Where is Josh Smith?!

[exodus]

He hasn't played the whole 4th quarter WTF?!

[Squawker24]

2nd half meltdown!

[Spiral]

Woody decided to change his rotation and he got burned. Smith is the only player we have that can be somewhat of a defensive post presence. He also seems to come up huge on the boards in the 4th. No way Scalabrine gets that put back with Smith in the game. Woody cost himself and the team this one.

[exodus]

Smith had 3 blocks and 3 steals in the first half for chrissakes. He has to be in there at the end to protect a lead because Harrington and Zaza can't stop anyone.

[Packfill]

Too bad. Celtics are a very beatable team.

[Spiral]

This was a bad loss. I haven't been angry while watching the Hawks in a while, but tonight I was irked. I really can't understand why Smoove wasn't in there. I like Zaza, but he is completely invisable on the defensive end.

[Plastic Man]

i dont understand. he plays great on both ends first half. finishes game playing 20 min. and woody throws him in with 7 secs left in the game so its not like he was hurt or anything. we needed him on the glass and his defense. he woulda made a difference. our most effective lineup:

zaza

smoove

al

chillz

jj

[Traceman]

First of all, Smoove not playing hardly any of the 2nd half is just inexcusable. How can you shoot over 50% from the field, get 3 blocks and 3 steals and defend Pierce better than anyone else in the first half and not play hardly any in the 2nd half? I just can't envision what Woody was seeing on the court to make him think that we didn't need Smoove in the game.

In addition, Woody did a HORRIBLE job of dealing with the adjustments that Doc made at halftime. Al was great in the first half because neither Jefferson, Blount nor Perkins were quick enough to handle him. In the 2nd half, Doc went to Scalabrine (and a double team) on Al and Scalabrine was clearly giving Al problems. Rather than going elsewhere or telling Al to pass the ball out of the double, Woody kept going there and Al kept barreling into the lane out of control throwing up a bunch of BS that had little chance of going in.

The Hawks need to just run their base offense in the 4th quarter rather than trying to force the ball to Al or Joe. I'd MUCH rather see one of our other guys taking an open shot rather than see Al or Joe forcing a shot. It would be different if we weren't getting a good shot for our other guys but that was not the case.

[exodus]

Exactly. They reverted to what they were doing in November when JJ and Al dominated the ball and took everyone else out of the offense.

[Diesel]

No. They reverted back to what got them a 60-40 lead.

The problem isn't the players, it's the coaching. Woody didn't make the neccessary adjustment. When he saw the lead slipping at the end of the 2nd, he was supposed to be game planning on how he would counter what Boston was doing. Instead, they took us to fast break city and piece by piece, they closed in on our lead. We did a good job of slowing Pierce in the 2nd half, but we did nothing in terms of putting up our own points. We went from 62 in the first to 32 in the 2nd... That's a loss of 30 points. It was offensive failure because we didn't make one adjustment on offense.

[exodus]

Quote:

---

We went from 62 in the first to 32 in the 2nd... That's a loss of 30 points.

---

The reason, as Pierce explained post game, is that Boston focused their D on Al and JJ. Since Al and JJ kept going 1 on 1 they played right into Bostons hands. That is why Al scored 2 pts in the second half and why JJ went 6 for 18.

[CrawDaddy]

This is an inexcusable loss for the coaching staff. We must've dumped the ball down to Al at least 20 times in the 2nd half with no results and no adjustments. There were plenty of open looks to be had by guys waiting for Al to pass the ball back out, but the ball never left his hands, unless it was being blocked, he was stepping out of bounds, etc.

Totally frustrating loss for the players, who dominated the game in the first half. If I'm Joe, I'm going to Woody and saying:

1) We have to have Smoov in at the end of games. He is our only post defender worth a damn.

2) We have to run some kind of offense other than give it to Joe and Al in the 4th. Everyone and their mom's are expecting that now. We have to run an offense out of timeouts, and not say, "Ok, here's my plan guys. Get it to Al and Joe, and go to work." That doesn't cut it.

3) I know Salim had been turning the ball over late in games for that stretch we were losing, but he has to be in there to stretch a defense. Otherwise, everyone just packs the paint, and we have nothing to counter with.

Inexcusable.

[Diesel]

Yes...

and it's the coaches job to bring the team over to the side and say... Look Al, JJ they are keying in on you.. Pass the damn Ball.

And if they don't pass the ball, it's the coaches job to take them off the floor and put in somebody else.

[Diesel]

Call Howard Eisley.

[Traceman]

since he didn't make the correct adjustments. If he had stuck with his so-called set rotation, Smoove would have played more than 7 minutes in the 2nd half.

[Diesel]

So without a clock on his players...

Woody doesn't know when to play Smoove?

That's basically what you are saying..

If that be the case, Wooody should be on that long train ride to NY...

[Traceman]

more last night. Again, I don't know why Woody didn't play Smoove and I'm certainly not defending Woody's game management ability. I do think both Smoove and Chillz have shown improvement in their overall games but I don't know if that should be enough to keep Woody around. When you have blown as many 4th quarter leads as this team has, it can't be ONLY the players who are doing something wrong.