Lakers and Hawks Laying Foundation For Successful Seasons

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Lakers and Hawks Laying Foundation For Successful Seasons

Contrary to popular belief, the regular season does matter in the NBA, which is why we should pay close attention to the 6-0 starts by the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers. Don't say it's only November. Take note because it's November.

The NBA's November is like Iowa and New Hampshire in the presidential primaries. Campaigns are made and/or broken by those two early states. (Has anyone ever provided a good explanation about why they play such a role in determining our presidents even though they only have 11 electoral votes between them and are incapable of generating news in the three non-election years?) Twice New Hampshire has delivered CPR to John McCain after he was pronounced dead. Iowa is where a Barack Obama presidency went from dream to possibility.

Last year the Celtics used November to end all questions about whether Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce could mesh their games -- and if Doc Rivers would be around to coach them. They went 13-2 in November and bought themselves 4 ½ months of freedom from speculation, their fate a non-issue until playoff time.

On the flip side, last November the Bulls dissolved from a playoff team into a puddle of worries about contracts and trade. They never did recover.

It probably isn't a coincidence that teams off to the best start this season were sent into the summer with humbling defeats at the hands of the Celtics. They have reputations to refurbish, and new identities to establish.

The Hawks didn't take the regular season seriously enough last year. They played hard only when they felt like it, which is why they beat the Lakers, Phoenix and Utah but also lost to Charlotte twice and Seattle at home. They crept into the playoffs with a 37-45 record.

This year, with only seven percent of the precincts reporting, we can already project them finishing in the upper half of the Eastern Conference. Good teams win on the road when they're at less than their best. That applied to the Hawks on Tuesday, when they beat Chicago without Josh Smith and with Joe Johnson shooting 4-for-16. Every win they rack up while Smith is out for up to a month with a high ankle sprain will only make them more formidable when they get him back. And every victory they get playing the way they did Tuesday will only reinforce the good basketball habits they displayed. The players aren't looking for their shot, they're looking for the best shot.

Bulls coach Vinny del Negro had a good take on the Hawks before the game, when he told reporters: "They've been together and they've had some success last year, getting in the playoffs and pushing Boston. When you keep your team together and you add a piece like a [Mike] Bibby and everybody kind of falls in and [Al] Horford improves a little bit and Marvin Williams does and Joe [Johnson] does, and you keep your pieces together and you start working and you start believing & and now they have a little bit of a swagger to them. Confidence plays a big part in this game."

They don't have a superstar, but they do have an All-Star in Johnson, and Horford is looking like he could join him in Phoenix next February. He had 27 points, 17 boards and six blocked shots Tuesday. He kept beating the Bulls' big men down the floor, Bibby kept finding him and he wound up taking most of his shots right at the rim.

They're committed to defense now, which is why in the first five games they went from one of the worst scoring-against averages in the league last year to second this season & right behind the Lakers.

The Lakers have yet to allow an opponent to score 100 points this season. They clamped down Tuesday night after an energized Mavericks team spurted to a 36-23 lead in the first quarter. But the Lakers clawed back, using Trevor Ariza's energy and Pau Gasol's length to bother the Mavericks, and held Dallas to only three field goals in the final 7 ½ minutes. The swing play came on defense, when the Lakers led by two and Ariza blocked a Jerry Stackhouse 3-pointer out-of-bounds with one second remaining on the shot clock. At the other end, Gasol rebounded a Derek Fisher miss, got a layup-and-one to put the Lakers up by five points with 23 seconds remaining.

The Lakers' defensive inefficiency was a latent problem that the Celtics exposed in the Finals. It turns out that it was more a matter of missing personnel than anything else. Now that Andrew Bynum and Ariza are back at full strength, the Lakers have the right combination of height inside and length and athleticism on the perimeter. They spent more time on defense in training camp, and as a result the players are maintaining better positions on the weak side, as opposed to constantly scrambling because they were out of place.

One or both of these winning streaks could end Wednesday when the Lakers play at New Orleans and the Hawks play at Boston. The second game of a back-to-back is never a good time to judge a team.

The month of November is, though. It gives you all the evidence you need to see which rookies can play at his level, or which off-season transactions will work.

Teams with championship experience can afford to hang back and draft at the start of the race. The Hawks and Lakers don't have that luxury. They hit the ground running, and so far they've racked up the votes for most improved teams.

[thefloydian]

Another vote for Joe's non-superstar status in this article.

[frosgrim]

Decent enough article. Certainly is calling on the Hawks to keep pushing themselves to be a top notch team.

Respect is hard to build and more difficult to maintain, especially after being horrid for a decade.

In the case of the Hawks it really is "build it, and they will come".

[DrReality]

Had a similar thought last night when they interviewed Horf and he said he knew he had to step up his game with Smoove out. What if he did that EVERY NIGHT? That's what makes the difference in the good and the great.