Tweaks Mean Valleys for the Atlanta Hawks

You are talk of the league for the first three games of the 2008-09 season. The team and the entire city is at a level it hasn’t seen in a decade. You’ve slayed all kinds of NBA dragons: Dwight Howard, Elton Brand, and Chris Paul. Bloggers, fans and experts who formally berated the coach, players, and organization are even on your bandwagon. You are getting all kinds of love. Ranked No. 2 or 3 on everybody’s power ratings board.

All of a sudden, the most prolific shot blocker in the league—Mr. Highlight Factory himself, Josh Smith—goes down 11 minutes and four seconds into the first quarter against Toronto with a tweaked ankle or high ankle sprain. No big deal. You still go on to defeat the Raptors with their twin towers of Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal, 110-92. Your bench of Solomon Jones, Zaza Pachulia, Flip Murray, Mo Evans, and even Randolph Morris step up, and your Hawks don’t miss a beat.

The Hawks go on to defeat Oklahoma City and Chicago to go 6-0. You walk into the Garden without your best defensive player and give them all they can handle and barely lose to the World Champions on a last-second shot by Paul Pierce. Enter injury No. 2, as Pachulia sprains the AC joint in his left shoulder in the second quarter. All of a sudden, two of your top seven players are down.

But that’s only the beginning, as one of the most promising young players in the league, Al Horford, leaves the Indiana game in the first quarter with an ankle injury and does not return. That’s three—count em, three—of your top seven players out with injuries.

The Hawks have gone from one of the league’s best defensive teams with 86 points per game allowed in the first four games to one of the worst, 105 in the last five contests.

The Hawks were able to pull out a victory of the also-depleted Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, 91-87. Pachulia played despite his injured shoulder and matched a career high with 18 rebounds. Mike Bibby took up the scoring slack with his best offensive performance of the season, tallying 25 points, and Marvin Williams scored 21, including a huge three-pointer with 26 seconds left.

Defense was once again the key to victory, as the Hawks held the Wizards to 87 points, including shutting down a red-hot Caron Butler for the last 5:41 seconds of the contest.

Al Horford tried to play but was unable to go and hopes to be back for Friday night’s game against the Charlotte Bobcats.

The natives are once again getting restless in Hawksville despite the obvious reasons (injuries) for the losing streak. A victory over the Bobcats would put the Hawks at 8-4 and back on a winning streak that has spoiled even Hawks fans who sometimes suffer from short memories, 286-502 since 1998-99.

When the Hawks are once again at full strength, there is no reason to believe that they cannot continue the winning ways that have made them the story of the 2008-09 season in the NBA.