawk Lou Williams (35.2 FG%), Nick Young (41.0 FG%, 40.7 3FG%) and Metta World Peace (33.8 FG%) off the bench. Collectively, this is the league’s worst team in effective field goal percentage, meaning offensive rebounds and second-chance points will be at a premium.
The Lakers don’t excel at much, but they are pretty good and taking advantage when they’re bailed out by personal fouls. They rank in the top ten in free throw attempt rate and free throw percentage.They’ll prefer a slow pace that allows inertial players like Bryant, Roy Hibbert, and Brandon Bass to plod up the floor and guards that push for contact and trips to the free throw line. After explosive fourth quarters from guards like Westrbook and Lowry, Jeff Teague and the Hawks can’t afford to conclude their homestand by allowing Jordan Clarkson or Bryant to go buckwild in the fourth quarter.
Despite the presence of ex-Pacer Roy Hibbert, the Lakers give up 15.2 second-chance PPG (2nd-most in NBA) and 44.1 PPG in-the-paint (5th-most in NBA). Al Horford and Paul Millsap must crash the glass at both ends and win the energy battle against Hibbert and the Laker bigs. Horford had six first-half rebounds versus Toronto, but just three in the second-half, including two in the final minute once the game was decidedly out of reach. Part of that problem was Lowry turning it on, and part was Bud’s overreliance on Muscala, but Horford could have produced more on the offensive rebounding end, when the outcome hung in the balance.
One of the busiest teams to this point of the NBA season, the Hawks will finally benefit from some R&R with four days off before the next game. They can either head into it on a positive note, or sulk their way through the weekend about missed opportunities gone awry. Like our friends at the zoo, Atlanta will do well to keep the Black Mamba from getting uncaged, and send the Fanboys home early to ponder their next stage in the evolutionary cycle.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
