Gameflow
In order of the damage each did to the Hawks' (admittedly slim) chances of winning last night:
1) The impossible to overcome combination of dreadful defensive rebounding (Boston got 39.4% (13 of 33) of all possible offensive rebounds.) and poor field goal defense (Boston made 56% of their two-point shots and 45% of their three-point shots). There aren't enough more free throws to attempt in the world to make up for that degree of deficit in the baskets that count two or three at a time.
2) Josh Smith's shot selection. Smith was 4-13 from the field on the night. That breaks down to 3-3 on layups and dunks, 1-2 on non-dunks inside of 10', 0-4 on two-point shots outside of 15', 0-3 on three-pointers, and 0-1 on a heave at the end of the third quarter. Factor in that none of the 10 free throws Smiths shot came on fouls drawn outside of the paint and the national audience sat through a session of Josh Smith Doesn't Get It.
Or, as Bronn put it in the game thread:
I'll say this for him. He never lets the fact that he's missed every jump shot he's attempted discourage him from taking another.3) Josh Childress had a bad game. Three-quarters of his field goal attempts were missed. Half of his field goal attempts were blocked. He made but a single free throw. He was -19 in 26 minutes and didn't provide a useful alternative to Marvin Williams (-22 in 37 minutes).
4) Sam Cassell makes shots in Boston and Mike Bibby does not. For the series, Cassell is 13-23 from the floor, 3-6 from beyond the arc in Boston and 1-7 from the floor without a three-point attempt in Atlanta. Bibby is 6-25 from the floor, 3-12 from beyond the arc in Boston and 9-20 from the floor, 4-8 from beyond the arc in Atlanta. This is a key reason why Atlanta won both home games but it's really only affected the margin of victory in Boston.
Game links and the commentary of others to follow in a subsequent post.
3 comments:
Mediocre, poorly coached team plays badly on the road like it has all season. Nothing much more to say. The only real question left is will the Celtics bring what they did last night to Atlanta or will they once again assume their own inevitability, let Atlanta win another home game, and drag this thing out to a 7th game.
Why not? It's not like Boston has been some kind of contender outside of this year anyways so they might as well make every series got the full length. Every additional game played adds to the cumulative total dollar amount of profit for each team in the playoffs. Unfortunately I have not cared enough about the NBA for a long enough time that I don't remember the exact terms of how playoff ticket sales are distributed, but even if you throw that out, the merchandise and advertising sales alone become multiplicative with each game played.
To put it shortly, it just makes good business sense to extend every series to seven games if possible. Of course, doing that will also have the side effect of increasing the risk that your team doesn't make it out of the series and therefore negate the goal of said business plan. But that's a calculated risk one must take if wanting to maximize profits and the value of the franchise.
Although, even with this all being stated, none of it is in any form of control by anyone other than the players themselves, and they are definitely not interested in stretching out each series to seve games, so therefore I don't see that happening, at least not intentional mind you.
So, coming back down to the fan level... I hate Mike Woodson and his non-coaching @$$; Is there no one in that organization who has the fortitude to tell Josh Smith to stop being a freaking bonehead and stick to his role of making amazing blocks and dunks?; Where's our all-star JJ? I'm tired of mediocre no-name JJ showing up on the road; and finally, I think we can win this one at home but will lose the series. The season was a sucess in that we accomplished more than we did last year and more than what was expected even after making the playoffs.
-Jesse
Jesse--
I've got to disagree with you about Joe Johnson last night. I've been hard on him frequently this year (or at least I wonder if part of him doesn't take comfort in Woodson's unimaginative, Joe Johnson-centric offense) but I thought he played an excellent game last night.
With Boston guarding him tightly and with numbers, he still scored 21 points on just 11 shots with only one turnover. He only had two assists but that was due as much to his teammates' shooting as any poor passing on Joe's part.
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