AJC Covers But Doesn't Understand Basketball

What do we with interest in the fourth-best team (to date) in the Eastern Conference get in this morning's paper? An update on either of the injured starters? That Sekou Smith interview with Josh Childress? No and no. We get another anonymous AJC headline writer straddling the line separating satire and honest ignorance:

Defense has Hawks on 50-win pace

Darryl Maxie's accompanying article actually makes little mention of defense which makes sense as the Hawks are 16th in the league in defensive efficiency all the way up from, let's see here, 18th last year. Oh, there's a mention of the Hawks record when holding opponents under 100 points (20-5) but you know that that has more to do with Atlanta playing at the seventh slowest pace in the league. You know because you care.

Unfortunately, the infallibly polite Marvin Williams takes the bait:

"You’ve got to give credit to our defense. When we hold teams under 100 points, we usually win. We’ve snuck in a couple of wins when we didn’t, but I definitely think coach has been stressing that. That’s been his calling card."

Actually coach brings up his calling card later in the article:

"No one gave us a chance —- it was supposed to be a series sweep."

I don't think anyone would begrudge Woodson were he to flaunt this season's success which makes his continued bleating about last season's first-round playoff loss all the more mystifying.