Atlanta Hawks Have Nothing Left to Prove Until NBA Playoffs Begin
ATLANTA — The creativity was on display prior to the contest, not only in the highlights shown, but in the way they were presented, appearing as 3D images exploding off the surface of the Philips Arena court.
It was the most spectacular and spell-binding of all the tributes to Dominique Wilkins, the Hawks' all-time signature player. And that includes Thursday's statue unveiling in front of the building, and Friday's halftime speech, in which Wilkins referred to the current team as representative of his beloved adopted city.
"So you keep rooting," Wilkins requested of the Atlanta fans.
That's what the current Hawks incarnation richly deserves, after all, even if it is more renowned for its cohesion and precision than its soaring and slamming. That's because if Atlanta keeps playing the way it did Friday, handling the Eastern Conference contending Cavaliers 106-97, it will likely stake a claim as the best squad in the city's NBA history, including the dozen on which Wilkins starred.
No Hawks team, not even those that represented Milwaukee or St. Louis, has ever won more than the 57 games that Wilkins' 1993-94 team did. The current team, which has lost 12 games all season, can lose 12 of its final 21 and still exceed that total. No Hawks team, since moving to Atlanta in 1968, has advanced to the conference finals. This year, failing to reach that point would rank as a significant surprise and a major disappointment.
Yes, the Hawks are for real, and they didn't have to throttle LeBron James (five field goals, nine turnovers) and his improved supporting cast to prove it. They've already beaten every legitimate NBA contender—other than San Antonio, which they see again on March 22 in Atlanta—at least once, and several more than that.
They've done that in much the same way they prevailed Friday, with determined defense and balanced offense. Against the Cavs, they held a 54-24 advantage in the paint as six players scored in double figures. Even the mildly scuffling Kyle Korver still aided the cause as he always does, by drawing more attention than any Kardashian could.
This was the Hawks' third victory against the Cavaliers in four tries, though truly the only one that could be seen as any sort of preview of the playoffs, since one of the previous wins came with James sitting, and the other two were missing three rotation players the Cavaliers since have added via trade.
And if you weren't sure whether the Hawks would take Friday's assignment seriously—it was one of the more meaningful tests remaining in the regular season—their early defensive scheming and intensity left little doubt.
They later denied they did anything especially different, starting with coach Mike Budenholzer. He downplayed any tweak to strategy and instead focused on his team's intensity levels.
"We just wanted to try and control the ball," Budenholzer said. "Our bigs, they have the capability to get up and get aggressive. Sometimes our players will do some things that are somewhat on their own, and they'll get more aggressive when they see opportunities. …As long as we are controlling the ball, then that's going to put our defense in the best position possible against both Kyrie [Irving] and LeBron."
Jeff Teague, the point guard primarily assigned to Irving, insisted that the trapping was "just our defense," and the object was "just to try to make it tough on the passer, because we know they have active shooters."
The Hawks' most colorful quote came from DeMarre Carroll, who spoke earlier in the day about hoping to tire James out because his uncle once told him that "fatigue makes a coward out of you." Following the win, Carroll said he set out to be "a gnat. When you're outside in the summer and you just can't get that gnat away from you, that's all I wanted to be tonight."
And Al Horford, who had the Hawks' best all-around game (19 points, nine rebounds, six assists), said the Hawks used "our normal coverage, there just happened to be one time that I was more aggressive than normal. But for the most part, we do the same pick-and-roll coverages."
That one play he was referencing?
Probably this one during the Hawks' first quarter surge, when, after hitting a three-pointer on the other end, Horford helped Teague hound Irving into a throwaway.
"They did a great job of getting the ball out of me and Bron’s hands and making us make plays on the back side," Irving said. "We’ll watch film and get better from there."
And while that single play stood out to Horford as an anomaly, others presented clear evidence to James of a distinct shift in strategy.
"They just tried to get us off the ball," James said. "They wanted to make the other guys beat us tonight with their pick and rolls. It’s the first time all year they’ve played that type of coverage."
He added that "a lot of teams don't have the ability to do it," because they don't have frontcourt players like Horford and Paul Millsap and Mike Scott who move their feet as well. Still, it was something that James said he has seen from opponents before, since he's "seen it all."
"It was the first time they used that game plan on us, it kind of caught us by surprise," James said. "Down the road if we get to that point we’ll be all right."
Down the road, he'll need to be more careful with the ball. He had nine turnovers for the third time this season, after not recording that many since the second game of his Miami Heat tenure back in 2010. Off the top of his head, he recalled five as unforced.
"I sucked," James said. "As far as turnovers, I suck. Tonight was another one of those nights."
It was another one of those nights for the Hawks in a more positive sense, another night in which a few more fans might have found themselves nodding when the public address announcer shouted, "Do you believe?" It was another one of those nights in which the Hawks got closer to their form prior to the All-Star break.
"I don't think our group probably has felt that great about the way we've played for I don't know how long," Budenholzer acknowledged late Friday, even after a sixth straight win.
"Yes, I do think we're getting closer," Horford said. "After the All-Star break, I felt we were sloppy the first few games, a little out of rhythm. But now we're starting to get it back."
It was another one of those nights in which the Hawks moved closer to what has become a mere formality, the clinching of the East's top seed. They now have an 11-game lead over the Bulls and 11.5 over the Raptors and Cavaliers with just 21 games to play.
They're getting closer to the stage of the season where they will need to entertain themselves in order to keep their edge. For that, it appears some will turn to Korver, who has been advising his teammates not to get too high or too low, especially after playing "on a couple Chicago teams, we had the most wins in the regular season and we didn't win a championship. So, it's like, do you really celebrate what you do in the regular season? We know it's about the playoffs. We're just trying to build good habits."
Well, he may have broken one habit, as he broke character Friday by releasing a little rage—and nearly losing his mouthpiece—after finally sinking a three-pointer, the first of two in the fourth quarter that James credited for breaking open the game. Korver's astronomical percentages have been slipping some lately, even if teams haven't reduced the respect they show. Or perhaps, in part, because of that.
"I have not felt really that great shooting the basketball since the end of January really," Korver said. "I've had a tough little stretch lately. And it happens every season. You go through stretches like this. Sometimes you need to see the ball go in the basket. Yeah, I don't know. I probably got a little emotional."
He even said that he'll be shutting down all future interviews about the pursuit of the 50-50-90 and "the secret to shooting," until he gets his "stuff back together."
Will that help?
"I don't know," Korver said, smiling. "But I'm gonna try it."
Now he and the Hawks will try to do something that may prove more difficult than that, and more difficult than it's been to convince the masses—even with 49 wins—that they're formidable.
With their seeding secured, they will try to keep playing at close to the same clip for the next six weeks.
They say they can.
They say they will.
Why?
"We like winning," Teague said simply. "We enjoy winning."
Soon, we'll be saying that no Atlanta Hawks team, not even one led by Wilkins, has ever done more.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @EthanJSkolnick.
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