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Atlanta Hawks' Best Season in Franchise History Officially on Life Support

Published by Bleacher Report on Sat, 23 May 2015


Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver all managed to make the All-Star squad in the Eastern Conference. Those four and DeMarre Carroll were selected as co-Players of the Month after leading the Atlanta Hawks to a perfect record in January. And with the contributions of a deep bench, this team won a franchise-record 60 games, earning the No. 1 record in its half of the NBA.But now those achievements are on the brink of being lost as footnotes in the history books, fun little memories that will be deemed irrelevant when two other teams play for the Larry O'Brien Trophy.Led by great shooting from just about everyone on the roster and another standout showing from LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals with a 94-82 win on Friday night that wasn't as close as the score might indicate. It didn't matter that Cavs point guardKyrie Irving joined Kevin Love on the inactive list; the Hawks were just entirely overmatched, failing to look like the squad that earned the top spot in the conference.Again.Atlanta is now on life support. Overcoming a two-game deficit in any playoff series is a difficult proposition, and it's tougher still against a team that has so clearly been the superior squad during the first two affairs. The Cavs won both of the games on the road in Philips Arena, and they've done so by a combined 20 points.The Hawks do technically have a chance to recover, even if that 20-point margin is actually smaller than it should be, thanks to some irrelevant garbage-time runs.As NBA on ESPN explains, 6 percent of teams down 2-0 have come back to win, though that'snever happenedagainst a squad led by James:Until the Cavs have won four games, the East's lone 60-win team can't be written off completely.But if the Hawks don't quickly make two overarching adjustments, they may as well be.Revert to the Regular-Season OffenseThe playoffs were always going to expose cracks in the Hawks offense.Play naturally slows down in the postseason, which works against Atlanta's up-tempo desires. Referees swallow their whistles. Every possession matters, leading to even more intense defense from the off-ball stoppers who have to trail Korver, Carroll and the other Hawks shooters.But it wasn't supposed to be this bad.Heading into Friday night's beatdown, Atlanta was scoring only 104.3 points per 100 possessions, giving it an offensive rating that topped only six teams in the playoff field. That's a negative for just about any organization, and it's especially poor for a squad that trailed only five teams in offensive rating during the regular season.Game 2's 82-point showing will only make it worse.Earlier in the playoffs, the Hawks were running their offense, which featured plenty of ball movement that led to one wide-open shot after another. They just weren't finding the bottom of the net, which made the offense look less effective than it actually was, assuming we're basing the analysis on process, not results.But now the Hawks look entirely discombobulated. As Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick noted, they're not even sticking with the sets that resulted in so much success during most of the year:Particularly during the second half of Game 2, Atlanta's offense completely devolved. Rather than making the extra pass and proving that the ball can travel faster than even the quickest defender, the Hawks started running isolation sets.Well, calling them sets might actually be giving the Hawks a bit too much credit.The Atlanta guards were content to burst into the lane and hope for the best, while the bigs tried to back down defenders or face up against smaller players while looking off shooters on the perimeter. Meanwhile, there was a stunning lack of movement off the ball, which has been a trademark of this offense.Is it any wonder that Atlanta managed to score only 33 points in the entire second half' That type of offense simply isn't going to work against what has been one of the best defensive teams in the playoffs.It's in this area that the Hawks have to quickly revert back to their form from the regular season, when they racked up assists and drilled open shots. Though trusting the process is significantly more difficult when trying to dig out of a seemingly inescapable hole, it's more important than ever before.Stick with Shooters on DefenseIt's natural to think that a team capable of setting a franchise record for regular-season success should play exactly like it did during the first 82 games of the year. But against these Cavs, that's probably not the best idea for the Hawks defensively.For proof, you need only look at a few numbers from the box scores of Games 1 and 2.In the first contest, James had six assists, and the Cavaliers drilled 10 of their 26 three-point attempts, led by a scorching J.R. Smith and his eight triples. In Game 2, James racked up 11 dimes, while Cleveland managed to drain another 12 shots from beyond the arc.Yes, those numbers are directly related.Whenever James has the ball, the entire Hawks defense focuses on him, and him alone. No matter where a member of the Atlanta unit is, he's turning his head and trying to figure out what the four-time MVP will do, even when it comes at the expense of covering his own man.Just watch the eyes of every single defender in red and white on this play:And if one example isn't enough, look at how the entire defense swarms into the paint on this possession, leaving James free to kick the ball out to a wide-open shooter:These aren't isolated incidents, and it's time for the strategy to change.If James is going to beat the Hawks, they need to make him do so as a scorer. They can't allow him to involve every other member of the Cavaliers. Atlanta can live with James dropping 45 points, but not with him flirting with triple-doubles and systematically destroying the defense.The problem is this runs counter to what Mike Budenholzer's squad did throughout the regular season. The Hawks relied on intelligent switches, allowing three-point attempts but making sure the other team was going to have to work to hit contested jumpers.At their best, the Hawks were a swarming unit that collapsed around ball-handlers and then cut off the passing lanes. But that doesn't work against a player as intelligentandphysically dominant as James, hence the need for a massive schematic change.That should be pretty clear heading into Game 3 with a 2-0 deficit and coming off a set of contests that haven't been particularly close.Adapt or die, as the saying goes."I still think we're the better team," Atlanta guard Kent Bazemore told reporters after this most recent loss,per TNT's Rachel Nichols. Time is running out if the Hawks hope to prove him correct instead of hopelessly and foolishly optimistic.Based on the first 96 minutes, all indications point toward the latter.Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come fromBasketball-Reference.com.AdamFromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter:@fromal09.
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