Gameflow
Highlights
| Team | Poss | Off Eff | eFG% | FT Rate | OR% | TO% |
| OKC | 83.4 | 1.128 | 47.4 | 34.2 | 35.0 | 13.2 |
| ATL | 83.4 | 1.092 | 42.2 | 16.7 | 34.6 | 9.6 |
Speaking immediately following a loss Mike Woodson blames, you'd never have guessed it, effort:
"They were the more aggressive team. They came out to play, and we just didn’t."Woodson on fourth quarter shot selection and jump shots in general:
"When you’re making them, they look good. When you are not making them, you have to get to the rim and try to at least get to the free throw line, and we just didn’t do it."Not quite the response I suspect the die-hards would like to hear as getting the ball out of the hands of the guys missing shots* and into the hands of Al Horford and Josh Smith does not appear to be a legitimate option.
*Shots that, frankly, don't look that good, from my vantage point, even when they're going in.
Josh Smith:
"We should have kept going inside-out. It would have opened up the 3-point shot."A fine idea behind which we all can rally.
Mark Bradley addresses the issue I brought up briefly* in yesterday's game thread: the pace at which the Thunder have built a good team compared to how long it took the Hawks. The difference is mostly drafting Durant but the importance of not wasting other lottery picks as the Hawks did with Shelden Williams and have (essentially) with Josh Childress. Bradley's still clearly of the opinion that Marvin Williams is less capable rather than under-utilized:
“We always got smacked in the face for not drafting [Chris] Paul,” Woodson said, but it’s the whiff that keeps on missing. Even with a new contract, Williams remains inessential. He’s averaging 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds, both marking significant sags off last season’s yield. On Monday he played 21 minutes, scored seven points, took two rebounds and managed no assists. (Durant: 29 points, five rebounds, five assists.)*and apparently not very coherently
Marvin's a tough case. He obviously can't put himself into games in the fourth quarter to create a more balanced lineup but at what point does he begin to shoulder the blame for the career-low usage rate and accompanying drop in offensive production and/or do his supporters (me included) begin to view his willingness to fit in and subordinate his own talents as a real limitation?
4 comments:
Josh and Al need to quit taking veiled shots at the guards and start calling them out by name. Although I'm sure they know who they are. They need to say hey Joe you're killing us, and we'd like you to kindly stop. Thanks. The loss yesterday was in part a lack of effort. They only played hard the last few minutes of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter. They didn't deserve to win based on that alone, yet they still had a chance. The other obvious reason for the loss was the guards. Joe Johnson's fourth quarter was forced at best and selfish at worst. Al only getting two shots in the second half is unacceptable. Period. I am so sick of the coach telling us what went wrong after the game without making any noticeable efforts to change it during the game. Why not pull Joe and Jamal since they were clearly unwilling to pass the ball inside in favor of Teague and hell Marvin or Mo or whomever and tell them their only job is to get the ball down low. It bothers me that Woody never feels the need to make an example of Joe. It's totally okay for him to suck the life out of the team. What kind of message does that send to your team? If we can't win with Joe taking horribly contested jump shots then we don't deserve to win anyway.
So do you still see the Hawks going over .500 on the month? It's going to be really tough from here out.
I think Woodson has already determined that he is going to sink or swim with Joe. Joe could be 2-15 and Al/Josh could be 15-20 (assuming they can get that many shots through 3 quarters) and Woodson would still be letting Joe go off in the fourth. As for Marvin, I think you have to look at Mike Woodson and his staff's track record at developing players. I think most people who follow the NBA would argue Josh Smith and Al Horford could/would be better faster if they were not with the Hawks. I think when you look at Marvin, he is a product of the system he plays in. How many games does he have isolations for him, plays run for him, chances to shoot more than 10 times per game, etc., I don’t think he has ever had a chance to be/become a worthy number 2 draft pick. I think we are terrible at developing talent. What do you think Brett? Maybe a 1/4 career Marvin Williams review? Or perhaps a feature on Mike Woodson and his track record for developing lottery players. (Smith, Childress, Horford, Williams, Williams, Law)
Well Josh is not a lottery player, so that should cover the first one...
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