That’s sweet and all – but I chalk up the losses to poor Celtics play rather then good Hawks play.

The first round is over. Time to move on. Doc didn’t like the comparison to the NCAAs. But in one regard the two are the same.

Survive and move on.

True. I’m not feeling so warm and fuzzy about the Hawks, either. They bring some assets to the table, but they benefitted greatly from a handful of games officiated to incentivize their physical play, and they benefitted from the Celtics’ wandering focus. Personally, I think the Celtics’ lack of focus, caused by the early end of the push for the playoffs, was the biggest factor in the series, not the Hawks’ play.

Jeff, I would also add that Mike Woodson deserves alot of praise. He did a great job coaching, but more importantly you can see the respect his players have for him and vice versa. Personality-wise Woodson reminds me of Doc. He seems to be a great “people” person. I know there’s been talk of his job being on the line, but if he’s not back next year, Atlanta’s management oughtt to take a long look in the mirror. I also want to mention the great gesture shown at the end by both teams, really, although I thought the C’s initiated it. There was no celebration, just hugs, kind words and handshakes to the opponent in a hard fought series.

The Hawks are the team of the future. Horford is going to be nasty; Josh Smith & Joe Johnson already are! Ridiculous to say that they won only because the C’s played poorly & whoever says that was just not watching the games. Time to move on though.

Props to the Hawks. They played their hearts out at home.

Horford, Smith & Johnson are a great core. If they find a decent PG that can make plays and play D, they’ll be very good. Bibby isn’t the answer. If he’s not hitting his shots, he’s ineffective. Maybe Law can be that guy.

I agree that Woodson isn’t the long term answer. He’d probably be a better veteran coach. Silas, Carlisle or D’Antoni might do a better job with that young core.

That’s sweet and all – but I chalk up the losses to poor Celtics play rather then good Hawks play.[/quote]
Absolutely. The Celtics played like fools in their losses. That’s the only reason Atlanta managed to win a single game in this series. Well done to Atlanta in taking advantage but it was all about Boston playing dumb basketball.

[quote]Jeff, I would also add that Mike Woodson deserves alot of praise. He did a great job coaching, but more importantly you can see the respect his players have for him and vice versa. Personality-wise Woodson reminds me of Doc. He seems to be a great “people” person. I know there’s been talk of his job being on the line, but if he’s not back next year, Atlanta’s management oughtt to take a long look in the mirror.

Mike Woodson should be fired with the fury of the basketball gods for costing his team 10-15 wins in the regular season, completely messing up their game plan, disgracefully, for four years and in doing so limiting every single one of his players, and for all his young players slow development. He’s an atrocious head coach that is out of his depth at this level.

Anyone who can’t recognize that this hawks team has a boatload of young talent has blinders on. Johnson is an all-star, Josh Smith is a special player who will be an all-star, Horford is a beast who also will become an all-star, Childress is becoming an ideal 6th man, and Williams seems to be a nice complimentary starter. Hawks fans should be excited.

Anyone who can’t recognize that this hawks team has a boatload of young talent has blinders on. Johnson is an all-star, Josh Smith is a special player who will be an all-star, Horford is a beast who also will become an all-star, Childress is becoming an ideal 6th man, and Williams seems to be a nice complimentary starter. Hawks fans should be excited.

Their future isn’t their present. Their present is a weak team.

The Hawks were an excellent matchup for the Celtics.

(1)[/b] Three of the four best scorers for Boston had easy matchups and were able to score whenever they felt like it. Mike Bibby couldn’t guard Rondo. JJ was the only wing who could defend Pierce or Ray. Nobody could guard Kevin Garnett.

] The Hawks have no perimeter shooting. The Celtics have handled teams like this all season long. Their second best perimeter shooter struggled all season which left only one, JJ, who was the guy getting doubled. They were incapable of spacing the floor.

The Celtics have torn apart teams with this flaw all season long. NJ, NY, Seattle, Phily, Memphis, Milwaukee. They’ve also exposed the best teams in the league who are only mediocre at it like Dallas and Houston. Their whole defense is about forcing long contested jump shots. Atlanta couldn’t make them, couldn’t before the series, couldn’t in the series, can’t do it now.

] The Hawks do a terrible job of establishing the post. They don’t make anywhere near enough use of Horford and Josh Smith doesn’t go there often enough. Joe Johnson, their best post player, didn’t go there at all this series.

] Mike Bibby couldn’t penetrate against Rondo. That left only guy on the whole team who could take someone off the dribble from 22 feet. Josh Smith could beat his man on a face up from the mid or high post which is different but also a good weapon.

] Josh Smith shoots 30% on his jump shots for the season. He isn’t this combo forward jump shooter that is capable of taking down our interior defense. He had only game out of 7 where he shot the ball well from outside.

] Atlanta’s team defense is horrible. They have two above average defenders in their whole 8 man rotation. That’s Joe and Josh Smith. Josh Smith is a below par man-to-man defender but a quality help defender. That’s one quality man-to-man defender on the whole roster.

Oh and Mike Bibby is the single worst defensive starting point guard in the league. They have no good post defenders. Marvin Williams was money in the bank whenever Pierce took him into the midpost. Josh Childress has to step 4 feet away from whoever he defends because he doesn’t have the lateral quickness to keep up, oh and he gets lots off the ball whenever you run him through a screen.

] Atlanta’s offense is a disaster area. They have hardly any plays. They don’t play to their strengths. They don’t move the ball, they don’t pass the ball. They don’t establish the post. They don’t have shooters. They don’t have enough penetration. This team cannot score in the halfcourt against a mediocre defense, nevermind one of the best defenses in the league.

[b]
(8)[/b] Atlanta are one of the weakest (3rd worst I think) defensive rebounding teams in the league. Every time they went for a block they got worse again because a Celtics big man had an open lane to the rim for the offensive board and putback. All series long that lane was open.

) Shot creating. Joe Johnson is the only one on the whole team that does it well. Mike Bibby can’t penetrate anymore, instead he’s a 20 foot jump shooter off the bounce and Rajon even took that away from him. Marvin Williams can’t post and can’t drive. He’s a midrange jump shooter and a decent finisher if he has an open path to the basket. Josh Childress has no jump shot, he’s a junk yard dog, if it ain’t around the hoop he won’t do anything with it. Horford has some game but they don’t use it. Josh Smith is a walking turnover, way worse than anything we’ve had here in Boston. Smith thinks he’s a jump shooter but 50% of his shots come from jumpers and as I said earlier he shoots a delightful (for the opposition) 30% on them including 25% from downtown (100 attempts for three straight years from three). He’s a terrible decision maker and we saw that in every away game. Nobody on the bench can create their shot. That’s one player on the whole team, one just about all-star caliber player.

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Atlanta is a bad team. They had no business being in the playoffs.

They didn’t beat Boston, Boston beat themselves. If Boston had of milked any of their matchup advantages in the three losses they would have won.

There’s a big difference between GSW’s stopping Dirk with great defense and Pierce/KG/Ray not taking advantage of great situations. Atlanta couldn’t stop them, they stopped themselves.

Atlanta did well to take advantage of it and played well (for them) in those games but they did not beat Boston, Boston beat themselves and left the door open for an advantageous team. I give Atlanta credit for taking advantage but they didn’t win because they stopped Boston or caused them some problem Boston couldn’t solve. That isn’t what happened.

Atlanta are a bad team

Wouldn’t say Atlanta’s a bad team but I would say they’re not a good team. They’re at least one more post presence, a point guard and some consistency away from being a real contender.

Josh Smith has ridiculous talent but is wildly inconsistent. He takes outside shots he should never be taking and doesn’t try to establish post position. Joe Johnson is a very nice player and if he has a point guard who creates, he’d be one of the three or four best 2 guards in the game. I like Josh Childress, I think his attitude is outstanding, he is an ideal Sixth Man. Too bad Atlanta will probably let him go this offseason. Al Horford has a lot of potential but could use another big man to help him out. I think Marvin Williams is a huge waste of space, and that has nothing to do with his Game 7 foul (I believe he tried to catch and hold up Rondo but he should be suspended not for bad intentions but for making a stupidly dangerous play). Bibby is way past his prime which was never that great anyway. Zaza’s a thug, but that’s important for a backup big man. His shot was surprisingly good in a few games.

I give the Hawks credit for winning Game 3, they wanted it, they were ready for it, they made adjustments from Games 1 and 2 that helped them a lot. The Celtics weren’t overly terrible that night, the Hawks just wanted it more. However, I do believe the Celtics gave the Hawks Game 4 – they chalked it up as a W after 3 quarters, didn’t make obvious adjustments and just handed it over in the fourth. To me, the series should have been over in 5, which means it’s also hard for me to give them credit for Game 6. I think the Cs again overlooked them in that game. They played as well as they could, but you still have to recognize that they were completely outclassed in 4 road games and got a huge benefit from the officials (31 free throws per game to 21 – including 47 to 25 in Game 6, 33 to 18 in Game 4 and 40 to 26 in Game 2.)

The Hawks deserved to win a game in this series, but I hope they don’t go overboard thinking this team is ready to compete as is, because they are still at least two pieces away – the big man and point guard they’ve consistently failed to draft (Horford can fill a big man role but they need another, and while I like Law, I’m not optimistic he can fill that role either). They do have to get better.

They have room to grow, but this is a huge crossroads summer because Smith and Childress are up for extensions but Atlanta is already paying $14 and $15 mil to Johnson and Bibby next year, $11 million over the next two years to Speedy Claxton, and almost $10 mil to Marvin Williams and Zaza, both of whom are up for new contracts after next year along with Bibby. How much can they spend when they still have so much to improve on? If I were them, I would want to hold onto Johnson, Horford and Smith as starters and Childress, Law and Pachulia as the 6th, 7th and 8th men, but I think they need a new starting point guard and another big man. I’d try to use Bibby (expiring next year) and Marvin Williams as bait to make that happen, but I’m just not sure it will. As much as they seemed to show this offseason, I think they will be haunted by the Williams over Paul decision for another decade.

Who said:
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“Atlanta is a bad team.”

And yet, they pushed the pre-ordained champs to 7 games. Curious, that.

According to that line of reasoning … the Celtics must not be very good, either. After all, if you allow a bad team to disrupt your composure, force bad judgment, intimidate you inside and control the pace … well, you must be pretty mediocre.

And yet, they pushed the pre-ordained champs to 7 games. Curious, that.

According to that line of reasoning … the Celtics must not be very good, either. After all, if you allow a bad team to disrupt your composure, force bad judgment, intimidate you inside and control the pace … well, you must be pretty mediocre.

That’s your reasoning. Not mine.

My reasoning for Atlanta being a bad team is above if your’d like to read it again.

Who,

Bad teams don’t win 3 out of 7 against good teams. You can write 30,000 words on why you BELIEVE the Hawks are bad, but the proof is in the results. Either the Hawks aren’t that bad, or the Celtics aren’t that good. Pick one.

Cousin It said:
  Who,

Bad teams don’t win 3 out of 7 against good teams. You can write 30,000 words on why you BELIEVE the Hawks are bad, but the proof is in the results. Either the Hawks aren’t that bad, or the Celtics aren’t that good. Pick one.

Of course they do. Atlanta are a bad team.