Mike on the Hawks

The Hawks weren’t going to back into the playoffs by waiting on Miami to lose. They went and took the fourth seed themselves. After dropping games to Philly, Boston, and Orlando, the Hawks bounced back this week to win three games (two on the road for all of you “Hawks cant win on the road” hater). Tonight they beat the Pacers, and got back Marvin Williams after a 16-game absence. It is good that the Hawks don’t have to worry about their seeding the last two games and can somewhat rest and get ready for the playoffs. Getting Marvin back tonight was huge for two reasons: (1) he can get a few games in under his belt to shake the rust off before it matters. The Hawks have impressed me with their performance while he has been out. They went 10-6 without him, with only one of those losses to a team that had a worse record than the Hawks. One person that has really stepped up is Josh Smith. He has been going to the basket and in addition to scoring, he has gone to the free throw line 47 times the last 5 games, while going to the free throw line 85 times for the whole month of March. He is attacking the basket, and in the process, opening up the offense for the Hawks. (2) he can get that chemistry back with his teammates. The Hawks have to play good defense if they are going to advance in the playoffs, and with the liklihood that they will be facing D-Wade in the first round, they are going to have to be able to have good team defense. Speaking of the Heat, guess who comes to town on Tuesday for the final home game of the regular season…the Miami Heat. I don’t like it when teams play and then turn around and play each other again in the first round of the playoffs, but sometimes the schedule works out that way. If I were Woodson, I would rest my starters more than usual in not only the game on Tuesday, but in the regualr season finale at Memphis on Wednesday as well. I don’t think momentum is as important in the NBA as it is in some of the other leagues, like MLB. Last year the Hawks didn’t have an impressive last few weeks, but they turned it on against the Celtics in the first round. I think now that they have the 4th seed locked up, they need to be getting ready for that series. Use the game on Tuesday to have the starters sitting on the bench talking about what they see the Heat doing on the floor, almost like a live video study. I don’t know what Woodson is going to do, but if he can motivate those players to play come playoff time so that the Hawks win a series and make the next one competitive, then I think Woodson has every right to keep being the coach of the team and it should shut up those that say he isn’t good enough.