Official Game Thread: Hawks at heat

[lethalweapon3]

“8 Surefire Keys to Success: (1) Inherit Magic, Worthy and Kareem. (2) Inherit Ewing, beat the Bulls without MJ. (3) Go get Zo and Timmy. (4) Draft D-Wade. (5) Go get Shaq. (6) Go get LeBron, Bosh, and Ray. (7) ??? (8) PROFIT!”

“And there’s the cowbell. Your final score from the Wigwam: the Anderson Packers 110, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks 87.”

It took the franchise that is today the Atlanta Hawks just three games to fall below .500. Replacing the head coach early in the 1949-50 season to Red Auerbach slowed the slide, but didn’t end it. Despite three franchise moves, one NBA championship, three more Finals appearances, seven more Final Four appearances, and two more playoff visits, it would take the Hawks over 20 years before they concluded a season knowing they’ve won more games in their history than they’ve lost.

Outlasting the Denver Nuggets at Wharton Field House in Tri-Cities’ October 1949 season-opener allowed this franchise to be one with more NBA victories (1) than defeats (0) on its ledger. They could not say that again until December 9, 1969, having relocated from Moline to Milwaukee to St. Louis and, finally, to Atlanta. That brief above-.500 status would disappear, in less than one calendar year.

The Hawks slipped back into becoming a break-even franchise in November 1970, and kept right on slipping for most of the next seven years. When they reached that .500 status again, it was February 1989, and by then the Third Atlanta Renaissance was well underway.

Sustaining regular season success for the longest stretch in its history, the Hawks maxed out (51.5 Win% all-time, 52.7% in Atlanta) after the strike-shortened 1998-99 season ended. When team management gambled on names like Rider, Reef, Robinson and Ratliff, Terry, Toine and Tyronn, the descent back into a losing legacy wouldn’t take long.

“And there’s the horn. Your final score from Staples Center: the Los Angeles Lakers 106, and your Atlanta Hawks 90.”

Mike Woodson had barely taken over the coaching reins from Terry Stotts when the loss on November 7, 2004 dropped the Hawks’ all-time record back below .500. The Hawks’ all-time-worst season record of 13-69 in 2004-05 created yet another ditch, one from which it would take over 12 years, nine consecutive playoff appearances and three head coaches just to try climbing out.

As of today, with Mike Budenholzer running the show, the Hawks’ all-time record sits at 2,657 wins, and 2,658 losses.

The Hawks have an opportunity to move back into above-.500 territory as a franchise if they can be victorious in this upcoming back-to-back series, both games showcasing a young and long-limbed opposing talent. They visit the heat tonight in Miami (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Sun in MIA), where center Hassan Whiteside has been racking up double-doubles (8 in 9 games; 23 points and 17 rebounds last night vs. SAS), mostly in a vacuum.

In what seems like a broken record, the Hawks will then return home where an opponent enjoying several off-days awaits them. This time, it’ll be Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, the franchise that replaced the Hawks up in Milwaukee.

It took the heat (presently 87 games above .500 all-time) six seasons from their franchise start in 1988 to end a regular season with a winning record, and even that mark was a mere 42-40. Within a couple years, Pat Riley took over as coach and team president, and by 1996-97, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, Sr. were lighting the South Beach pilot.

One reset to Dwyane Wade and Shaq, with Riley alternating between GM and coach, and the heat were celebrating their first championship in 2006. Miami was still 22 games below-.500 as a franchise, and minus-52 when The Big Three decided to set up shop there.

Another reset to Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, under the managerial eye of Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra, and by 2013 (now, officially, a “winning” NBA outfit) two more trophies had come down the pike. In the time it takes to abandon AmericanAirlines Arena, the heat are always doing something to have their fair-weather fans running right back toward the front doors.

The takeaway from Miami’s less-than-three decades of NBA existence is clear. If you can turn around your franchise story quickly, within the span of the first two decades, the stench of past mistakes don’t stick around and hover over you for very long.

No one’s around Miami to guffaw about the days of Rory Sparrow, Rony Seikaly, and Sherman Douglas, or the time they thought they hit the draft jackpot with “Baby Jordan” Harold Miner. No one recalls when the heat turned to Ricky Davis and went 15-67 (again) in 2007-08. Organizations long-associated with success are perceived as reloading and rebuilding, while others (Kings, Hawks, etc.) are perpetually presumed to be somehow regressing, no matter what they do.

The Big Three are no longer suiting up for the heat, but Riley remains, primed for yet another reset. LeBron James surprised everyone with a move back to Ohio in 2014. Riley locked up Chris Bosh that summer to a long-term max-deal, but not Wade, the franchise face who had always seemed willingly deferential, salary-wise, for the sake of his team.

Miffed by a lack of communication over the summer, free agent Wade decided to follow LeBron’s lead and headed for home. Meanwhile, an impasse over Bosh’s perilous health status has made the likelihood he’s played his last basketball for the heat a foregone conclusion. So, what’s left around here?

“I don’t trust them anymore… they give promises they don’t keep.” “They,” to 2013-14 Third-Team All-NBA point guard Goran Dragic, were the Phoenix Suns, who continued to crowd him out of star-quality floor time with brutally redundant guard acquisitions. And “The Dragon” wasn’t shy about spewing fire upon his employers in public. In 2015, right before the deadline, he issued a trade ultimatum to his reluctant team, who had to be scratching their heads a bit.

Dragic didn’t want a trade to a team with a better record than the Suns (one like, say, the then-red-hot Hawks). No, he demanded to be shipped to a team like Miami, one with reliable, accomplished stalwarts like Wade and Bosh on the roster. Together with an emerging pickup pivot in Whiteside, Dragic felt his addition would be enough to reignite the Superteam era in South Beach for years to come. Trusting Riley and the heat, Goran re-upped with the heat in the summer of 2015. Miami, Dragic conjectured, was an organization he could rely upon, one that would allow him to lead them back on the road to glory.

Well, that turned out to be a bit of a miscalculation. Two postseasons later, Miami has one playoff series victory (thank you, Purple Shirt Guy) to show for its trouble. Wade and Bosh are on the outs, as are two first-round picks to Phoenix, including perhaps next summer’s top-7-protected pick. “We have a pick this year,” Riley insisted to NBA.com recently, referring to this protected pick while tipping his hand as to his true feelings about this season’s aspirations.

Meanwhile, Dragic (16.3 PPG, 5.9 APG, 48.3 3FG%) has slowed his roll, not the least of which due to a sprained ankle that has kept him on the shelf since injuring it last Thursday. Having just shedded his walking boot yesterday, his status for today’s contest remains questionable.

Miami nearly bumped their heads on the repeater-tax ceiling last season, and now Riley is cleaning house by going young. “Nobody who was 30 and up was coming back,” stated Joe Johnson, a buyout-acquisition for last spring’s playoff run who now resides in Salt Lake City, to the Miami Herald this past weekend. Wade shouldn’t feel too bad, because Luol Deng didn’t get a call from Riley, either.

In the starting lineup, Wade has become the shoot-first, shoot-last Dion Waiters (12-for-26!!! FGs, 27 points last night @ SAS), and their former All-Star Bosh was morphed into Luke Babbitt (Spoelstra switched to Derrick Williams last night, to little avail). Gerald Green left for greener pastures (he thinks), while Amar’e Stoudemire hopped over to Israel.

And that leaves Dragic, aside from the statuesque Udonis Haslem the oldest active player on the roster, now age 30 with a gimpy ankle. Riley told NBA.com: “We feel that with Hassan, and with Justise (Winslow) and Tyler (Johnson) and Josh (Smith… just kidding! Richardson), and some of the new guys who we got this summer, four or five of those young guys can create a nucleus.” That quote literally highlights Dragic by omission. Dragic won’t get to steer his way toward a “trustworthy” NBA locale this time around. It appears Riley is shopping him around, hoping another first-round pick will land in his lap.

Now the good news in Miami is, Whiteside is still here, and isn’t going anywhere. Yes, the heat are down to 2-7 on the season, losing last night in San Antonio, on Saturday to Joe’s Jazz, who themselves had a lot of missing pieces (Derrick Favors, George Hill, Alec Burks, Boris Diaw), and in Wade’s triumphant return to Miami last week. Yes, they’ve dropped five straight, and four of five at home.

But Whiteside is certainly putting up the numbers, satisfying Fantasy GMs everywhere: NBA-high 14.9 RPG, 11 defensive; 2.4 BPG, third-best in the league. Among the NBA’s top-ten rebounders, only Anthony Davis’ 30.5 PPG eclipses Hassan’s 18.1. And who knows if Miami would have prevailed in their seven-game playoff series with Toronto, had Whiteside (and the Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas) not gone down with injuries in Game 3, helping to make Bismack Biyombo a $72 million backup? How can Coach Spo channel his prized center’s efforts in a way that, Riley be damned, leads to more Ws?

Whiteside hardly needs to compete with his own teammates for lob catches, rebounds and putbacks. So there are times in heat games where, à la Mike James of yore, he seems enthralled with padding his stats rather than doing non-boxscore things, like staying with his man, setting effective picks, and passing out of the post.

Whiteside (9.7) is the only player getting more post touches per game than Atlanta’s Dwight Howard (8.8). But among the NBA’s ten top post recipients, his frequency of passing (9.2% of the time) is tied with Andre Drummond for second-lowest. While Howard has a scintillating 2.5 TO% with the ball in the post, Whiteside’s 10.3 TO% is behind only Drummond.

Spoelstra gave Whiteside a quick hook in the third quarter of Saturday’s home loss to Utah, after he lackadaisically allowed Rudy Gobert to treat the rims like a playground swingset. The season-long challenge for Spoelstra is to keep the notoriously moody Whiteside from flaming out, no matter how far the heat sink in the standings. “We’re not even ten games into the season. We’re not getting down,” Whiteside assured the postgame media after Monday’s loss. “We had a tough schedule so far, so we’re going to keep pushing. We played the Spurs great.” That last statement was half-true.

Miami almost completely turned the tables on the Spurs, bouncing back from a 55-30 first-half deficit to hold San Antonio to 26.2 FG% in the second, “winning” the back half 50-39. Offensively, without Dragic around, Spoelstra is relying on a committee of replacement starter Richardson (just back after tearing an MCL in offseason workouts) and Tyler Johnson to hold the fort, while also looking to Winslow and Josh McRoberts (10 assists @ ATL last February) to play point-forward roles. So far, that aspect of the offense is working well.

Winslow contributed five assists, Johnson six, McRoberts three against the surprisingly complacent Spurs (4 total steals?) on Monday, with not one turnover committed among the trio. Miami would fare much better over the course of 48 minutes moving the rock and getting teammates involved, rather than dumping the ball to Whiteside and Waiters and watching them suck the life out of offensive possessions (96.5 O-Rating, 47.2 eFG%, and 49.9 TS%, all next-to-last in NBA).

Tonight’s free throw shots are brought to you by your friends at The Thundersticks Company. Miami (67.2 FT%, 66.1% at home) and Atlanta (68.2 FT%, 66.3 on the road) are the only NBA teams sinking less than 70 percent of their free throws, one of the few categories in sports ((looks at Blair Walsh)) where “2 out of 3” is bad.

It’s easy to point an accusing foam finger at higher-profile foul magnets like Whiteside and Howard. But teammates like Waiters (11-for-21 FTs), Paul Millsap (72.1 FT%) and the once-surehanded Tim Hardaway, Jr. (65.2 FT%) haven’t helping matters. Sooner or later, there will be an abnormally high number of muffed free throw attempts, or crucial misses with “Dos! Minutos!” remaining, that costs these teams a victory. Hopefully, the Hawks (not just Howard) are actively working on their mechanics. Both bigs must be ready to keep the lane clear of opponents whenever the predictable free throw miss bounces off the rim.

Dwight? Sap? Thabo? May I add one more name into the hopper for way-too-early DPOY candidates? Opponents that currently shoot 58.2FG% on shots within six feet of the rim are connecting on a paltry 32.3 FG% when faced with the imposing arms, antlers, and Man Bun of Mike Muscala.

That differential of minus-25.9 percentage points is the best among any NBA player defending at least three such shots per game (min. 5 games played). That measure of rim protection has been better than that of either Hassan (minus-19.5, 6^th in NBA) or D8 (minus-17.1, 8^th in NBA). Having not just one but two centers adhering to The Pachulia Principle around the rim is making halfcourt defense a breeze for the Hawks.

Dare I add one more way-too-early contender? Using the same criteria, Tim Hardway, Jr.’s -20.7% differential on three pointers defended ranks 2^nd in the NBA. That’s even better than Sefolosha, whose minus-12.5% on ALL opponent shots (min. 5 FGAs defended) ranks 7^th and just below Whiteside (minus-12.7). Second-place on that list is Miami’s James Johnson, who will be entrusted to come off the bench and cool off anyone, like Hardaway (5-for-10 3FGs vs. PHI on Saturday) or Kyle Korver, who gets hot from the perimeter.

Balanced offensive execution by the Hawks, under the direction of Dennis Schröder (8 assists, 5 TOs vs. PHI), and persistent on-ball defensive pressure are essential for keeping the heat at Biscayne Bay all night. But minimizing Miami’s points off turnovers will further stifle the heat and get the Hawks one step closer to being an above-.500 NBA franchise again. Sustaining that fullcourt effort well into the future, under the watchful eye of Coach Bud and Friends, will ensure the Hawks step firmly out of the red, and into the green, for good.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

 

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[lethalweapon3]

No Return of the Dragon tonight, as the heat's official Game Notes list Goran Dragic as OUT for this game. Richardson and Waiters are again listed as the backcourt starters, and Derrick Williams remains as the starting PF.

~lw3

[AHF]

Like the Hawks this season, @lethalweapon3's gameday threads continue to set a standard for the entire league.  Well done.

[ViewsFromTheSquawk]

I expect to be seeing Prince and Bembry by EARLY quarter 4

[Guest]

 

[lethalweapon3]

No Justise! No Peace!

I know it's not quite last year, but the more opposing players that get hurt/sit out, the more nervous I get.

~lw3

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, lethalweapon3 said:

No Justise! No Peace!

I know it's not quite last year, but the more opposing players that get hurt/sit out, the more nervous I get.

~lw3

 

[RedDawg#8]

Just made it home and turned on the game. Hopefully tonight we can break the streak.

 

What streak?

 

we are 0-2 this year in the road granite gray uniforms.

We wore white in Philly and Cleveland and we also wore the grays at home against the Lakers and lost.

 

Random I know 

[StephenHawking]

Overall game was baaad. But as long as we take the W I dont mind. We have problems so far in this season with teams that rebounded well against us or even outrebounded us.

Edited November 16, 2016 by StephenHawking

[Thomas]

Gray Mule will be so proud as should we all with our finish at the foul line tonight.

[AdoSalcin]

Where the hell was Dwight in 4th qtr?

[Lurker]

Schröder needs to find a happy medium. If he's passive he's not as turnover prone but he's not a good player but when he's aggressive, while he's a better player, he's turnover prone.

Should be noted he should have had just 4 turnovers.

1 minute ago, AdoSalcin said:

Where the hell was Dwight in 4th qtr?

Hurt

Edited November 16, 2016 by Lurker

[capstone21]

Rough Game ... but I will take the win

we did not play well on offense

defense was solid we forced a lot of turnovers

whiteside was an absolute beast 

I couldn't pick a player of,the game from Atlanta ... no one really played that well 

i hope Howard is not hurt and is able to play tomorrow 

Hardeway has some hops when he is not getting stuffed by the rim

we played really well second quarter ... rest of game was sloppy

too many turnovers as usual

killed on boards but Whiteside was not going to be denied tonight

thought Paul did a nice job guarding him in he 4th (hw was also tired which helped)

Waiters sucks ... he is a terrible NBA player in the form of Nick Young

Hope Dennis is not hurt either ... he needs lessons on how to feed he post

dig the green uni's that the Heat wore

this was a grind it out game and there will be some of them this season

 Bring on the Greek freak and the bucks

 

 

 

 

[AdoSalcin]

Hurt? ???

[Sarcatic1]

Hope Dwight is ok.

 

Its a win but man that was ugly.

More turnovers and a bunch of bad shots

 

They have to clean up these turnovers. They have been winning despite the turnovers but at some point you know teams are going to start taking advantage of the Hawks coughing up the ball as much as they do

No reason they should be turning the ball over as much as they have. Cant blame it on chemistry. A lot of the turnovers are from just flat out lazy passing

[capstone21]

Just now, AdoSalcin said:

Hurt? ???

Leg Contusion 

[Sarcatic1]

3 minutes ago, capstone21 said:

Rough Game ... but I will take the win

we did not play well on offense

defense was solid we forced a lot of turnovers

whiteside was an absolute beast 

I couldn't pick a player of,the game from Atlanta ... no one really played that well 

i hope Howard is not hurt and is able to play tomorrow 

Hardeway has some hops when he is not getting stuffed by the rim

we played really well second quarter ... rest of game was sloppy

too many turnovers as usual

killed on boards but Whiteside was not going to be denied tonight

thought Paul did a nice job guarding him in he 4th (hw was also tired which helped)

Waiters sucks ... he is a terrible NBA player in the form of Nick Young

Hope Dennis is not hurt either ... he needs lessons on how to feed he post

dig the green uni's that the Heat wore

this was a grind it out game and there will be some of them this season

 Bring on the Greek freak and the bucks

 

 

 

 

 Lmao someone on another Hawks board just called Waiters " Swaggy P East"

That dude really thinks he is a star. He killed the Heat tonight with his play.

[capstone21]

8 minutes ago, Sarcatic1 said:

 Lmao someone on another Hawks board just called Waiters " Swaggy P East"

That dude really thinks he is a star. He killed the Heat tonight with his play.

He is so bad ... he has delusions of grandeur 

i remember a couple / few years ago he was arguing with John Wall on Twitter about who has the best backcourt in the NBA ... he kept saying he and Irving (in Cleveland) were the best while Wall was saying he and Beal were (uh there is a pretty good backcourt in Golden State who has a good arguement) ... if u are saying that Cavs backcourt was the best at being terrible defenders and taking absolute terrible shots then yes they were the best

not a fan of Waiters at all

[lethalweapon3]

ASIDE: From the Hawks' Game Notes, more happened 20 years ago today than just Space Jam premiering:

Quote

November 15, 1996 – The Hawks set team records by holding Miami to 21 second half points and eight fourth quarter points during an 85-77 home win over the (heat)

 

We almost got that same score tonight!

~lw3

[Marvin24Williams]

dennis needs to work on his post passing. He is so sloppy/lazy on his post entry passes

Edited November 16, 2016 by Marvin24Williams