CNNSI.com's Dwyer on the Hawks, Ho'nuts and....

[flava]

The meek shall inherit the NBA

Hawks, Hornets hint at methods behind the madness

The nights are long, the days are cold, but at least we have Zaza Pachulia's jump hooks to keep us warm. Call in the kiddies, light a candle and gather 'round for some the week's best and worst ...

Champs

• First, a cold shower: the Hornets and Hawks probably aren't on the road back to respectability, despite some impressive wins recently. Both teams boast young and intriguing rosters full of developing talents alongside dubious ownership groups that employ beleaguered heads of personnel. It's hard to expect great things from both franchises with the lack of leadership coming from on high. As it stands, however, both squads are playing some of the best basketball in the NBA right now, and they deserve a little recognition, however fleeting.

The 6-17 Hawks have won four of five, and while they haven't exactly developed a team-wide sense of cohesion and purpose, their possession-by-possession focus has improved immensely over the last week. Atlanta has some solid parts, and when coach Mike Woodson shortens the rotation and attacks mismatches with isolation play (shades of Don Nelson's finer days), the team can thrive.

The team is winning with yin and thriving with yang, pulling out Ws in a couple of different ways. Though the Hawks registered just 12 assists in a win over the Spurs on Dec. 10, they've averaged 21.8 assists in the games since. And after missing nine of 10 3-point attempts in wins over the defending champs and the Cavaliers three nights later, they've gone on a tear in the three games since, hitting 60 percent of their 50 attempts.

And yet, this probably wasn't what GM Billy Knight had in mind when he put this team together. Knight probably envisioned a series of like-minded, multi-talented players sharing the ball and creating matchup mismatches without having to dribble themselves into oblivion. Sadly, a group like that needs a point guard to make it all work, and while Knight has done a masterful job securing talents like Pachulia and John Edwards off the scrap heap, he's also given up way too much for free-agent signee Joe Johnson and missed on draft picks such as Josh Childress (drafted before Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala and Al Jefferson) and Marvin Williams (drafted ahead of Chris Paul and Deron Williams). Williams is only 19, but averaging 5.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 22.6 minutes isn't going to cut it. Compare that with the similarly talented Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who averaged 18.7 points and 6.9 rebounds in 36 minutes as a 19-year old rookie.

• The 11-13 Hornets may not share Atlanta's overall talent level, but they've become a joy to watch and won three of five last week. Check out Chris Paul's numbers over the last five games: 18.4 points on 49 percent shooting, 7.2 rebounds a game with 8.4 assists, 3.2 steals and just 2.2 turnovers a game. The 6-foot Paul is boarding (6.2 per game this season) at a rate similar to Knicks wunderkind Channing Frye (6.5 caroms a night this year), and Frye might be the next Bob McAdoo.

Among those helping Paul is 20-year-old J.R. Smith, who averaged 18.8 points over his last four contests before twisting an ankle in a Hornets win over the Spurs on Sunday. Although Smith could use his time more wisely than hoisting five 3-pointers a game in December, he appears poised to become a Rashard Lewis-lite. And speaking of poise, forward David West is developing far ahead of schedule (even after he lost 2004-05 to injury).

It may just be me, but the Hornets' orthodox rotations seem built for longer term success than Atlanta's phalanx of swingmen. I'd love it if a group of 6-8 all-around types could take over the NBA, but until it happens, I'm sticking with what brought me here.

• As expected, the 10-13 Houston Rockets have gotten their act together, and have won six of seven. Even though he's still rounding into shape, Tracy McGrady has been a godsend in his return from a back injury, averaging 26.8 points per game alongside 12 combined assists and rebounds in a little more than 40 minutes a night. With the intangible pressure off him, Yao Ming averaged 21.9 points on 54 percent shooting with 9.3 rebounds over his last 10 games, before the real pressure of an inflamed big toe put him on the shelf as of Sunday. Worst case scenario? Yao is out for 10 days, which hurts, but the Rockets can survive. They play only four times during that span, with games against the Raptors, Nuggets (losers of three straight), Jazz and Hornets.

I maligned them last week, but the forward duo of Ryan Bowen and Juwan Howard has improved, though not enough to warrant playing the minutes they're playing. Over the last five games, "Ry-Ju" has combined to average 13 points and 9.2 rebounds in 49.5 minutes per game. And, yes, I will continue to call them "Ry-Ju" because the name sounds like a character from those "Street Fighter" video games, and I like to yell "Ha-dooken" whenever Ry-Ju uncorks one of his nasty-looking jump shots.

Chumps

• The Nuggets won just two of six games on their Eastern Conference road trip, following up a promising win over the Shaq-less Heat with losses to the Magic, Hawks, Nets and Cavs. Missing at various times has been Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Earl Boykins and Greg Buckner. Boykins had played in 253 consecutive games before hitting the pine on Dec. 13 with a strained left hamstring. But Boykins seemed as if he could use the break; the Nuggets' spark plug was shooting just 37 percent in the nine games leading up to his trip to the inactive list.

Even with injuries burning holes in the roster, Carmelo Anthony has improved considerably over the last 10 months, while Andre Miller has continued his yeoman's work at the point guard slot. George Karl, by and large, has done a fantastic job with this team, but he wasn't brought in solely to win with a Nuggets team at full strength; almost any coach not named Michael Cooper could do that. Karl has to find a way to slog out wins even with important cogs missing in action, and so far, he's not getting the job done.

This is still a good team, especially on the defensive end, but that hasn't prevented them from suffering breakdowns in late-game situations. In the fourth quarters of their last four losses, the Nuggets have been outscored by a total of 10 total points, which speaks to the importance of taking care of each possession in the clutch. Denver will play five of their next six at home to end the year, but this run includes games against the Spurs, Rockets, Sixers and Wizards, split up by a trip to Golden State.

• The Knicks are a mess, and Larry Brown has nobody but himself to blame -- though he's trying his damnedest to absolve himself of any blame for the team's 6-17 start. Clearly, this was a mismatched roster from the start -- something LB must also have known -- but even with this disparate group of talents, a .261 winning percentage is unacceptable. New York is losing in brutal fashion. Last week's run included defeats at the hands of the Bucks (by 20), the Magic (by 15), the Hawks (by 11) and the Ron Artest-less Pacers. Not exactly a murderer's row, especially when you play three out of four at home.

To top it, every Knick outside of the rookie trio of Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee looks uncomfortable with their teammates. Each and every one of the veterans expects the veteran to his left and to his right to be the next to be shipped out, and if you watch this team's body language, it appears as if none of these Knicks think they are to blame for these pitiful showings.

• This issue probably deserves more than a pithy one paragraph, but the trend of calling either a block or charge on any drive that results in a lick of contact needs to stop. The NBA's referees did a tremendous job cleaning up the game last year, but these flops and fits are getting out of hand. It is possible for a player to drive the lane, brush past a stationed defender, and not have a foul committed. And this isn't to rail against the Derek Fisher-types who hit the deck at any given instant. There are just as many needless block calls going on this season as there are silly charges. The flow of the game is interrupted, players are limited by having to play through foul trouble and slashers are starting to worry about driving the lane -- which will wipe out any progress the league made last year when it started to enforce hand-checking rules.

The week ahead

• The 9-13 Washington Wizards have hit a low point. They're a game and a half out of the Eastern playoff bracket, and they're coming off a nasty road loss to the money-makin' Portland Trail Blazers. Still stuck on the road, the Wizards will face the SuperSonics, Nuggets and Suns this week. If they're not careful, they'll celebrate "holiday" with a 9-16 record, with games against the Lakers, Suns and Heat looming.

• A loss to the Rockets on Sunday hasn't tempered the Lakers momentum, but they'll have a tough stretch over the next seven days. The Mavericks will be in town on Tuesday, ready to avenge a home loss the Lakers put on Avery Johnson's bunch last week. Statistically, this Mavericks team is one of the slowest in the league, and they'll force the Lakers out of their transition game with zones off of missed shots and nary an attempt at pulling in offensive rebounds. Things will slow down even further as the Lakers head to Orlando on Friday, before games against the Heat and Washington on Sunday and next Monday. The Lakers are going to have to rely on Phil Jackson's structured offense more than ever this week.

• The 13-12 Philadelphia 76ers have but two games (against the Warriors, in Atlanta) from now until Dec. 27. That's a lot of practice time, so will this be the week that coach Maurice Cheeks implements a balanced offensive attack that will take the ball out of Allen (33.4 points and 7.4 assists) Iverson's hands? Stop laughing.

• With Andrei Kirilenko (15.2 points, 10.8 rebounds, five assists, 4.8 combined blocks and steals over his last five games) and Mehmet Okur starting to kick a little ass, we'll get a good idea of just where the Utah Jazz stand among the Western playoff contenders this week. Though they're at 11-13 now, Utah is just two games behind the eighth-place Lakers, and they're looking at three winnable road games in Cleveland, Boston and New York.

• After an exciting start, the 6-18 Charlotte Bobcats have fallen past the Hawks and into the dregs of the Southeast Division, but they could pull off a solid week. The Bobcats have games against the Kings, Bulls and Clippers -- three teams that, for a variety of reasons, chafe at having to play against pressure defense. Don't be surprised if the Cats pull two of three. On the other end, don't be surprised if Charlotte's opponents use the extra pass to shoot the Bobcats into their 19th, 20th and 21st losses.

• The Bucks have just two games between Dec. 18 and 25, and we're really looking forward to how they hold up at home against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. San Antonio has given some games away over the last week with poor execution (!) and poor free-throw shooting from Tim Duncan and Brent Barry (!!), so the champs are pretty peeved. The last time the Spurs out-rebounded an opponent was Dec. 9, and the big ol' Bucks could have their way on the glass.

[Packfill]

Spot on.