Hawks - Pacers, halftime/postgame

Halftime

Come on! Where the hell is the defense?? Indiana is pretty much our only threat at 3GB (Jersey at 4), and we can't play enough defense to not let Jeff Foster, freakin' Jeff Foster, go 4-4 for 10 points at half? Woodson, I'm looking at you!! The Hawks players look like they're hustling on defense, so when Jeff Foster gets wide open lay-ins that means they weren't prepared defensively. Seriously, Jeff Foster and Ronald "Flip" Murray? Offensive prowesses (is that a word?) that the athletic Hawks can't stop? I mean, I figured that Mike Dunleavy would burn us, but come on, how can Woody not prepare the team enough against the team posing the most threat to our playoff chances? And he was touted (a long long time ago) for his defensive coaching schemes.

Adjustments for the second half:
1. Help! Anything resembling help defense would be nice. Leaving an entire wing of the court open probably will mean giving up 2 easy points (see: Jeff Foster).
2. Be quicker on defending the pick-and-roll. Travis Diener has been weaving a maze and hypnotizing the Hawks defenders.
3. I haven't had much to complain about our offense lately, which has been flowing like I've never seen the Hawks do so before these last 10-15 games or so. But if we have to turn into the Nuggets to make up for our defensive deficiencies, then we need to get even better on offense.
3a. Bibby needs to create more and heat up with his shooting, and not just stand outside the arc and shoot a contested 3 every 4 or 5 plays.
3b. If our shooters can get hot and spread the floor, I'd like to see JSmoov continue what he was doing in the first half, driving in deep and slamming sick-ass dunks on the Pacer white boys. And he didn't take any of his vintage Camby-esque jump shots that usually brick, which is amazing because he feels obligated to take at least 3 or 4 of those per game (+ ~1 airball 3). In fact, I'd say JSmoov and Camby are equally good (bad?) shooters, which is saying something.
3c. If JSmoov is driving it in deep, everyone collapses and JChill can get his easy baseline dunks and lay-ups, or JSmoov can pass it out to Joe and Bibby to sink in the 3.


More after the game, as well as first-round analysis for the Boston series.



Postgame

Just kidding about the first-round analysis (good save, Drew)! I should have known better. Though I definitely didn't lose this game for us as we pretty much lost at the end of the 2nd quarter. Even if you have 2 more quarters to work with and are only down by 15, no scoring runs and no defensive stops = loss. Once again, credit Woody with the halftime defensive adjustments and motivational tactics to get his team going. *sarcastic applause* I was actually hoping Joe would just completely take over towards the end. He and Salami could have passed it back and forth on the 3-point line until one of them got open to shoot it.

I didn't know until after the halftime part of the post that we could have ended Indiana's chances with a win. We sure played like a team with a playoff drought determined to seal the deal and reach it for the first time in 9 years. *sarcastic appluase* I do hope that this will slap the Hawks on the beak and wake them up for the rest of the regular reason and hopefully beyond... literally, not a horrible joke. We are definitely still in good position if we can take one from either Boston or Orlando and Indiana loses to Philly and Washington. Umm... yeah... we're in good position. At least the Hawks only have one team to watch, since New Jersey won't take all of Boston, Cleveland, Toronto. Here comes a week of scoreboard watching!