The Atlanta Hawks played like they should for the most part in last nights impressive 125-100 win over the Nuggets. They hustled on defense, didn’t get too stagnant in their offensive sets and played a close to perfect first quarter. It was very refreshing. It’s hard to come up with excuses for the poor performance when you’re Denver, both teams were in the 2nd night of a back-to-back, they just didn’t have any strong flow on either end of the floor.
If Mike Woodson can get Josh Smith to play the way he did last night, I could become all right with him as a coach. Smith was not settling last night and he filled up the stat sheet, as usual. The important thing was that he took only one jump shot, which was wide open and he made it. He should only take at most three in a game. That’s not his strong suit, he showed what is: taking slower guys off the dribble and scoring at the basket or getting to the free throw line (where he was solid, 6-8). To sum that up, play like that all the time Josh Smith!
Atlanta always gets on my nerves because there’s no continuity (Clyde Fraizer voice) in their offense. It’s usually just a clear out for whoever happens to get the ball. Last night there was clearly more movement and the only people who seemed to get isolation plays were Johnson and Crawford. Those are the only two who should ever get clear outs on offense. When the Hawks play together, they’ve got the personnel to perform like they did here on a consistent basis.
Please save this game tape Woodson. When the Hawks take a game and make it ugly again, show them this and tell them to get back to it. That should be Atlanta Hawks basketball!